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L.A. Rising: Rage Against the Machine overwhelms the Coliseum

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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

This post has been updated. See below for details.

The photo above might give you a sense of the energy at the L.A. Coliseum on Saturday night, where Rage Against the Machine regrouped for a massive closing slot during L.A. Rising, the band’s first festival. The band capped off a day of music that ranged from hard punk to art rock to classic hip hop to many combinations thereof.

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The Rage-curated bill featured British trio Muse, Chicago aggro-punk band Rise Against, Lauryn Hill, Immortal Technique and Monterrey, Mexico’s El Gran Silencio. The nine hour festival was the biggest music event held at the city-owned Coliseum since last summers Electric Daisy Carnival electronic music festival, and there was a heavy security and police presence throughout the venue. But the evening seemed to go without a hitch -- that is, unless you happened to be in one of the many mosh pits that broke out during both Rise Against and Rage Against: they popped open in the crowd like vortexes in a rising tide -- these big holes on the pitch. Were you swirling in a pit, the evening may have been a bit more complicated.

You can see some of the mosh pits in the photo above -- but at the show’s peak I counted 18 different ones going at the same time. At the center of one of the most active, fans built a firepit using toilet paper and scraps. It burned high for a few songs.

We’ll have a review of the day’s performances on Sunday.

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-- Randall Roberts

Updated: The original version of this post misspelled Lauryn Hill’s first name. We have corrected it above.

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