Lollapalooza, Day Two: They Put The 'Rage' Back Into Rage Against The Machine

Photo: Grabowski/Retna

Headliners Rage Against the Machine’s agit-rap-rock throws off more storm-the-barricades heat than a blowtorch, so it wasn’t exactly surprising that vocalist Zack de la Rocha had to stop their Friday night set a few times to quell uprisings in the crowd mashed up against the stage. “Yo, yo, we’ve got to take good care of one another tonight,” he pleaded. It appeared to work, as Rage proceeded to roar through almost every fan favorite in their playbook: “Testify,” “Bullet in the Head,” “Killing in the Name,” “Sleep Now in the Fire.” De la Rocha’s air-raid siren voice and Tom Morello’s ricocheting-ray-guns guitar carried particular urgency in “Wake Up,” after which de la Rocha put presidential hopeful Barack Obama on notice: if he grabs the brass ring, he must get the troops out of Iraq or face the consequences of an enraged populace. Their set may have had added political potency given the current presidential race, but the tens of thousands of sweat-soaked, mosh-bruised fans were as energized by the fact that these songs have held up so well in the past decade as they were by the messages behind them. And as they changed, "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me" while Rage prepped backstage for its encore, it wasn't so much anger they resonated as pure adrenaline. -- MOIRA McCORMICK