¡viva los rage!

i spent the debates properly:

watching these guys:

prophets of rage in SA!

it was there first and probably only tour, but i have a long history with the band. how is that possible? well, the music is provided by the three members or rage against the machine that AREN’T zach de la rocha, which i saw for the first time in 1993 at the backroom with only twenty-five people in the room (most of the crowd was at the bar in the other room booze-fueling for the headliner, house of pain – i was also the only person on the band’s guest list at that show) and saw them again in 1996 at sunken gardens in san antonio, back in austin at southpark meadows in 1997, and finally back in s.a. at the alamodome at the end of 1999.

vocals were provided by chuck d of public enemy (who i first saw also at the backroom, this time during a break from their tour with u2 back in 1992, where they famously blocked in my car with their tour bus so i ended up having to hang out on said bus to wait for the driver to come back from getting food to move it) and again at sxsw in 2007 at their free show on auditorium shores. neither chuck nor flav looked like they’re really aged.

the other vocals were provided by b-real of cypress hill, who i saw for the first time, met, and subsequently rescued (long story) at lollapalooza 1995 and saw (and ran into) again in 1996 up in dallas for the smoking grooves tour. i swear i saw ’em again in austin at some point since, but i can’t be 100% certain.

i was coerced into finally pulling the trigger on tickets because they did some promotional pricing that dropped arena seats from $50 (plus service charges) to $9.95 (plus service charges) – but they didn’t advertise it as well as they shoulda, and they waited almost too late.

i still don’t know how i feel about the show. it was good, but probably the poorest attended one i’ve seen at that venue. parking sucked (surprisingly, given the poor attendance) and b’s vocals were buried in the mix, but overall the energy was surprisingly good and it was cool to hear a lot of old rage songs albeit with different vocal inflections. the biggest bummer of the night was them not having the shirt i wanted in xxl, but that ended up being a blessing in disguise because it’s a low money week so every little bit helps right now!

(i’m really getting sick of these – if they continue through the end of the year a job change might need to be in order)