Effin RAGE

First of all: what's up with every post on here being from Jon? Just kidding.

Second of all: Holy Shit! I saw RAGE! For FREE! My buddy Kyle got me into the show because he was tabling (sitting at a table and handing out info) for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers an awesome group of agricultural workers in southern Florida that have been kicking fast food ass to see some improvement in their disgustingly underpaid jobs. Check it out for real.

The show was at Alpine Valley in East Troy, Wisconsin, unfortunately, so we had to drive up there and take some weird detour on a bunch of two lane roads (pretty much par for the course with that place) to get there at 3pm. Then we spent another two or three hours just sorta waiting around. We were set up in the big barn-like shelter where the Alpine Valley offices and snack/beer vendors are located, which is way on top of the hill that overlooks the stage itself (the whole thing is hilariously huge, in case you've never been there...) Finally we heard a mighty bassline ringing out in the middle of the Wisconsin countryside, and rushing out to the rail to get a look at the stage, we watched RAGE soundcheck.

In some ways this was probably the best part of the whole day. Even though they didn't play the (extensive, seemed to me) soundcheck with quite the same vigor that they put into the show (which was a lot of vigor) they still sounded amazing. Rage has never been a band that i've thought of as great songwriters... their songs are basically a groove, some awesome riffs, awesome lyrics, and some crazy-mazing guitar solos. Only a few of their songs are actually trying to fit into a standard sort of three minute pop framework, like Bulls on Parade which is admittedly great. What Rage does, in my opinion, is more like James Brown on his live albums (particularly Revolution of the Mind: Live at the Apollo Vol.3 people should really check that one out.) What makes those albums great is listening to a world class funk band rip it up with plenty of room to stretch out. It's really different from most of the music that's popular these days which is more focused on songwriting, whether it's pop hooks or detail oriented indie rock.

So that's why Rage is awesome, because you get to listen to four great musicians (and seeing them live really confirmed for me how good they are, particularly Tom Morello who does all that crazy shit live) playing together. And they really do sound like they're playing together, no one really tries to elbow their way to the front. I should also say that i think Rage has great lyrics as well, which are remarkably clear and meaningful compared to a lot of punk and even hip hop.

On the other hand, the part that wasn't so great was the crowd. I thought a Rage show might attract a slightly more progressive crowd, and i suppose it was more progressive than the crowd at, say, a Slayer show, but we talked to plenty of people whose number one concern was getting "illegal aliens" out of the country, and had someone magically turned off the volume at the show you might have mistaken it for some kind of white power rally, row after row of short haired angry white dudes shaking their fists in the air.

(I don't want to be unfair: i talked to a lot of really cool people while tabling, and there was definitely a sizable contingent of Latino fans at the show. I think the crowd might have been a little less overwhelming had the show been closer to a big city.)

Oh yeah, Tom Morello's mom (who is really old) introduced Rage as "the greatest fucking band in the universe." Sweet.