Rage Against The Machine says “abort the Supreme Court” at first concert in 11 years
The band also slightly updated the lyrics to "Killing In The Name"
Aux News Rage
This weekend, at Wisconsin’s Alpine Valley music venue, Rage Against The Machine played its first live show together in 11 years—a reunion that was announced back in 2019 (check out the prescient headline on that story) and was intended to coincide with the presidential election before getting delayed because of COVID. And, as you might expect for Rage Against The Machine, there was some raging to be had. (Uh oh, don’t let some incredibly stupid people find out!)
As reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the show had barely any actual talking or banter from onstage, but a screen behind the band regularly showed relevant imagery like “a border patrol agent posing menacingly with a barking German Shepherd,” “an El Paso police van burning in slow-motion,” and “a boy with a blindfold busting open a piñata that looked like an ICE agent.” The most direct message, though (yes, more direct than a kid hitting a piñata of an ICE agent), was a statement projected onto the screen about the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade:
Forced birth in a country where Black birth-givers experience maternal mortality two to three times higher than that of white birth-givers. Forced birth in a country where gun violence is the number one cause of death among children and teenagers. ABORT THE SUPREME COURT.
Elsewhere during the show, there was apparently a “riveting” moment where Zack de la Rocha “quietly repeated” the line “I think I heard a shot” over and over during “Wake Up,” and the lyrics to “Killing In The Name” (which recently went viral as part of a radio station’s marketing scheme) were changed to mention that it’s not just police but some politicians who “burn crosses.”
The Journal Sentinel also notes that Rage is donating $475,000 raised from ticket sales for this show and two more at the United Center near Chicago to “reproductive rights organizations in Wisconsin and Illinois.”
66 Comments
Some of those that ride benchesAre just 45’s henches
You do know that Dems have had DECADES to codify it right? But hey, let’s continue to blame it on a guy no longer in office!Despite a recession, at least you don’t have to read anymore “mean tweets”!
I liked RATM better before they were all about woke politics and just let the music do the talking./s (In case it wasn’t incredibly obvious I was being sarcastic)
It’s a shame you had to /s your post, but I don’t blame you.
I was at this show and saw at least a few “thin blue line” shirts in the crowd. So, yeah, unfortunately the /s is required.
You’re so brave and such a good person
it is a bit mortifying to imagine the number of Cult 45ers and cops who will definitely be at my show in August who probably also feel “oppressed” or whatever. It would be nice if ZDLR conveys the message crystal clear to the audience that “their kind” is not welcome LOL.
No you didn’t
wish I could have been there when they were setting up this picture LOL…”no definitely wear the cap backwards, that’s how all the kids wear them”
It was for Time magazine. I like to Time thought he was gonna rock up in a suit, but he insisted on the work out gear – “I brought my own weights!”“Yeah. Sure. Let’s just get this over it, Mr. Ryan.”
It’s not backwards. There is no brim. That cap is in the middle of screaming its way out of existence.
Fuck that guy.
I’m fairly certain this is Paul Ryan and not Scott Walker. But Dropkick Murphys had a great responce to him using their music:“@ScottWalker @GovWalker please stop using our music in any way…we literally hate you !!!
Love, Dropkick Murphys”
somebody better tell Paul Ryan
I hope no one tells them they appear to be the music of choice for the soccer moms in my area to stay pumped up during their morning workouts; I would hate for them to abruptly cancel their tour out of disgust before I get to see them next month LOL.
Your sarcasm was very subtle to me. It wooshed right over my head.Thanks for the /s.
Since the majority of RATM fans are frat boy date rapists, obviously they would want abortion to be legal.
name & action check out!
Hey, what if the Machine is…humanity? Huh? Huh? Get a hose to clean up your blown mind.
Guy parked next to us at the show wanted them to “keep the politics” out of their show tonight. I wasn’t able to comprehend how he had listened to them in the past.
I doubt this is true
I guarantee its true. I work with a guy who is a die-hard QAnon Trumper and would 100% be singing along with every song at a RATM concert, and then grumble when they mentioned SCOTUS and Roe.
Why would you “guarantee” something that you have no personal insight into? That’s something that dumb people do.
The same way people can doubt others claims without having any evidence of it either, right? Derp.
There’s a difference between doubting something and guaranteeing something
Not in this case. I know of quite a few former friends from the 90s that loved RATM and today they’re diehard Trumpanzees completely oblivious about RATM’s message and meaning. Without even knowing who neoncannon and battybrain are talking about, and not even knowing them either, I can confidently say that what they’re saying is so possible that it’s a guarantee. Because I know people like they’re describing I have zero doubt they’re describing real people.
I bet you are fun at parties.
No one cares what you think. Also you’re unfunny and unoriginal
Apparently you cared enough about it to reply so……there’s that.
So it’s fine with you that people “care” what you think to the extent that they’re willing to spend 5 seconds telling you to shut the fuck up? Good for you I guess. Congrats
You are really passionate about making sure people know how little you care and are spending a lot of time doing that…and you seem REALLY angry about a topic that is so very unimportant…maybe limit yourself to a third Monster per day, m’kay? Speaking as a health care professional…because I care.
You have very little to no insight into any of the claims you’re making here.
I guarantee you’re a pedantic goofball
Then you haven’t been paying attention.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/tom-morello-trumpers-dancing-rage-against-the-machine-killing-in-the-name-1087221/I mean, is it really that much of a stretch that moronic Trumpers would listen to RATM and completely miss the message being conveyed?
Same guy probably goes to a Wu-tang show and complains about all the kung-fu references.
This seems like a good place to mention that the best concert I’ve ever attended was Rage and Wu Tang in Charlotte, NC. It was one of four dates they played before their joint summer tour predictably fell apart. The energy was insane and despite the bands having pretty different fan bases, the whole crowd was cool as shit that day.
if this revival tour does nothing except (1) allow me to see one of my favorite bands of all time in person before they stop touring for good and (2) turn off a bunch of Cult 45ers who always assumed the “rage” they were referring to was the “rage” of a bunch of mediocre unjustifiably entitled white male idiots, then I’d call that a HUGE win for everyone.
Because the same idiots that worship Tyler Durden and think Walter White or Tony Montana are supposed to be emulated just love to scream “Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me” without actually listening to or understanding any of the rest of the music.
Yup. Those are the same guys that say ‘WHY DON’T THEY JUST COMPLY?’
During thier 90’s heyday Bill Clinton was the president of the United States and the Waco siege happened under his watch. Lil’ Republican’s of the time attributed the Machine as to the “liberal” polices of Democrats of the time. Thus Republican’s with thier “small government” push and “individual responsibly” mantra would dismantle the machine of thier oppression and allow freedom to reign by seceding power back to the people.
They never contemplated that oppression comes not just from government but corporate institutions as well. Many of the guys I knew growing up in the 90’s that listened to Rage against the Machine turned into hardcore libertarians. They are true believers that since none is legally restricted because of the color of thier skin that racism is dead and only through affirmative and liberal media does it persist.
The Machine he probably thinks of in RATM is a place like Starbucks, and Rage is when they get his soy milk latte order wrong.
You know, it was people like that who turned me off of listening to Rage back when I was in high school back in the late 90s. All these meat head jocks, some of who I knew were going to be cops when they got older, listening to a pretty open left-wing band was a scene I didn’t want to be a part of. However, Battle of Los Angeles helped me over that hump where I didn’t really care anymore since meat heads will always meat head.
based
Soooooooo brave!!!!!!!
But were they, ya’ know, any good?I have a rule about going to concerts…never for a band more than 10 years after their “BIG” album with exceptions for truly great bands (Wilco, Pearl Jam, Flaming Lips as examples). RATM would qualify for me…But was the concert any good? A concert review with not a lot of review isnnt helpful. I am an adult with limited concert going time and I don’t want to waste it on a money-grab by-the-numbers rehashing of old hits.
Rage Against The Machine Launches Reunion Tour With First Concert In 11 Years (jambase.com)
Latinas have a lower maternal mortality rate than white women. Is that a win for non-white women?
“Forced birth in a country where gun violence is the number one cause of death among children and teenagers…” So, what, terminate your fetus because if not your kid will probably just get shot anyway? Even if no kids were ever killed by guns, guns and abortion would still be completely unrelated topics.
They’re saying it how it is.
I know management moved all you guys from Chicago to Los Angeles, but I have to think there’s at least a couple of you around that still know the United Center is IN Chicago, not around it. Or, you know, Google Maps is still a thing too.
Yeah this made me irrationally angry. It’s the biggest pro hoops arena in the US, your staff was located in this city, and you don’t know the United Center is IN Chicago? For shame!
Huh. K. That’s nice, I guess.
The irony of Rage Against the Machine now raging on behalf of the machine is not lost on people.
“a “riveting” moment where Zack de la Rocha “quietly repeated” the line “I think I heard a shot” over and over”… Isn’t that just how the song goes?
He repeats “Wake up”. “And then came the shot” is a refrain throughout the song, but he doesn’t really repeat it over and over. I’m only talking about the studio version, he might have done it live before.Btw, it still shocks me that people listened to this song and did not know Rage was super political and super leftist. The lyrics are easy to understand and aren’t even a little subtle.
“I think I heard a shot” is said quietly but repeatedly before he starts shouting “Wake up!”, “and then came the shot” is a separate single line. It’s all in the studio version, maybe cut short in the radio edit.
Yes, that’s how the song goes. And “the lyrics to “Killing In The Name” were changed to mention that it’s not just police but some politicians who “burn crosses.” has been the normal “live” version of the song for at least 2 decades.
yes. yes it is.
I was at this show. The changed lyrics were
“Some of those who hold Office/Are the same that burn crosses.”
This band is about as meaningful as a silent dry fart
Just like your proofreading.
Maybe you should run along and stick to the nationalist country shit then. The adults are having a conversation.
Hey, taste is subjective and if you don’t like them, good for you. But denying their significance only shows your ignorance of music history.
Sorry but fuck these guys. They used to brag about keeping ticket prices affordable for the masses, and now they’re as much as Justin Timberlake or Lady Gaga. It’s the going rate, I get it, but clearly their earlier stance was just a fucking gimmick.