I suppose it's a bit unclear what we were to expect from the reunion of Rage Against the Machine for the 2007 Coachella festival in Indio, CA. Sure, they would probably be loud and raucous and political. But Rage are primarily a band borne of early-to-mid-nineties anxieties about race, equality, feminism, and globalization. For some reason, their iconography--Free Mumia, Che Guevara, Malcolm X--seems quaint now that the world really is much flatter and Ralph Nader has fallen from top-ten to not mentioned at all (did I take him seriously because I was eighteen, or was 2000 really that much more idyllic and naive than 2007?). So the question isn't really even "Do we need Rage now more than ever?" so much as "Should we feel sad that we don't need Rage?" or even "Should Rage feel sad?" and "If not now, then when?"
Witness this Reuters Canada report of the band's onstage conduct:
The front man addressed the crowd only once between songs, when he likened the current U.S. administration to Nazi war criminals. "They should be shot as any war criminal should be," he said.
Not exactly incendiary, and judging by the only audiovisiuals from their set currently available to me (cell-phone cams, YouTube), RATM look a little worse for wear, despite the fact that the Empire is probably more Evil now than it was when they broke up seven years ago. It could just be the technological limitations of the recording devices, but Tom Morello looks a little like he's standing still, and Zach de la Rocha sounds a little like he's trying to rap along to his own lyrics. After a couple minutes' thought, it seems it would've been hard to experience anything at this reunion other than pitying sadness and nauseated nostalgia.
[...]
Fucking 9/11.
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