So it's 2:36 am on Saturday morning and I'm up after working until 12:30 am drinking PBR and watching Rage Against The Machine clips on Youtube thinking about how amazing it would be to be in Indio this Sunday night as they take the stage for the first time in 7 years and hopefully marking the return of something that left a void in modern music ever since. Earlier in the evening while I was on my break the song "Wake Up" came on the shuffle of my ipod and as I walked around downtown San Diego it just hit me how fucking great that band was/is and if thieir reunion is more than a one off obligation how in dire need we actually are of thier return. The anger, the fury the power their music holds is something that can really only exist in something of days gone by or the type of band people refir to as something from a bygone era when things were better. Rage Against the Machine are a fucking amazing band. End of story.
Well not really end of story, because as I watch music videos that educated the afterschool sect of a decade ago about issues like Wounded Knee or the econimics of third world nations I get a feeling for how serious this band was, but at the same time can't help but take it with a grain of salt. Thier videos parody Gap ads and plastic consumers but they were on a major label and 3/4ths of the band played in Audioslave who weren't political at all and reportedly made obscene amounts of money. I don't have a problem with either of those on thier own, but how do you go from a band who encourages destroying the government to another band who's singer obviously cared more about his tan than Darfur and not raise a couple of quesitons.
Anyway, my point is this; as great as I think they are, the only reason they're back together is Coachella. Each year the people at Goldenvoice get together to throw a weekend concert where hipster cred bands play a polo field in the desert where water is $6 a bottle and tickets are $100 a day, and the only reason Rage are taking the stage on Sunday is because Goldenvoice paid them to do so because they needed a big headliner to get media attention. I wish there was a better reason for them to be back together, fighting real evil; world hunger, a presidential canidiate, Fall Out Boy. But nay, it's the allmighty dollar of the rich white male. As much as thier videos, thier lyrics and thier outspoken politics may say otherwise, they're back to entertain. And more power to them, and here's to hoping that all hell can't stop you now.
Well not really end of story, because as I watch music videos that educated the afterschool sect of a decade ago about issues like Wounded Knee or the econimics of third world nations I get a feeling for how serious this band was, but at the same time can't help but take it with a grain of salt. Thier videos parody Gap ads and plastic consumers but they were on a major label and 3/4ths of the band played in Audioslave who weren't political at all and reportedly made obscene amounts of money. I don't have a problem with either of those on thier own, but how do you go from a band who encourages destroying the government to another band who's singer obviously cared more about his tan than Darfur and not raise a couple of quesitons.
Anyway, my point is this; as great as I think they are, the only reason they're back together is Coachella. Each year the people at Goldenvoice get together to throw a weekend concert where hipster cred bands play a polo field in the desert where water is $6 a bottle and tickets are $100 a day, and the only reason Rage are taking the stage on Sunday is because Goldenvoice paid them to do so because they needed a big headliner to get media attention. I wish there was a better reason for them to be back together, fighting real evil; world hunger, a presidential canidiate, Fall Out Boy. But nay, it's the allmighty dollar of the rich white male. As much as thier videos, thier lyrics and thier outspoken politics may say otherwise, they're back to entertain. And more power to them, and here's to hoping that all hell can't stop you now.
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