The Battle of Chicago - Part 4

There are a decent amount of videos out there right now from the Rage show Saturday, at Lollapalooza. My thoughts are many and will be put down in due time, but for now it is best to watch some of the videos that are out there if you were not at the show. If you were, you may not have been close enough to see/hear what was happening. The videos below, all shot by the same person, are the best I've seen. The Wake Up video I posted in Part 2 is also excellent.

First video here is amazingly close, and captures the Testify sirens and Zack's intro. The band explodes into Testify as the EZLN star dominates the background. Clip then cuts to Bulls on Parade. Next cut is to People of the Sun and then to Bombtrack. Tom's Know Your Enemy intro is next as the song starts up. Notice the shift at the 4:50 mark. This was right before Zack gave another speech to the crowd asking everyone to move back 5 steps. You can actually see what goes on around 5:50. Band went right into Bullet in the Head after this, and followed it up with Born of a Broken Man and Guerrila Radio. The rare Ashes in the Fall really let Tom stand out. Following this was one of my favs off BOLA, Calm Like a Bomb. The video ends here.

Video 2 is below and it starts with the end of Sleep Now in the Fire and shows Zack adding "Don't" in front of the "sleep now in the fire" closing lyrics of the song. This subtle change really captures what the song is about.

Be sure to check out the nicely timed jump at the 1:17 mark as they go into Wake Up. The speech is cut off here, so you don't hear the intro. A better listen to the speech can be found in the video in Part 2. But this does have a great video feed of the Wake Up finish. It then goes right into Freedom and the "anger is a gift" delivery. Killing in the Name is shown as Rage ends the set.

The Battle of Chicago - Part 3

The video below is Rage's 3rd song People of the Sun. At the conclusion of the last verse, Zack ends the song when he sees what is happening at the very front of the field. From the video you can see the security personnel moving to the front.

Battle of Chicago - Part 2

If you've wondered why I chose the URL I did for my space here, watch the video below. Zack delivers the line of lines at the 5:50 mark as Rage leaves before their encore.

Battle of Chicago - Part 1

August 2, 2008. Rage setlist:

sirens > Testify
Bulls on Parade
People of The Sun*
Bombtrack
Know Your Enemy
Bullet In The Head
Born of a Broken Man
Guerrilla Radio
Ashes in the Fall
Calm Like a Bomb
Sleep Now in the Fire**
Wake Up ***

Freedom
Killing in the Name
_____________________________
*Cut short to address crowd safety issues.
**Extra verse and "Don't sleep now in the fire" lyric at conclusion
***Zack makes three minute speech before conclusion

Herd Poisoning

"Assembled in a crowd, people lose their powers of reasoning and their capacity for moral choice. Their suggestibility is increased to the point where they cease to have any judgment or will of their own. They become very excitable, they lose all sense of individual or collective responsibility, they are subject to sudden accesses of rage, enthusiasm and panic. In a word, a man in a crowd behaves as though he had swallowed a large dose of some powerful intoxicant. He is a victim of what I have called "herd poisoning." Like alcohol, herd-poison is an active, extraverted drug. The crowd-intoxicated individual escapes from responsibility, intelligence and morality into a kind of frantic, animal mindlessness." ~ Aldous Huxley

Lollapalooza is here.