I can almost hear the Zack De La Rocha cover of Taylor Swift, sung to his former Rage Against the Machine bandmates: “We are never, ever, getting back together!”
To which Tom Morello and the drummer, like any self-respecting Swift castaway, simply shrugged their shoulders, collected their belongings, and moved on.
Because that’s what we’re at a Prophets of Rage gig to hear: the greatest hardcore songs ever written, with Tom’s blistering guitar track that no one else can ever truly replicate. And that’s what POR gives us.
Yet that is not all the supergroup has to offer. The setlist was a trail mix of Public Enemy, Cypress Hill, RATM, and half a dozen original tracks the group has recorded together. While the RATM songs are without a doubt the most exciting, a break in the angry politics with joyous demands to “Jump Around” does not go amiss. It’s an incredibly satisfying evening that isn’t drenched in 90s nostalgia; it simply presents what are now proven to be timeless tracks of rage. Few guessed that rap-metal would age so well.
B-Real and Chuck-D share the responsibility of De La Rocha’s vocals. They don’t sound like Zack, so don’t expect them to. But they each bring their own spin to the verbose lines. Anthemic lyrics like “The Nina! The Pinta! The Santa Maria!” are given more than enough heft with the audience screaming them along.
Tom Morello is at the very top of his game. The social media butterfly hasn’t lost any of his edge and has gained an even greater ease on his instrument. Undergarments on both genders tend to evaporate on the intro to “Bulls on Parade.”
If you were too young or too late to ever see Rage Against the Machine, Prophets of Rage will give you almost everything you missed. Don’t miss seeing this act while they are still going. There’s nothing in music like it.
Setlist #
- DJ Lord Intro
- Prophets of Rage (Public Enemy cover)
- Testify (Rage Against the Machine cover)
- Take the Power Back (Rage Against the Machine cover)
- Guerrilla Radio (Rage Against the Machine cover)
- Unfuck The World
- Bombtrack (Rage Against the Machine cover)
- People of the Sun (Rage Against the Machine cover)
- Fight the Power (Public Enemy cover)
- Harder Than You Think / Dr. Greenthumb / Can’t Truss It / Insane in the Brain / Bring the Noise / I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That / Welcome to the Terrordome / Jump Around
- Sleep Now in the Fire (Rage Against the Machine cover) (with Cochise snippet)
- Like a Stone (Audioslave cover) (Instrumental)
- Know Your Enemy (Rage Against the Machine cover)
- The Party’s Over
- Bullet in the Head (Rage Against the Machine cover)
- How I Could Just Kill a Man (Cypress Hill cover)
- Bulls on Parade (Rage Against the Machine cover)
- Killing in the Name (Rage Against the Machine cover)
London, England