All the rage for all the right reasons

[Guest blogger August Brown rallies 'round the family, with a pocket full of shells.]

It’s hard to think about Rage Against The Machine in 2007 without remembering 1992. Clinton was in office, on his way to Oval Office, the economy was about to start sailing, and yet they still found plenty of reasons to be furious at The System. The group's headlining set on Sunday was probably the most anticipated set in Coachella history; everything from riots to bona fide revolution seemed possible, judging from the hyperbole about their reunion. How would their serrated funk-metal play in a decade where there’s more legitimate reasons to take to the streets, and when few musicians seems to know how to talk about them?

For the first three songs at least, it played awfully sedate. Nearly every weary body on the grounds champed at the bit for the band to come out (sorry, Evan Dando and Spank Rock). But in one of the year’s biggest anti-climaxes, Rage emerged to a muddy and anemic mix that knocked the wind out of Tim Commerford’s basslines. For a minute there, it seemed that the Machine would win out by cutting off Rage from their best weapon- their skull-cracking riffs.

But the soundboard pulled it together, turning up the master mix three songs in, and the band scorched. As did a few small bonfires near the right guardrails, but outside of a few rogue lighting rig climbers, the only really dangerous explosions were happening onstage. Zack de la Rocha spat venom at consumers, Christians and the shoppers on Rodeo Drive (one his better metaphorical punching bags) but kept the stage banter non-existent. Tom Morello, one of the last real guitar heroes left in America, conjured Hendrix’s solos, Public Enemy’s brittle DJ scratching and squeals of feedback in between Sly Stone-via-Dante’s Inferno funk licks. Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk were as martial as ever, and era-defining hits like “Bulls On Parade” and “Bombtrack” have held up astonishingly well.

The only time de la Rocha broke the fourth wall was to give everyone what they wanted- a deliberate and forthright rebuttal to the last six years of neocon politics. “This administration should be tried, hung and shot,” he said, as if one form of execution wasn't enough. It may have been ham-fisted, but to hear it from the mouth of a rock singer today, de la Rocha may well have set the dam loose for political music at the tail end of the Bush era. Even if he didn’t though, the spectacle of 60,000 fans pounding their fists in unison closer “Killing In The Name Of" "Killing in the Name" was a reminder of better times for openly political music, or at least more hopeful ones from years past.

Corrected post; thanks to readers for keeping us on the ball.

Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images.

Comments

[Tanned]

He didn't take a shot at neocons specifically, despite what all the news sites are reporting.

He took his shot at the entire American system: he said that U.S. Presidents were analogous to Nazis, that every one of them since Truman deserved to be executed as a war criminal, and that people need to ignore elections and start rioting in the streets.

I don't agree, but it was good to hear someone say it.

[James]

the name of the song is "Killing in the Name," not "Killing in the Name Of"

[Mark]

Great job, LAT Coachella bloggers! All the posts were geat. I felt like I was there -- and wished I was there!

[Chuck]

You are having a hard time with your memory, or you didn't listen to these guys until '93, because that's when Clinton started his term in office.

Rebelling against capitalism with a pocketful of $90 tickets. Viva de la Revolution (tm).