European tour winds down for Mic to Mic

Midzi and I are now in Poland. The Heinken Opener Festival will be our last stops on the Beastie Boys European tour. Midzi has to return to work and I must return to the United States for proper medical attention. We didn't want to say that we were both injured again at shows because we didn't want to scare any fans from seeing the Beastie Boys. The truth is, however, Beastie Boys shows are not safe for women to attend in Europe because the makeup of their audience is 90% young men.

We woke up this morning laughing about how there isn't one part on our bodies that doesn't ache. Forget my arm bite from Sonar. My best injury is to my elbow, which I received at the Berlin show. I haven't had feeling in one hand for almost two weeks because of ulnar nerve damage. At the show at Le Zenith in Paris, a young American man slammed into Midzi and me repeatedly so he could get inbetween us, which he did eventually. Midzi is bruised up and down the right side of her body from this fohker, and my body is bruised up and down on the left side. The shittiest thing about it was Beastie Boys security thought WE were the ones causing this dude trouble. Yeah, two girls who came together let some strange man break us up. All the fohker did when he got up next to us was wave his arms in our faces and yell, "ADROCK! ADROCK!" repeatedly. I asked the fohker, who so desperately wanted attention from the band, "Do you think the Beastie Boys would be impressed with your hurting two women to get to them?" He didn't have an answer for me.

There needs to be a special area for women at Beastie Boys show. We shouldn't have to endure injury to enjoy a show. And we shouldn't have to stand in the back of the venue because our bodies are smaller and have less muscle than men. Male Beastie Boys fans need to be told not to be such fohkers and hurt women.

Back to Poland...the shows in Poland mean a lot to Midzi. This is her home. Beastie Boys are her band. After all we've been through, we're not sure that we're going to survive these two final shows. The Heineken Opener Festival has a reputation for wild, young audiences. Midzi says a large number of people bought tickets to the festival before any of the bands were announced. She says people come to the festival to drink and be stupid.

In an effort to give Midzi the experience she wants in Poland, I made a formal request to a Beastie Boys representative, asking for help. The person didn't even have the courtesy to respond. Whatever. It's really disappointing when we put all this effort to report on the European tour and no one from the Beastie Boys team values it.

We're going to go and enjoy Sonic Youth and The Roots today and try not to think about what we will face when we try to see Beastie Boys this weekend.