August 10, 1996
Varsity acoustics don't defeat Rage Against The Machine

It was more of a rage against the venue than against any machine.

L.A.'s favorite musical radicals, Rage Against The Machine, fought a winning war against an oppressively cavernous Varsity Arena last night.

With a sold-out crowd of 4,800 on their side, the four-piece band overthrew the arena's horrid acoustics.

More importantly, they outdid their own current album, Evil Empire, in terms of energy and power.

The fact that Rage Against The Machine's well-meaning but often preachy political agenda was lost in the fray didn't hurt.

Frontman and sloganeer Zack De La Rocha's lyrics were the only victim of Varsity, which is notorious for reducing even the best of bands -- like last night's opening act, The Jesus Lizard -- to the sonic equivalent of rubble.

Storming through songs like Vietnow, Tire Me, and Bulls On Parade, Rage struck up a rock-solid but bizarre squall. It was too unique to be anything but great.

Guitarist Tom Morello's trademark style, which mixes dissonant noise with percussive scratching akin to hip-hop sounds, was more a basis for the rhythm section than for melody.

De La Rocha's high pitched bark also punctuated the rhythms. The only variation came when he worked himself in to one of his excellent, and appropriately enraged, screams.

It was bassist Tim Bob who slipped in the hooks.

The combination worked surprisingly well.

It also settled the argument as to whether it was Rage's musical edge or their political adgenda that first won them attention when they released their self-titled debut three years ago.

Politically, Rage follows in a long tradition of righteous -- if not a little naive and jingoistic -- leftist bands.

Woddy Guthrie, Bob Dylan, The MC5, Gang Of Four and Public Enemy have already been there, done that.

More's the reason Rage kept the stage show in good taste.

They bounced up and down in unison. Stark backlighting created silhouettes in the arena's soupy air.

They'd make great propagandists, to be sure. But Rage kept the onstage props down to an upside-down stars and stripes -- the symbol for distress -- and a few silk-screens of Che Guevara, which seemed to be there for the band's inspiration, not ours.

All in all, Rage Against The Machine just played really well.

That's not bourgeois, is it, brothers and sisters?

Sun Rating: 4 out of 5