After successfully upending last years X Factor effort to become Christmas number one with their 1992 song 'Killing In The Name' Rage Against The Machine promised a free outdoor show in London in the Summer to celebrate and yesterday's 'Rage Factor' event at Finsbury Park in London was the result.
The tickets were assigned by lottery. Well it was more refreshing the SeeTickets website for about 3 hours if I recall correctly, but I managed to secure a pair and Andrew and I traveled on down.
After the support bill was revealed to be less than stellar, we opted to go and get some food first and finally arrived as opening band Gallows were finishing up. Second act Roots Manuva was also largely missed what with shirt buying and that.
We found a nice spot however for 'gypsy punks' Gogol Bordello who were an absolute riot. Always good to see an accordion player in a band! They had the entire place jumping and dancing like idiots which can only be a good thing.
A short time passed after Gogol, and you could just feel the crowd heaving...a sign of things to come! Just after 9pm, after a hilarious animated Simon Cowell parody, Rage Against The Machine hit the stage and the entire park came unglued. I've been to a lot of gigs in the past but can't remember anything as crazy as that!
Before they came on I was very much in the mindset that I was just going to step back and be an observer, not wanting to get caught up in all the jumping around and pits and all that but the moment Rage hit the stage and launched into 'Testify' it was like a switch had been flipped - I just totally went for it, losing Andrew almost immediately! And carried on for the entirety of their 80 minute set.
I had been told by a friend beforehand that they were an amazing live act and they weren't wrong - the setlist for the night was superb starting with the opening tracks from their first 3 albums and carrying on into a 'best of' set and even included a cover of The Clash's 'White Riot'.
Halfway through the show frontman Zach De La Rocha introduced the couple that made it all possible - the campaign organizers Jon and Tracey Morter to a huge response and presented them with a cheque which was the combined total of the amount made from the downloads of the single and the separate amount donated to SHELTER by people when downloading. I couldn't see the amount on the cheque but I know the latter amount was £70,000 at Christmas time last year and the single shifted over 500,000 copies so you do the math!
Continuing after that (they also played my favorite Rage song 'Sleep Now In The Fire') it all started to build to the inevitable final song of the evening.
After a brief break, a video played mentioning all the quotes in the media about how unlikely it was that Rage would secure the number one, hilariously with Joe McElderry's (the kid who won X Factor if anyone has forgotten already) 'The Climb' - which, quite pathetically is a Miley Cyrus cover (!) , which swiftly was cut off by the final sales tallies and Rage launching into a victorious 'Killing In The Name' to end the night. And this caused even me to get involved in a circle pit...and I never do them!
The show was great, as was quite unexpectedly the atmosphere (for a free gig I thought the place would be teeming with douchebags and bandwagon jumpers who only knew 'Killing In The Name') but everyone seemed to be on the same page, having a laugh with and looking out for each other - in fact I saw a guy pass out and a complete stranger carry him out of the crowd!
It's a shame I cannot extend the same praise for the organization of the show. I've been to a few outdoor shows in London on a Sunday now and have never experienced such a shambles in trying to get home. After leaving the park itself thousands of people took to the roads walking to the tube station, and at one point a couple of people climbed on top of a moving bus as it drove off!
Getting to a tunnel just near the tube station hundreds of us were stopped by police on horseback for about quarter of an hour then let past where we were stopped again by more police at the other side and then we were eventually allowed to move towards the tube station where by some complete fluke we just got on the final tube night heading through Bourne where we needed to change.
I have never been on a tube so packed in my life. There was no room to move, people were being crushed and people were still trying to get on at the stops it made (this caused people on the train to start physically preventing people from getting on!) We finally got to Bourne and arrived at the next platform with a minute to spare for the next train (which was also the last of the evening) to take us to Stratford.
We got to Stratford at quarter past midnight, almost 2 hours after Rage had left the stage.
But looking past the terrible organization it was a great day and has raised a bit of a quandary for me. I was going to see Michael Monroe on the third stage at Download on Saturday...but Rage are headlining the main stage at the same time. I think I may have to see them again!
And if you get a chance this weekend or in the future - you must see them. As good as their albums are even they don't represent what a amazing live band they are ...and jumping around like a crazy person at a Rage gig is something for everyone's 'Bucket List'
Rage Against The Machine destroyed Finsbury Park with...
- Testify
- Bombtrack
- People Of The Sun
- Know Your Enemy
- Bulls On Parade
- Township Rebellion
- Bullet In The Head
- White Riot
- Guerrilla Radio
- Sleep Now In The Fire
- Freedom
- Killing In The Name
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