Rage Against the Machine live at Finsbury Park
Rage Against the Machine Live at Finsbury Park
After the notorious Christmas Campaign to get Killing in the Name of to number one in the UK, an equally mischievous and wholeheartedly driven concert was in order.
Rage Against the Machine delivered.
For those without the enough patience to read a few paragraphs I would only say this; it was fucking epic. Let me rub it in the faces of everyone who couldn’t get the tickets, you missed one of the most significant concerts since Sauron lost the Ring.
There, you can go away now or keep on reading to find out what exactly happened on June the 6th 2010 at Finsbury Park.
I’ve never been to a Rage Against the Machine gig before, I quite like them, listen to them enthusiastically when the pub’s DJ blasted them on the speakers and never changed channel should I find them on TV.
I was a mild listener of their music. Not worthy of their presence according to some but, regardless, I bought the single Killing in the Name of like three times and pressed F5 the day the tickets were available online like a maniac about to win a supply of Marmite for life.
What surprised me was the amount of humour swirling in the air.
The concert started with an animated Simon Cowell introducing the event. Apart from a few chuckles it managed to remind everyone why 40.000 people were standing on a field listening to live music.
Rage Against the Machine could have made the night a celebration of their music, demonstrating why the UK used them to get them to Number one last Christmas. But instead of behaving like divas the band proved they’re not just a bunch dudes who happen to not work at an office. They made sure it was clear the reason why we were all there was because of the people.
During the concert there was a great mood all around, with just a few awkwardly long pauses between songs, apparently to help people get out of the packed crowd.
The sound was brilliant, and the band has as much merit as the sound engineers for that. Rarely you can listen to live rock music without only hearing the feedback from the bass.
At the serious moment of the night, Zack de la Rocha reminded everyone what was happening at Gaza and asked the US Government to fight against the Israelis, to which he laughed and corrected himself saying the Israeli Government.
I lol’d.
After that, they introduced the two organizers of the Facebook campaign to the stage and handed a big check (someone right behind me shouted “I like big Checks”, which made me lol). All the profits received from the sales of ‘Killing in the Name of’ during that Christmas week were donated to Shelter, the charity supported by the organizers of the Facebook campaign.
The band was touched by how people in the UK joined forces for something charitable and funnily mischievous at the same time.
Tom Morello said: “It never felt so good to fuck the system” or something similar. Don’t quote me on that.
That’s why I’m not a journalist, if you want proper reporting buy a newspaper.
Rage Against the Machine Live at Finsbury Park (screens)
As everyone expected, the highlight of the night was playing “Killing in the Name of” which was the encore on its totality.
After the concert was done, the giant screens became the main focus of attention again and started displaying news headlines regarding the whole Christmas Number One ordeal with the song by the X-Factor contestant in the background.
Quotes such as: “It will never happen” “The Climb will be number one” “Rage are just shouting instead of singing, they’re horrible” followed by the number of sales by “The Climb“, a scratching sound stopping the song, and the sales by “Killing in the Name of“
The famous bass intro started.
Everyone went mental.
Crowd at Rage Against the Machine Rage-Factor
What I think was the most significant moment of the gig was the fact that the band has emotionally given the song to the Brits. Never again playing Killing in the Name of in the UK will have other meaning than people joining together and fucking something established by comically huge amounts of money.
And that’s a good thing Motherfucker.
