This Ought to Be Interesting

Seems that the newly reformed Rage Against the Machine will be playing in Minneapolis during the RNC convention in September (Nice of them to show up so late to the party, by the way....you'd have expected them to be raging against the Bush machine like bats out of hell these last seven and a half, horrible, dangerous years....wouldn't you?). From Rolling Stone's Rock and Roll Daily blog:

Following their near-riot-inducing performance at this weekend’s Lollapalooza, Rage Against the Machine have scheduled another concert they probably hope has similar results. The band announced that they’ll perform in Minneapolis’ Target Center on September 3rd, which is significant because that’s the same week the Republican National Convention rolls into the Twin City of St. Paul. In 2000, the band played an outdoor show in Los Angeles during the Democratic National Convention, and that show ended with police using tear gas and pepper spray. In the announcement of the Minneapolis show, Rage made no mention of the political overtones their show will carry, but Tom Morello has already revealed he will play a union rally with Steve Earle in St. Paul on September 1st, the first day of the RNC.

Steve Earle union rally. Love the sound of that. But speaking of that Lollapalooza Rage show, Pitchfork Media had this dispatch from the evening's festivities:

Rage Against the Machine [8:30 p.m.]

Rage Against the Machine probably weren't spoiling for a fight, but surely it must have been in the back of their mind. Grant Park, site of the 1968 riots, and in an election year, no less? Bring it on!

The band brought it, of course, along with all the repercussions that "it" generally entails. With its inchoate counter-everything message in full effect and the band's music as relentlessly intense as ever, the crowd went apeshit, with predictable results. Rage Against the Machine are an outlet, and its fans were all too ready to stick their finger in the socket. With great power comes great responsibility, so credit to the band for realizing when the switch needed to be flipped off.

"Brothers and sisters!" pleaded Zack de la Rocha, stopping the show just three songs in as the fans surged forward precariously. "Take care of each other! Please take five, 10 steps back. Save that shit for the streets!" The music eventually resumed, only to stop once again a short while later. "Please, this is serious!" implored the singer. "Take 10 steps back! People are getting hurt!" Backstage a triage unit was indeed treating a steady stream of injured fans, some crushed or trampled, others bruised and battered. A rumor spread that two fans had actually been stabbed, and the Chicago Sun-Times reported that fans outside Grant Park tried to storm one of the security gates before the police swooped in on horseback.

Rolling Stone adds:

“Save that shit for the streets!” declared Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack De La Rocha. He was reprimanding an overly aggressive crowd that forced the band to stop multiple times to restore order amidst the fans (as many as 2,000 gate crashers among them)....

...De La Rocha’s politics haven’t eroded a bit, either: as the set ended, he threatened that if Barack Obama won the White House but didn’t withdraw troops from Iraq, then he’d have a nation of angry, militant youths at his front door. Strong words from a strong band that inspired strong reactions, and as Saturday night’s show proved, sometimes that leads to anarchy.

In any case, it will probably be quite a night in St. Paul. One which I'll watch with interest, happily from a distance.

By the way, I thought this commenter from the RS comment thread made a good point, grammar and spelling be damned:

dupacrash | 8/3/2008, 10:00 pm EST

i don’t get the return of RATM. they spent the clinton administration running around like leftist guerillas with their heads cut off. then when bush comes in zach de la rocha moves next door to j.d. salinger. the other guys go adult-contemporary with chris cornell. now with bush on the way out and obama knocking on the door their back to shout “EVERYTHING IS BULLSHIT!”?