Rage Against the Machine & Run The Jewels Keep It Vital At Madison Square Garden (SHOW REVIEW)

Friday, August 12th was the fourth of five sold-out nights of the Public Service Announcement reunion tour featuring Rage Against the Machine and Run The Jewels at Madison Square Garden. Originally scheduled for 2020, fans had to wait an extra two years for the energetic event to kick off. 

Opening the show to a slowly filing-in crowd, Run The Jewels played a forty-five-minute set spanning their four albums with a huge fist and pistol hanging over the stage. The deep bass blasts of “Legend Has It” started it off as El-P and Killer Mike rhymed in sync with Trackstar The DJ mixing behind them. The sirens rang out during “Yankee and the Brave (ep. 4)” while “Ooh La La” was a set highlight around the crisp DJ Premier beat. The horror movie sounds rattled around “Blockbuster Night Part 1” before the group lived the dream of playing MSG with their tune “Call Ticketron”. The opening act ended strong with a heavy version of “Walking In The Snow” and “A Few Words For The Firing Squad (Radiation)” which featured a live sax solo to close. 

Arriving with a minimalist stage setup Rage Against the Machine kicked into “Bombtrack” with ferocity as the statement “Fear Is Your Only God” was shown on backing video screens. The four-piece were tight as the crowd and band energy was primed from the beginning. Zack de la Rocha tore his Achilles earlier in the reunion tour, yet he was unable to sit still and seemed more bummed about not being able to jump around than the crowd who were in the pit. 

“People of the Sun” was righteous while the headbanging commenced for the wah-wah drenched “Bulls on Parade”. A police van burned on the monitors behind the stage as the groove metal “Testify” slammed home before “Take The Power Back” played like a love child conceived in a threesome of Public Enemy, Anthrax, and Parliament Funkadelic.  

Zach mentioned the band was just getting started as they fired up “Guerilla Radio” while Tom Morello’s DJ like scratching colored “Fistfull Full of Steel” – the first time the 1992 song from their self-titled debut was played in 25 years. “Sleep Now In The Fire” featured a drum solo from Tim Commerford while the chugging metal and exhaling spoken word pushed along “Born of a Broken Man”. 

Morello broke out a double-necked guitar for the band’s terrific cover of “Ghost of Tom Joad” which dripped directly into “Freedom” with inspired riffage. The band wrote on their video screens about the history of this country and a sold-out MSG back in 1939 for a Nazi rally, declaring White Supremacy the real terrorist threat to this country while delivering the closing one-two punch of “Township Rebellion” and “Killing In the Name Of”.  

Now, even more than when they started, Rage Against the Machine remains a vital band who delivered a dynamite outing Friday night at the Garden. Hopefully, the quartet remain together long after this tour and continue to perform these tunes for future audiences to enjoy. 

Rage Against the Machine Setlist Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, USA 2022, "Public Service Announcement"
 

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