Type o negative i don t wanna be me lyrics
‘Fistful of Steel’ was one of Friday night’s substitutions – taking the slot occupied by ‘Down Rodeo,’ ‘Vietnow,’ and ‘Without A Face’ on prior nights. (I sat next to a couple who had tickets to all five!). It’s easy to imagine that the Chicago-born political science major / noted scratch guitarist never dreamt he would play Madison Square Garden, let alone for an entire week, and unbridled joy was plastered across his face every time he crunched a power chord or shredded a solo.įan favorites like ‘Testify,’ ‘Take The Power Back,’ and ‘Guerrilla Radio’ were played every night of the weeklong residency, but Friday night’s show did have a couple of setlist swaps to keep things interesting for those of us attending more than one show. In contrast, anyone with a view of Tom Morello’s face could see firsthand that the mild-mannered axeman was having the time of his life. “We’re the wealthiest country in the world!” he ranted during the band’s cover of ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad,’ a Springsteen tune lamenting homelessness and poverty. You wouldn’t think that lyrics about the Federal Reserve centralizing would prove to be this iconic, but with every vengeful line Zack poured out his white hot anger at the government, the corporations, and the military. It’s impressive that Zack, while certainly living comfortably thanks to Rage’s success, still screams with the fire and ferocity of a man inflamed by global travesties and injustice. But whatever ailments might hobble us day-to-day, on Friday night every dad bod and corporate drone was headbanging, fistpumping, and absolutely losing their minds to RATM’s vicious rap metal attack. The average attendee looked to be right around the late thirties-early forties range, although supplemented by plenty of kids too young to even have caught Rage’s 2007 Rock The Bells show on Randall’s Island, their last area appearance. You might think that a band who debuted in 1992 would pull in an older-skewing fanbase… and you’d be right. “A bullet in the head” we all hissed back, bouncing on the soles of our feet until Tom Morello and the band pulled the rhythm into one of Rage’s heaviest riffs and the Garden shook from 20,000 of us screaming “you got a bullet in your fucking head!” A few minutes later Zack whispered “A bullet in the head” over Tim Commerford’s maniacally descending bassline. For ‘Bulls on Parade’ Zack didn’t even bother to shout it himself – he just held the mic out for the crowd to scream the title lyrics. “Burn, burn!” we all screamed along to Bombtrack. A Rage concert is effectively a heavy metal HIIT class – Zack’s barely contained fury rasped over funky basslines driving the crowd to the beat, awaiting the one-two-three knock from drummer Brad Wilk that inevitably precedes a skullsmashing riff and full-mosh go-as-hard-as-you-can chorus.
If you were in fact one of the 100,000 ticketholders at the Garden last week, you could’ve also skipped your cardio for the day. Plenty of retired acts go on tour again to make some cash and play the hits as best they can, but from the moment the band exploded into set opener ‘Bombtrack,’ it might as well have been 1994 again as we all lost our minds to the most revolutionary rap metal sound ever heard. What made my head spin the most personally was just how goddamn good the band still sounds. It’s hard to even choose which part of RATM’s run was most astonishing – that the band is back together and playing after a 15 year absence from the planet? That they sold out five nights at the World’s Most Famous Arena? Or maybe that vocalist Zack de la Rocha performed for a combined 10 hours with a torn achilles, technically sitting the entire time on a road case but never not twisting, smashing, and raging in place.
If you live in the NYC/tri state region, I hope you made it to one of Rage Against the Machine’s five shows at Madison Square Garden last week. Share the post "Rage Against the Machine ‘Testify’ at night #4 of Madison Square Garden residency (review, photos)"