On the eve of Rage Against the Machine invading Keybank Arena in Buffalo, Western NY was fraught with political turmoil. Their concert date came only months after the mass shooting by a white supremacist on the East side of Buffalo, a mere three miles from the venue, and only days after he had been indicted on 27 charges including hate crime-based terrorism. And that doesn’t even begin to cover what was going on down the interstate in Rochester as a movement to have the ReAwaken America Tour, a speaking tour full of alt-right leaning, Qanon believing, and COVID hoax/anti-vaxxers, canceled at the Main Street Armory as well as an attempted assault on GOP governor candidate Lee Zeldin in order to allow bail reform criticism.
And let’s not forget the highly suspicious death of an undercover Rochester police officer that conveniently had no surveillance or body cam footage to tell the real story. Needless to say, the atmosphere that the band was encountering was exactly the kind of crowd that RATM thrives on when it comes to channeling energy and, well, rage.
As someone who had initially asked to cover this tour when it was first announced, knowing that the day had come was already excitement-inducing enough. But knowing I got to experience this band and their music exactly how they always intended it to be, in the midst of extreme political unrest, had me nearly vibrating with excitement all day. Remembering that Run the Jewels was the co-headliner performing before RATM was just like a giant cherry on top for me, having watched the live stream of Killer Mike performing at a Bernie Sanders rally and having the poster for it sitting at home framed on my wall.
The 18-song set that Zack de la Rocha and company played for what seemed to be close to a sold-out crowd was everything you could have wanted as a fan of the band. The tour, having originally been scheduled for 2020, had been postponed twice due to the COVID pandemic but now was finally making its way across the United States as they play 52 shows in 40 different cities over a nine month period of time. On the second night of the tour, de la Rocha broke his foot on stage, but instead of postponing the tour for the third time, he channeled his inner Dave Grohl and decided the tour must go on.
Having to be carried out on stage by two crew members, de la Rocha appeared with his foot in a cast is situated comfortably on a seat at the front of the stage, end table with tea positioned next to it. But just because he was sitting down and has a foot in a cast, don’t think that he was going to be calm and collected. Despite being seated for the entire set, de la Rocha still managed to somehow have one of the best stage presences I’ve ever seen; from thrashing around so much to where I thought he was going to injure his foot even more to the heightened emotion with every song to make up for his lack of movement around the stage.
Opening with their track “Bombtrack,” RATM were pulling no punches lyrically out of the gate with the second verse starting, “Instead, I warm my hands upon the flames of the flag/To recall the downfall and the businesses that burnt us all/See through the news and the views that twist reality/Enough, I call the bluff, fuck Manifest Destiny.” If there was anyone in the crowd who didn’t think that RATM were a political band, they found out real quick just how wrong they were about the band’s politics. This likely included the man in the front row with a RATM shirt on who had nearly an entire arm tattoo sleeve of the pro-police “thin blue line” version of the American flag. And if he didn’t figure out that he was part of the machine they are raging against instantly, I wonder if the tour visual on the projection screen of a police van on fire gave him his answer.
About halfway through their set, they treated the crowd to a recently debuted live cover of Run the Jewels’ “Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)” with Run the Jewels coming out on stage to perform it with them. The previous show in Toronto was the first time they had debuted it live on stage. After their cover, they transitioned into one of the most powerful songs penned by the band, “Down Rodeo.” (Although, ranking tracks in ways like “most powerful” just seems arbitrary at this point given the lyrical content and current state of United States politics.)
Pantomiming using a shotgun with sights, which seemed especially powerful given the recent past of Buffalo, de la Rocha declared, “So now I’m rollin’ down Rodeo wit a shotgun/These people ain’t seen a brown skin man/Since their grandparents bought one.” Ever since I saw Sunny Singh/hate5six’s clip he had posted from the Toronto date on July 21, it started the process of solidifying Zack de la Rocha as one of the best hardcore frontmen to ever exist. But seeing his commitment to continuing on despite his broken foot and the sheer passion and intensity that could be seen even from my review seat two sections up completely finished solidifying that fact for me.
Of course, we can’t forget the absolutely iconic man that is responsible for some of the most insane and innovative guitar work I have ever seen, Mister Tom Morello. (And props to you, my good sir, for the IWW hat you’re always repping.) Having originally seen and photographed him a few times either as a guitarist for Prophets of Rage at Montebello Rockfest or his solo performance at Sonic Temple in 2019, getting to finally see him in his original form with RATM was akin to a dream come true. There were times in the photo pit when I had to remind myself to keep shooting because I was so entranced by watching his guitar work through my camera lens. This is demonstrated in songs such as the aforementioned “Down Rodeo” and the far left protest anthems, “Bulls on Parade” and “Killing in the Name.”
Speaking of “Killing in the Name,” closing out their set with probably one of their most well-known and most sung/shouted songs was the perfect end to a set that was literally everything I could have hoped and dreamed for when the tour was originally announced, from the tour visuals emulating the Zapatista women revolutionaries from Chiapas, finally seeing songs I’ve only ever heard on albums, and the speech that de la Rocha gave about the current state of things in regards to Roe vs Wade being overturned.
As they went into the recognizable guitar and bass lines that open the song, you could feel all the energy and pain that so many people, including myself, were releasing as a result of the recent events in Western NY. “Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses!” was collectively yelled throughout the arena with the second verse of it being changed by de la Rocha to “And some of those that burn crosses are the same that hold office.”
I honestly can’t imagine any other show this year being able to top how perfect RATM was and also how necessary it was for me, to have something to return to and help rebuild my strength, intensity, and rage about the racism, antisemitism, and complete demonization of the far left while the average working class and middle-class person struggles and suffers to survive because the government and 1% prove again and again that they never cared about us.
Locally, as scores of local BLM activists, including myself, prepare to face down the Rochester police department, Rochester city officials, and Monroe County in numerous civil and class action lawsuits due to RPD’s conduct during protests about the death of Daniel Prude, a black man in a mental health crisis suffocated by RPD, this show provided fuel to the fire.
Thank you for existing, Rage Against the Machine. We need you now more than ever.
