Rage Against The Machine

Coronavirus Concert Casualties

Concert Plans

Gatherings of 250 people became officially banned in San Diego as of March 13th, 2020. Nationwide lockdown followed shortly after. The list of concerts below are the ones I intended to attend that have been impacted (so far):

  • 3/13/20 Local H @ Belly Up – RESCHEDULED to 10/10/20 – Local H was set to open for Soul Asylum in support of their album Lifers that was about to drop on 4/10/20 Local-H-Lifers

UPDATE 4/24: Local H decided to let fans on their Facebook page vote on an entire album from their catalog for them to play live from their “bunker” in Chicago. The album that received the most votes was Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles? and they livestreamed their performance on both Facebook and YouTube. I would have paid good money to see this live so this was quite a treat as the first livestream concert I ever watched. The picture quality was better on Facebook but the sound was better on YouTube.HHH

  • 3/28/20 Rage Against the Machine @ Pan American Center, Las Cruces, NM – POSTPONED – Before Rage announced a full tour there were originally only five shows scheduled: El Paso, TX, Las Cruces, NM, Phoenix, AZ and as the headliner for both weekends of Coachella. I had no interest in going to Coachella due to the expense and “scene” that I am very much not a part of so Phoenix was the logical choice due knowing people that live there and distance but New Mexico was on a Saturday. That was enough reason for a group of us to decide that a trip was in order. Rage

UPDATE 5/1: The rescheduled tour dates have arrived and it looks like I will not be seeing Rage Against the Machine until May 2021!

  • 4/4/20 Loudermilk @ The Uptown Theatre, Richland, WA – POSTPONED – This was to be the first time I had been “home” in over nine years and with The Ladybird Unition set to open it was going to be like I was 17 years old all over again.Loudermilk Postponed
  • 4/13/20 Pearl Jam @ Viejas Arena (SDSU) – POSTPONED – Pearl Jam was one of the first bands that decided to halt their tour. This was to be only my second time seeing Pearl Jam and ironically at the same place that I saw them the first time. This tour was slated in support of the new album Gigaton released on 3/27/20.
  • 4/24/20 The Darkness @ Observatory – POSTPONED – The Darkness was set to tour for their newest effort Easter Is Cancelled, which turned out to be a prophetic title.Easter Is Cancelled

UPDATE 5/15: CANCELLED – Well Poop2

  • 5/8/20 The Rolling Stones @SDCCU Stadium – POSTPONED – This was to be the second time I had the pleasure of seeing the Stones. As a bonus this was going to be the opening night of the tour within walking distance of my place on a Friday…
  • 5/22/20 System of a Down, Korn, Faith No More and Helmet @ Banc of California Stadium – POSTPONED – This was a one-off concert in L.A. that had such high demand that a second show was added.

SOAD

UPDATE 5/22: RESCHEDULED – This event will now happen on the same date in 2021 as if this year never happened at all.SKFH

  • 6/10 Styx @ San Diego County Fair – CANCELLED – This was set to be my second time seeing Styx but the show and better yet the entire county fair for 2020 was cancelled.SDFair
  • 7/12 The Black Keys @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre – CANCELLED – This was to be my third time seeing these Ohio natives. Good thing I was able to see the beginning of the “Let’s Rock” tour back in November.Screen Shot 2020-05-19 at 6.41.20 PM
  • 7/19 Incubus and 311 @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre – CANCELLED – Two bands that I like on the same bill is always a treat. I guess this would instead fall under the category of trick.Screen Shot 2020-05-21 at 9.04.27 PM
  • 7/23 Motley Crue @ Petco Park – ??? – On May 1st Motley Crue released a statement saying “Our goal is to have an official update to everyone by June 1 outlining exactly how we will proceed.” All signs are pointing towards an inevitable postponement/cancellation.

UPDATE 6/1: POSTPONED – Shocking!Motley

  • 7/24 Weezer/Green Day @ Petco Park – POSTPONED – What was to be a rare concert on a Friday night is no more…until 2021

     

  • 7/30 Ministry @ House of Blues San Diego – RESCHEDULED – There is a website called bandsintown.com that I am on the email list for and this was how I learned that the Ministry show got rescheduled to April 29, 2021. Hopefully Uncle Al is still around.Ministry Postponed
  • 8/1 Primus and Wolfmother @ Open Air Theatre – POSTPONED – This was going to be a unique show with Primus undertaking the task of replicating Rush’s 1977 classic album A Farewell To Kings. I was also looking forward to seeing the entire Wolfmother performance after the last one got cut short.Screen Shot 2020-05-21 at 8.43.25 PM
  • 8/8 Guns N’ Roses @ Sofi Stadium – POSTPONED – This was going to be my second time seeing GNR and first time visiting the new gazillion dollar monolith stadium in L.A. where the Rams and Chargers will play.Screen Shot 2020-05-21 at 8.56.33 PM
  • 9/1 Disturbed @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre – POSTPONED – This tour was to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of the debut album The Sickness, which now seems like an even more apt title.Screen Shot 2020-05-21 at 9.11.54 PM
  • 10/9-10/11 Aftershock Festival @ Discovery Park, Sacramento – CANCELLED – See you in 2021!

Aftershock Cancelled

  • 11/1 Aaron Lewis and Sully Erna @ Del Mar Fairgrounds – CANCELLED – Just when I thought I was going to get some sort of live music even this got cancelled… 

Rage Against the Machine 8/18/07

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The memories I have of this show are just as much about the trip as they are the show itself as this was my first time ever visiting San Francisco. I already had a reason to visit because my sister had recently moved to the Bay Area, but once Rage Against the Machine announced they would be reuniting from a seven-year hiatus to only play this show and a handful of others the trip became a double win.

Bob drove Marvin and I from San Diego through night to avoid traffic and we eventually arrived sometime Friday morning. My sister let us into her place and we immediately crashed for several hours. Once we got up we made our way into the city proper for some shenanigans with my sister, her roommate Eve, Eve’s boyfriend Sam and Marvin’s friend Email who had joined up at my sister’s place during our “nap.”

Numerous drinks later + two more ladies + one more dude and somehow my three friends got separated from the group and were not reachable by phone. One strip club, one limo ride, one street fire alarm box pulled (I thought it was a joke) and one chance meeting with Flavor Flav and we found ourselves at a party he told us about in one of the craziest houses I have ever been in. It was a multi-level house that was set up like a club with each room being a different theme. The room where literally everything in it was white and fuzzy is the one I remember the most. Long story short the house was so big that after several more drinks I became convinced that everyone had left me there because I could not find anyone I knew. After finding out the hard way that BART shut down at midnight I ended up taking a $75 taxi back to my sister’s place and making a makeshift bed on her front porch with the boxes she had recently unpacked but not yet disposed of.

The next morning I spoke to my lost friends who had somehow made their way down by the airport and got a hotel room for the night. Once they finally made it back to my sister’s after a long hung-over BART ride they cleaned up and we were out the door again for a little pre-funking closer to where we would end up for the concert, McCovey Cove Parking Lot next to AT&T Park where the San Francisco Giants play.

Rock the Bells was originally an annual hip-hop festival only held in Southern California but had spread to other cities since the inception in 2004. The event started at noon but we essentially treated the show as a Rage Against the Machine concert with lots of hip-hop opening acts. We finally went into the show just as Wu-Tang Clan hit the stage. There were a lot of hands in the air waving from side to side, a lot of herb being smoked and like Slipknot, a lot of dudes onstage. They were entertaining but I was there to see Rage.

The only other time I had seen Rage was when I saw them at the Gorge almost exactly 10 years before this show so I was pretty excited to see them again. Since that show Rage had put out The Battle of Los Angeles and Renegades. From the first note of “Testify” to the last note of “Killing in the Name” Rage was every bit as fierce and relevant as they were when they first hit the scene. They flat out crushed it. We had a decent view of the stage because being taller than six feet is definitely advantageous in these situations. The crowd was no comparison to the Gorge show where the entire audience was pogo-ing up and down but to be fair no show is quite like a Gorge show.

SETLIST: Testify, People of the Sun, Bombtrack, Know Your Enemy, Vietnow, Bullet in the Head, Renegades of Funk, Guerrilla Radio, Calm Like A Bomb, Sleep Now in the Fire, Bulls on Parade, Wake Up, Freedom, Township Rebellion, Killing in the Name

 

Getty Images

Rage Against the Machine 9/12/97

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Two great concerts within a month at the Gorge? Yep. Rage Against the Machine in their heyday a little more than a year after Evil Empire was released. I had heard Rage Against the Machine once again through Claude. His sister turned him onto them right about the time “Freedom” was getting airplay. By now we were used to the Gorge pretty well only this time as we approached the parking lot we passed about 10 huge news crew trucks to the side of the road. The reason why is because the sheriff of Grant County thought there were going to be riots and a general trashing of the place. We had both cars parked side by side and one person stood on the bottom door sill to watch for cops while the rest of us were drinking beer. There was a greater police force roaming the aisles of the parking lot than ever before. At one point a huge military plane also flew over us, which to this day was also the only time I’ve seen any plane while at the Gorge. I remember going crazy at the front of the stage when Rage opened with “Fuck Tha Police.” The most memorable thing about this show is that the whole floor seemed to turn into a big pogo stick for pretty much the entire show. The show went on without any issue but somehow I lost the ticket stub to this concert, which is why the ticket looks photocopied from a friend (it is).

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1433585/19970915/rage_against_the_machine.jhtml

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