Rage Against The Machine Rock Oxygen

national | arts and media | opinion/analysis

Monday July 14, 2008 22:59

by joans boyfrend

Every generation has its political rock band: The Fugs, The Clash…and Rage Against The Machine.

RATM formed in Los Angeles in 1991 and released the self-titled debut a year later, one of the definitive CDs of the 90s. The cover featured the image of the “burning monk”, who burned himself to death in 1963: an ultimate image of commitment and protest. The music was a highly potent mix of metal, funk, rap, and anti-capitalist politics.

They made two more albums and a hard-driving CD of cover versions of political or socially-conscious rock and rap songs (including Springsteen’s “Ghost of Tom Joad”) after which they fell victim to internal arguments, and split in 2000.

But now they’re back.

It started as an internet rumour that turned out to be true: RATM were playing festivals around the world. We could hardly believe it, but fukit, they were going to be playing the Oxygen Festival! The re-union was a belated response to the Bush administration and the rise of the Right in American politics,

“A good friend of ours once said that if the same laws were applied to U.S. presidents as were applied to the Nazis after World War II... every single one of them, every last rich white one of them from Truman on, would have been hung to death and shot—and this current administration is no exception. They should be hung, and tried, and shot. As any war criminal should be.”

Which led to:

“A couple of months ago, those fascist motherfuckers at the Fox News Network attempted to pin this band into a corner by suggesting that we said that the president should be assassinated. Nah, what we said was that he should be brought to trial as war criminal and hung and shot. THAT'S what we said. And we don't back away from the position because the real assassinator is Bush and Cheney and the whole administration for the lives they have destroyed here and in Iraq. They're the ones. And what they refused to air which was far more provocative in my mind and in the minds of my bandmates is this: this system has become so brutal and vicious and cruel that it needs to start wars and profit from the destruction around the world in order to survive as a world power. THAT's what we said. And we refuse not to stand up, we refuse to back down from that position.”

Judging by the crowd, almost everybody went to Oxygen see RATM. Rage t-shirts were all over the place!

They came on about 10.45 and played a strong, committed set, kicking off with “Testify”. The huge crowd went mental, and insane levels of moshing and crowd-surging continued as the band played some of their hardest, fastest, riffiest songs. A couple of times the band took a breather, almost deliberately taking some of the energy down to more manageable levels.

The stage backdrop was the black flag and red star of EZLN, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.

Songs included “Bombtrack”, Bullet In The Head”, “Guerrilla Radio”, “Calm Like a Bomb”, “People of the Sun”, “War Within a Breath” and of course they had to finish with the infamous “Killing In the Name Of” and its Fuck You chorus. Throughout, it was a 100% effort by the band, the sound was great, and the songs were just tweaked a little to keep them fresh.

It would have been easy to play their own indoor gigs to fans; playing festivals shows Rage still want to work to bring their music and their message to new people.

Rage Against the Machine operate in the following psychic environment: “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you”.

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Comments (7 of 7)

OXEGEN – Ar dóigh!

by Rock Against Partition

Tue Jul 15, 2008 16:44

Senan MacAoidh
Ógra Shinn Féin

Bliain eile, oxegen eile, agus ar ndóigh ní raibh an ócáid gan phoilitíocht!

Well, what can I say? Oxegen was brilliant, truly one of the greatest festivals and not one without its fair share of politics. How wouldn’t it be with Rage Against The Machine playing? The famous Metal/Rap/Funk band from California in the USA played at the main stage on Sunday night.

The tension was mounting well before they came on with hardcore fans queuing for up to 10 hours to get into the pit. By the time the Kaiser Chiefs came on, the last band before Rage, the crowd was immense, 10s and 10s of thousands, full of people wearing Rage t-shirts, chanting ‘Rage Rage Rage’ with fist in the air.

I felt sorry for your man singing for the Kaiser Chiefs as he responded in a pissed-off manner, shouting ‘We Are the Kaiser Chiefs!’ and acknowledging that the crowd wanted Rage, singing ‘Angry Mob’. They left the stage with the words ‘Enjoy Rage Against The Machine’. By this time it was undoubtedly the largest and most enthusiastic crowd that had appeared so far at oxegen and it was on fire, the atmosphere was invigorating with the crowd surging.

A huge red star on a black background (symbol of the EZLN) as the backdrop for the band and a portrait of Ché Guevara, it set the tone for the entire performance. They leapt out on stage, receiving the most compelling roar from the masses. The crowd went crazy as they opened with ‘Testify’ they then followed on with the likes of ‘Bullet in the Head’ and ‘Guerrilla Radio’, taking a breather near the end and playing aloud the Internationalé and then finishing with ‘Killing in the name of’.

It was great to see that with Rage back together, their spirit and the spirit of their fans had not gone away. The crowd, mental as it was, sang along to the lyrics and made left fist gestures in the air.

Níor sháraigh aon ghrúpa eile iad ag Oxegen, bhí RATM ar fheabhas agus comh fuinniúil sin. D’fhág siad rian suntasach I measc an tslua agus beidh caint futhu cibé uair a labhraíonn duine faoi Oxegen ’08.

The band always emphasises the importance of activism, that its music is only the beginning. It takes clear stances on many issues and it is openly socialist and fundamentally anti-capitalist. According to their guitarist Tom Morello,

‘America touts itself as the land of the free, but the number one freedom that you and I have is the freedom to enter into a subservient role in the workplace. Once you exercise this freedom you've lost all control over what you do, what is produced, and how it is produced. And in the end, the product doesn't belong to you. The only way you can avoid bosses and jobs is if you don't care about making a living. Which leads to the second freedom: the freedom to starve.’

Rage Against The Machine were oxegen this year.

And if their support in terms of fans could be harnessed to create action, wouldn’t that be a great thing?

Oh for fucks sake

by Jesus Christ

Wed Jul 16, 2008 11:26

You're a fan. We get it. this is not news though. The oxegen festival has nothing to do with any campaign featured here and while this band certainly play up to the image of the rebel and probably still have some links to activists they've met along the way, they're multi-millionaires selling a product.

This has no connection no campaigns featured here and it enrages me that some fanboy can write a review of a concert - oxegen no less, the KING of the big media hard-sell - and pass it off as news.

RATFW?

by White Flag

Wed Jul 16, 2008 12:55

Rage Against The Machine Are Capitalist Phonies

Why bother with stupid comments?

by T

Sat Jul 19, 2008 19:03

If there was ever such thing as user created news then an article called "Rage Against The Machine Rock Oxygen" is pretty much what you might expect, isn't it?

"nothing to do with any campaign" - RATM IS A CAMPAIGN.

Freedom to listen

by radical jonny

Sat Jul 19, 2008 22:53

I grew up in the midst of the hardcore punk scene of the NYC area of the early 80's. It was a great time. Saw Black Flag twice and a laundry list of phenomenal bands.

The bands were great, but I can look back now with a bit of humility and say that most of us were (in the local parlance of the time) knuckleheads; obnoxious, didactic, narrow-minded twerps who thought we knew everything. We loved our scene and everything else was shite, plain and simple...

Little did we realize that the coolest people felt free enough to like whatever the hell they wanted to like, not the fairly thin list of 'approved' bands that we in the 'thought police' condoned.

Now, I love RATM. My God, who wouldn't? They're some of the most inspirational music out there.

But I also love Steely Dan and Shostakovitch.

The jackbooted teenager I was thinks I'm an idiot, but I just roll my eyes at him.

Now I say: listen to whatever you enjoy, big label or not. Whatever motivates you to want to love people, hate injustice, get up and change the world, or just makes you want to dance, crank it up.

You got MY permission...

oxygen 2008

by jim

Thu Aug 14, 2008 16:15

i was at oxygen 2008 to see rage and they didnt let me down best gig i've seen yet thought i was going to keel over at one stage but even if i did i wasnt leaving. keep up the good work lads class!

LINK-Rage's Tom Morello on the "Justice Tour"

by Justice Tour

Tue Sep 30, 2008 06:28

LINK-Rage's Tom Morello on the "Justice Tour"

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/63474/tom-morello-...tion/

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