Rage Against the Machine

No, I am not reviewing the show. I am writing a few words on the hysteria leading up to and surrounding the actual “concert.” It would appear that the typical Utah resident has a memory lasting about as long as the life of a fruit fly. You people don’t remember the Nine Inch Nails/Marilyn Manson fiasco? How many CDs did Marilyn Manson sell after they were banned from the Delta Center? How many CDs will Rage Against the Machine sell after the media descended on the idiots praying for an act of God to cancel the concert? Time after time, you self-righteous moralists promote the very thing you hate. How thick are your skulls? Duh! While we’re at it, fools, this is not the first time Rage Against the Machine has played in a “small” Utah town. Does Lollapolloza in Ogden create any light in your dim brains? 

This concert ranks the most bizarre I’ve ever attended in my life, and believe me, I’ve seen a few of them. Police cars lining the freeway, cars on fire, wrecks, drunk drivers, more police, a line stretching more than two city blocks an hour after the concert started because of insane fear. Fear of what? A multi-racial rap band? They gave up on searching body cavities by the time they arrived at the front. I missed the entire Girls Against Boys and Stanford Prison Experiment performances waiting in line. Those attending the concert weren’t much more cognizant of the real world than those attempting to stop it. In my section of the line, no one had seemed to have heard of either opening band. “Girls Against Boys? What is that, an all chick band?” Could you idiots please turn that god damned radio off for a few minutes? Jesus Christ. 

I finally got in and stood around listening to rap before the headliners finally began. One song and that was enough. Me and Jerry Joseph decided that it was time to head back to the VIP area behind the stage where the seating was comfortable and the view was astonishing. After climbing numerous cattle guards and finally convincing the guards that we were not drug-addled hippies bent on murder, rape or suicide, the two of us arrived in the area set aside for the “special.” It was the most amazing sight Spanish Fork has ever witnessed. Eight thousand people moshing as one with very few violent incidents breaking out. There were a few and there were some injuries, but not many, it was actually quite a safe night. The highlight was when Rage did “Fuck The Police.” At the time, I was surrounded by police, some of them members of the gang force. Nothing like “Fuck The Police” to get rid of the police. They disappeared immediately. I think it had something to do with Zack de la Rocha reverting to 60s slang and calling them pigs. How about getting into it a bit? The police were informed that Rage Against the Machine would perform the song. The police response was; if the song was performed they would leave, thus de la Rocha would be on stage without any protection besides hired thugs. Rage Against the Machine did not perform the song until near the end of the concert. If the readers don’t get it, I refuse to explain further except to say that a band with political beliefs is making a huge stack of cash off the capitalist system. Call it sell out or call it fucking with “the man.” You all wish you had their bank accounts. 

Like the kid said in the Salt Lake Tribune story, they came and they left just as quickly. If the “moral police” hadn’t made such an issue of the affair everyone would have had a better time and Rage Against the Machine wouldn’t have sold as many CDs. I’m guessing that the Soundscan numbers are jumping into the stratosphere for Rage in Utah at present. Human beings are designed with a brain. Young minds, believe it or not, are capable of functioning on their own without brainwashing attempts (is X-96 reading?). Unless the young are locked in a dark closet without any outside stimulation they will each take in the world around them and interpret it in their own unique manner. Guidance and instruction are beneficial, censorship is not. Do you understand yet? How many times does Utah need to place itself on the map of stupidity before the members of the dominant religion finally come to believe their own teachings? Free agency anyone? God damned stupid fucking idiots. “My mother lives a half a block from the Fairgrounds and we are sending family members over there to protect her.” From what? Missionaries? —SLUG Mag

Read more from the SLUG Archives:
The Mermen
Warped Tour ’96

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