Billie, Halsey, Khalid and..Rage Against the Machine?

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Billie, Halsey, Khalid, and....Rage? 

​Some of the biggest names in today’s pop music headline Firefly Festival along with the Rock/Metal/Funk/Hip-Hop band Rage Against the Machine who haven’t released new music since 2000. I’m sure there are plenty of festival goers this year attending Coachella and Firefly alike that are wondering why debatably the heaviest band to ever play the Woodlands is topping the bill. 

Tom Morello, Zack De La Rocha, Tim Commerford, and Brad Wilk make up possibly the most politically charged band of all time. While the band was formed in 1991, the subjects of their triple platinum debut album are more in discussion today than ever. 

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Now You Do What They Told Ya! 

The single, “Killing in the Name”, is a protest against police brutality stating, “Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses” and of course, “Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!”. The crowd will surely be divided from your average festival goer and the diehard Rage fans when this pit opens. Anyway, all of Rage’s songs serve as an opposition to right winged politics and the “system” in general. When touring for their second album, Evil Empire, several of their shows were stopped over criticism of pro violence and being anti-law enforcement. ​

While these may not be the band’s intentions, they certainly had a way of disturbing the peace. During their musical performance on SNL in 1996 their set was cut from 2 songs to just 1 after inverting American flags over their amps in protest the guest host Steve Forbes. During their video shoot for “Sleep Now in Fire”, they were filming in front of Federal Hall in Manhattan when director Michael Moore was arrested. They had been shooting in a restricted area and had drawn a crowd. During his arrest, Moore said to cause chaos in the stock exchange. Which actually happened, causing a shutdown of capitalism for the day. The band also famously caused a riot at the Democratic convention the same year. (See the whole thing below) 

The Legacy

All politics and controversy aside, Rage Against the Machine had an incredible musical run from 1991 until their break-up in 2000. In total, they have released three full length albums along with an album of cover songs. The band won best a grammy for best rock song in 1999 for their song “Guerilla Radio”. They were also featured in numerous video games including: Madden, Tony Hawk: Pro Skater, and Guitar Hero.  Who could forget “Bulls on Parade” in Guitar Hero 3? You could also play as Tom Morello, who is of course, a legendary guitarist known for his use of scratching, distortion, and feedback. ​

 In 2000 vocalist Zack left the band, his perspective was that the band could not agree on the next step moving forward. After his departure the remaining three members joined Chris Cornell in forming the band Audioslave. Rage would not play another show until 2007, which was Coachella, their reasoning was to stand-up to “the right wing purgatory”. 

2020 RAGE is Back

In 2020 the group has felt it is their time to return, again with a headlining Coachella performance. Soon after that announcement,  the “Public Service Announcement Tour '' dates were released online with a tour poster designed by Viril Abloh. The 40 date North American tour with support from Run the Jewels starts this summer. This time around Rage has begun their protest against ticket scalpers. Tom Morello has tweeted that their strategy of creating “official charity tickets' 'has stopped 85% of scalpers since tickets for the tour went on sale in February.  

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So far we stopped approx 85% of the scalping market but I agree that ANY scalping is horrible and we will continue to combat it. https://t.co/OZ6KrP7pxw

— Tom Morello (@tmorello) February 14, 2020

First State Studios Top 3 Songs We Hope To See Performed At Firefly
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1. Bombtrack 
First track off the first album, would be a perfect set opener

2. Guerrilla War
"Transmission, Third World War, round three." 

3. Killing in the Name of....
Firefly will never be the same after this is performed. 

Watch Rage Against the Machine Cause  A Riot at the 2000 Democratic Convention