L.A. is rising yet again.
As a vehicle with many intentions, from Rage Against the Machine furthering its importance on a new generation of eager minds to British trio Muse continuing to show concert goers in the U.S. that they are a bonafide stadium act to promoter Goldenvoice creating another (potentially annual) festival juggetnaut to add to the stable of Coachella & Stagecoach to the thirty+ non-profit organizations gathered on site to educate/re-educate the public about issues such as War, Immigration, Poverty and Labor; July 30, 2011 was a momentous time to rise together and rock the mind; both figuratively and literally.
It's comin' back around again...
It's time to take the power back
The afternoon kicked off with Monterrey, Mexico's El Gran Silencio, whom delivered a short powerful set before Peruvian-born Harlem rapper Immortal Technique spit a verbal fire of thought-provoking conjecture, keeping the people of the sun lathered in stimulation.
Shortly thereafter, Ms. Lauryn Hill took the stage at about half past five. Having just delivered her sixth child earlier in the week, her voice resonated over measured takes of classic Fugees' material, cuts from her solo career and two Stevie Wonder covers.
Heat from the UVs. Heat from the Hill. It was time to rise against the tide. The tide of inhibitions inside. Chicago's punk rock stalwarts Rise Against brought an undeniable energy to the stage resulting in the first full-fledged mosh pit of the day.
By the time singer Tim Mcllrath led the crowd through the fan favorite "Savior" (from their 2008 Appeal To Reason album), the collective heart rate of the chemically-enhanced crowd was set to boil.
A recipe for rising against had been expertly executed. Pent up aggression and restless angst was seeping out of the 60,000 in attendance.
As the sun began to set over the black flags encasing the perimeter of the top edge of the coliseum, the sun-soaked throngs in the middle section of three areas of the "general admission" field engaged in a boisterous chant of "Let Us In," Let Us In". As in, let us in to the front section so we can mosh one another into oblivion.
They will not control us. We will be victorious. So come on.
Natural light diminished. Cue full-frontal kaleidoscopic stage lights. Acute sensory perception engaged. We have ignition. Time for a real live aMUSEment ride.
Much like anything is fair game during a Phish concert, Muse plays to the crowd while playing for themselves, wanting to blow your mind while you're having a metaphysical good time.
Meshing big fat riffs from songs such as "Uprising" and "Supermassive Black Hole" with the hallowed halls of classic rock from the doorsteps of AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, The Animals, Bob Dylan and even Rage Against The Machine, the holy macaroni triumvirate of singer Matt Bellamy, bassist Christopher Wolstenholme and drummer Dominic Howard continue to prove that they are best experienced on the biggest of stages.
If this show had happened in any city other than L.A., Muse could have been considered the headliner...there were definitely people that showed up just to see Muse.
I'm sure they were added to the bill to help sell seats and for the diversity aspect that Coachella is known for but I'm curious why System of a Down wasn't on the bill. I know they just played a sold-out show at the Forum two months ago but just the one-two punch of RATM and SOAD would have made this one of the can't miss shows of the summer.
They can't stop us now
Seven and a half hours in and the tension was ready to burst. The buzz was palpable. For many, it would be their first Rage Against The Machine show. For many more, it would be the show of a lifetime.
I first saw Rage in 1992 and have seen the band throughout their 20-year career though after the intensity of their performance and the surrounding chaos outside the Democratic National Convention at Staples Center in 2000, I figured I had seen my last RATM show.
I wanted to have that experience be the apex of everything that the band stood for. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that grows in infamy as the years lapse by.
Hard to imagine another show topping my plight of walking through a gauntlet of hundreds of police officers lining either side of the street in full riot gear before arriving to the outdoor stage that was under the telescope of snipers and SWAT team on the roofs of nearby buildings while police helicopters flew overhead.
Was I really in the U.S.? In a major metropolitan city? This was not a Hollywood backlot and when a mini-riot broke out during Ozomatli's ensuing set, it was not a Hollywood ending but a News-at-Eleven by-line.
I considered the sum of the parts and L.A. Rising as a whole. I figured that seeing the band play at the infamous coliseum, which adjoins one of the richest universities in the country that is nestled in a working class lower income neighborhood seemed like an appropriate backdrop for raging against a dysfunctional government on the verge of default.
Though the bottom line was that it was RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE at the freakin' COLISEUM with 60,000 hardcore adrenaline junkies!
Adrenaline seekers shape shift and assimilate all socio-ecomonic forms. For instance, I looked to my left from the front row barricade and saw actor Rhys Coiro (whom plays director Billy Walsh on Entourage) ready to rock. We were all set to Rise Together as One.
On came the two giant video monitors, showing a montage of the first-ever RATM concert back in August 1991 before a sequence of the band's activism and the trouble it sometimes brought. Being somewhat close to South Central and the birthplace of gangsta rap, I wondered if we would hear Zack and his henchmen belt out a riotous version of NWA's "Fuck Tha Police".
A long build-up and then boom, TESTIFY! And then...nothing...literally silence.
The power went out during the first song for about 30 seconds and I wondered if it was karmic payback for past vocal transgressions against the machine.
The bombast continued on from there, undeterred for 75 minutes as the band ripped through classic track after classic bomb track with the crowd mouthing along in unison.
Much like the Van Halen reunion tour, the band was determined, fierce and focused, proving that they can rock like no other.
Though by the time the tension-reliving crescendo of "Killing In The Name" closed out their triumphant set, it became clear that the metaphorical machine didn't, in fact, take a bullet in the head.
Their commanding performance and the outpouring of emotion from the crowd reminded us that the tension in L.A. is, indeed, rising. That we're at the center of a hotbed of issues in this somewhat dystopian society but whereas the band may have once tried to use a massive gathering of minds to plant the seeds to ignite a revolution, this time it seemed to be more about the gathering itself, as an incubation process without a lot of arrests and police scuffles.
I'm guessing it was the first of many L.A. Risings to come...as yet another formidable cause-minded festival of note.
Here's also hoping RATM will take a cue from A Perfect Circle and do a tour whereby they play each of their first three albums in their entirety over the course of a three-night stand in a single city. It could be called the Uprising tour.
Amplified armaments in hand, body, spirit and mind, we will be victorious.
Yeah, what about that, sucker?
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
Testify / Bombtrack / People Of The Sun / Know Your Enemy / Bulls On Parade / Township Rebellion / Bullet In The Head / Down Rodeo / Guerilla Radio / Calm Like A Bomb / Sleep Now In The Fire / Wake Up / Freedom / Killing In The Name
MUSE
Exogenesis: Symphony, Part 1: Overture > Uprising / Map Of The Problematique (with "Who Knows Who" and "Maggie’s Farm" outro) / Supermassive Black Hole / Butterflies & Hurricanes / The Star-Spangled Banner > Hysteria (with bits of AC/DC "Back In Black" and Led Zeppelin "Heartbreaker" to start and finish) / Nishe / United States Of Eurasia / Helsinki Jam / Undisclosed Desires / Resistance / Starlight (with "Il Mercenario" intro) / Time Is Running Out (with "House Of The Rising Sun" intro and "Bombtrack" riff on the outro) / Stockholm Syndrome (with "Township Rebellion" and "Endless Nameless" riffs in the outro) / Plug In Baby ("Burning Bridges" intro) / Knights Of Cydonia
RISE AGAINST
Chamber The Cartridge / Satellite / The Good Left Undone / Re-Education (Through Labor) / Survive / Make It Stop (September’s Children) / The Dirt Whispered / Help Is On The Way / Prayer Of The Refugee / Hero Of War / Audience Of One / Savior
Special thanks to James Zahn at Kik Axe Music, Marcee & Aaron at MSO PR, Jimmy Alvarez & photographers Melissa Libertelli and Michelle Alvarez
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