Anger is a Gift

I thought about it for a bit, and in the end it seemed that at the very least Rage deserved its own post. If I hadn't been up front, I may have posted an entry about each song because they were that good.

So. Coachella. Day Three. Coachella Stage. 22:40-0:00. Best eighty minutes of my musical life. Rage Against the Machine.

No thanks to Air, I was much further from the front during Manu Chao than I'd hope to be. I found a girl who was using her boyfriend to try to push through the crowd and we decided to go for it together. She was slightly out of it. Make it to the front we did. The pushing and shoving was actually not as bad as it had been for the Chili Peppers - which was a bit of a shock. We were about two yards back, but she wasn't doing well, so we got her up and surfed her out. At that point, I found the five coolest guys (Colin notwithstanding) at the festival. One guy had water, one guy had a hat to use as a fan. They were really fun to talk to and we were all looking out for one another, which was pretty cool. They decided right off that I was a guy's girl and were shocked (yet impressed) that I went so far to the front alone. Cue me ceasing the bragging. While Rage was setting up, whoever was in charge of playing music to fill time was obviously concerned about the crowd because he or she chose really calm songs. I'm not sure what songs they were exactly, but over the din of everything they sounded calm.

But then... then they took the stage... Oh man. The whole crowd started chanting "RAGE RAGE RAGE RAGE," fists pounding in the air and whatnot. I think Zack said something like, "we are Rage Against the Machine. Thanks for watching." The wind-up started and I'll admit I was slightly disappointed to hear any wind-up at all because I so wanted the first song to be "Bulls on Parade," which starts rather abruptly. However, I wasn't diasppointed that they picked "Testify" to be first. I didn't fall in love with Rage wholly until The Battle of Los Angeles, so I guess I can't really fault the song. The longer the song went, the further away I got from my little circle. I wouldn't see any of them for the rest of the night, which was a shame. Concert buddies are the way to go.

Luckily for me, the second song just happened to be "Bulls on Parade" - which made any injury fully worth it. Given that, you know, this has only been my favorite Rage song since... oh... fifth grade. I'm pretty sure I recorded the whole song, but the visual components of the video are severely lacking as I was focusing instead on keeping my balance. (And I would totally upload it, but the buggah too big for either Vox or YouTube. Not happenin'.) While it was admittedly smart to be barefoot at the Peppers, I'm thinking that a different decision needs to be made if I'm ever in a group of people half as intense. It was the only song to which I was able to sing at all because I would have gone down during another one had I not focused on staying up. I enjoyed every second of it. At this point, I was tempted to get myself out... but I trust crowd surfing as much as I trust Dick Cheney with a shotgun, so like hell that was gonna happen.

I've always felt that one of their songs with the coolest beginning was "People of the Sun," a feeling with which the crowd seemed to agree.  It's the kind of intro that you learn because it sounds so damn cool... the Stairway effect. And it sounded soooo cool. Did I mention that I'm like half in love with Tom Morello..? And from here on out in my commentary, I'm giving everything the shaft because otherwise I won't finish writing this thing until... oh, Rock the Bells. Riiiight.

Next up was "Bombtrack" and did I ever forget how long the intro to that song is. When the music picked up, the entire pit jumped up at once - or at least my section of the pit - which was pretty cool. Like a minor earthquake, too, but whatever. Zack would stick his mic at the crowd for the "hardline, hardline after hardline" part, so you know we were all ridiculously into it. I think I actually did sing that line, but if a line here and there counts for singing along, I'd say I had a duet with the band. Because it really was like one line every song. Dude, singing meant paying less attention and paying less attention meant falling and falling, obviously, meant dying. Like hell I was gonna die at some concert! (And so begins my melodrama. Don't worry: it'll be back.)

"Bullet in the Head"... let's just say, they said "jump," we said "how high?" Then did it. (In truth, Zack would say "just victims of the in-house drive-by" and the crowd would take on the whole next line. Specifics. Who needs 'em?) And oh boy, was there a lot of jumping for this one. The crowd was also singing "a bullet in your head" but as I recall, more than we were supposed to and sooner too.

They moved right into "Know Your Enemy" next. I swear to god I heard a kid say, "wait, another 'Bombtrack?' What?" Fist in the air. Whole song. Had to be done. I sort of have a thing against the intro to the song, but liked it better in person. Because Tom's freakin' awesome. Another song for which the crowd slowed down at first then started up again along with the music, which was cool and well timed. Great guitar on this one.

The song that, for whatever reason, surprised me the most was "Down Rodeo." I didn't see it coming. I think if I had less love for Evil Empire, I would have been shocked instead of surprised. This isn't a complaint... it's just that a lot of the songs played were "Best of Rage" material. (When I was relating my tale to a friend, the question was raised, "Down Rodeo? What album is that even on?") So exciting, yes. It was funny because the guitar for the song is so distinctive and it was pretty obvious that some people didn't recognize it straight off. I expected better of the pit. Anyway, I'm curious as to when the last time they played that at a show was...

While it's probably the song that made me love Rage instead of like Rage, I can't really say that I still have total admiration for "Guerilla Radio" or that I've listened to it recently. It wasn't bad, but it definitely wasn't my favorite song of the night. Everyone else seemed to like it though. Crowd pleaser, right? You don't follow a slightly more random track with anything less than a huge single. And you follow a huge single up with, well, a huge single.

"Renegades of Funk" may very well be my favorite Rage cover. (Maybe because I consider their version of "The Ghost of Tom Joad" nothing less than a mangling... no offense.) I think it sounds better the way Zack said it at the show - "Dr. King" slowly instead of rushing "Dr. Martin Luther King." I always have trouble singing along at that part. Although... I swear the crowd mistook "destroy all nations" for "destroy all feet." Because I think that was the song in which I lost a chunk of toenail along with bits of flesh on my left foot, here and there. People like saying "sucker" really loud, as we all found out.

Favorite bass of any Rage song: "Calm Like a Bomb." I love the bass lick at the opening. Props to Commerford, I guess. I some how wiggled my way into a pit at this point (oops!), but got my way out pretty damn quick. At the end of the song (the "post no bills" part), the area I was in actually calmed down a tiny bit, as everyone thrust their heavy metal horns (what the hell do you call that? I'd say mano cornuta, but I think the effect would be lost.) into the air. Maybe because the song got quieter at that part...? If that's all it takes to get a crowd to quiet down, let me tell you, the concert promoters need to take some lessons.

"Sleep Now in the Fire" is one of the songs that I've liked for the vocals more than the music, mostly because I am in love with the way Zack trill's his "r"s on "Santa Maria." Nothing against the music, but you know. It was, however, a really difficult song to enjoy. I was starting to get nauseated from the heat. Security guards were really good about tossing water into the crowd and I was lucky enough to get handed a bottle, which I downed. Free water is pretty much the theme of my Coachella weekend. So necessary.

Is it wrong that "Wake Up" reminds of both The Matrix and Puffy's weak "Come with Me" knock off of "Kashmir?" No clue as to why the second happens, because it really sounds nothing at all like the "Kashmir" intro... I mean, I could see a tiny comparison being made, but it still shouldn't make me make that connection. I get the Matrix thing. Can't say I like the Matrix thing. I was lucky enough to get a pretty good view of one of the video screens at his point... I loved watching Zack stalk around the stage and love his new hair. The part about a minute or so before the song ends starts aaaaand...

Cue Zack's rant. My brother remarked how eloquent he thought it was phrased, and it seems to me that he respects the band more for it. This is why I love Rage. This is why I've loved Rage. It gave me enough energy to finish out the set. I can't do it justice to describe it, so I'm going to post my transcription: "A good friend of ours said that if the same laws were applied to U.S. presidents as were applied to the Nazis after World War II, that every single one of 'em, every last rich white one of 'em from Truman on woulda been hung [sic] to death and shot. And this current administration is no exception. They should be hung [sic] and tried and shot, as any war criminal should be.

But the challenges that we face, they go way beyond administrations, way beyond elections, way beyond every four years of poor endeavors, way beyond that. Because this whole rotten system has become so vicious and cruel that in order to sustain itself it needs to destroy entire countries and profit from their reconstruction in order to survive.

And that's not a system that changes every four years. It's a system that we have to break down generation after generation after generation after generation..." The friend in question being Noam Chomsky. (On that note, you can hear Tom's interview with Noam concerning that feeling that was on Air America here.)

I don't know how I feel about the advocacy of the killing of political figures for political decisions made because it's not really as if other nations are angels and we are demons... though I must say Europe's allowance (I'm not one for buck-passing; I honestly think that, to toss in another overly used phrase, it takes two to tango.) of the US to become the de facto body guards of the "Western" world is making it ever so much more so... and I still refuse to believe that "white" should be acceptable terminology when what they want to say is something like WASP. I think the note on which he ended it is the part with which I agree the most. The problem to me isn't mainly the people in the system, but the system itself. Parties existing more to serve, protect, and perpetuate themselves than to make any sort of social change do a disservice to the American people, to the promise of the American constitution, and to the ideals for which our nation (allegedly) stands, throughout the world. Which is why I'm registered unaffiliated.

Oh come on. How can you have a discussion of Rage without politics? But back at the proverbial ranch...

When they started playing "Freedom" I had almost reached the breaking point... but decided that if nothing else I could hold on for the song. I figured it would be near to the last, so it was like the last lap of a mile. I was completely pummeled and hot and thirsty and couldn't see anything... but I could feel the bass and see Zach's hair (the drawbacks of being shorter than everyone: unless you are right up front, you aren't going to see a thing!) and for whatever reason that was encouraging.

At the beginning of my junior year of high school, my AP US History teacher had quotes all around his room from people like Teddy Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy to which we had to respond. If memory serves, one of the quotes was written: "'Freedom? Yeah, RIGHT!' - Zack de la Rocha." I was apparently the only person in my class who knew who de la Rocha was (and who recognized the song, but that's beyond the point), so my teacher and I bonded musically pretty much instantly. I think he's going to Rock the Bells. Anyway, in addition to loving the song, I have some nostalgia about it from that. And it was one hundred percent as amazing as I'd hoped it'd be. I would have sung along, but like the rest of the set, I preferred breathing and living. I was glad that "anger is a gift" was audible.

"Killing in the Name" had to be last. We all knew it would be last. Given the response to merely playing the song as filler between sets meant that these were going to be the most intense five-six minutes of my life. And oh my god they were. I thought I was recording it, but unfortunately my camera was set to photo and not film! I was fairly upset when I discovered that. At the beginning of the song when the guitar riff picks up, everyone started jumping. Then stopped at the slight pause. Then Zack said, "killing in the name of" and we all went completely dumb, so to speak. By this point, I was almost at the front barrier, with maybe two people in front of me. I still couldn't see much, but who cares?

And then... "Some of those that burn crosses / Are the same that hold office." It was perfect. It was so perfect. (Yes, it's been done. Does that negate the awesomeness? No, I think not.) The sound of (total random guess) 70,000 people yelling "motherfucker" is pretty awesome. As was the sight of everyone with their middle fingers up during the "fuck you I won't do what they tell me" section of the song. Although, I must admit, I kept thinking of E.B. Farnum's absolutely brilliant "motherfucker" which is definitely more perfect...

I've got the worlds most ridiculous - for lack of a better term - concert hangover and have been watching videos on YouTube so I can actually see what happened... I was reading on the Coachella board about people's thoughts on the pit and I have to say that everyone who said they weren't bad were either bigger troopers than I was or way further back. For one, I'm about 5'5", maybe 130... so I started off with a clear disadvantage. I was never around more than one female at a time; furthermore, all of them were smarter than I and came with huge boyfriends who totally saved their asses. To my advantage, however, I would say 99% of the guys I was near were perfect gentlemen: people picked me up if I started falling in the surge; one guy pushed people off of my feet; I always got water first. As much as I hate playing the part of the damsel in distress, I don't know if I would have lasted the whole set had I not. In fact, I'm pretty certain that I would have gotten out after "Bulls on Parade," so thank you to every guy who kept me going up there.

At the very end Zack said thank you like 20 million times and that was it. (Well... not exactly... the mosh pit became lost and found central and the ground was littered with a massive pile of empty water bottles and lost shoes.) Coachella was over; I was exhausted, bruised, and probably a little bit dehydrated, but it was so totally worth it. I would be up front again in a heartbeat. Not to be melodramatic, but it was extremely hard to go from that back to "real life." And so it goes.