Rage in Baltimore, Dec. 2nd

Seeing Rage in concert a dozen times now I have something to say for those who have not had the chance to see them live...You must at any given chance see them.� They are exceptional performers.� I have never walked away from a Rage show disappointed.� Their show is second to none.� Here is my take on the Battle of Baltimore.

The lights go out...The crowd begins to roar...Rage takes the stage...The roars increase a few more decibles...and then..."Good evening, we're Rage Against the Machine from Los Angeles California".

Immediately they roll into Testify.� The first time Zack yells in Testify, the black tarp covering the stage backdrop fell to unleash a massive Battle of Baltimore back drop - Very nice!� They were all business on this night my friends.� Very minimal speaking to the crowd, who was not all that intense compared to most other Rage shows I have been� to.� During Freedom when Zack says, "Freedom...yeah right.", the yeah right was replaced with "For Mumia".� Ghost of Tom Joad was much shorter.� I believe they cut out the entire middle verse.� Definitely the highpoint, for which the crowd went apeshit was the encore: bulls.../freedom/killing...� Bulls on Parade started with a new nice little intro.� Born of a Broken Man and Know Your Enemy were my favorites of the night.� The setlist was pretty awesome.� I would have liked to hear another old song, something they rarely play live anymore like Take the Power Back, Wake Up, or even Revolver.� But I can not complain.�

Now for the important stuff, the setlist:
1.Testify
2. Guerilla Radio
3. People of the SUn
4. Calm Like a Bomb
5. Bullet in the Head
6. Ghost of Tom Joad
7. Vietnow
8. Sleep Now in the Fire
9. Born of a Broken Man
10. Know Your Enemy
11. No Shelter
12. War Within a Breath
encore:
13. Bulls on Parade
14. Freedom-->
15. Killing in the Name

Rage was awesome, but I can not say the same for the openers.� At the Drive In...horrible.� At times the singer reminded me of a schizo Perry Farrel with his deliverence but you could not make out a word he was saying.� Gang Starr tried really hard to get the crowd going but gave a rather lackluster performance.� They gave shout outs/respect/props for about the last half hour of their set.� And really, how many more times do we have to hear a DJ do the somebody say hooo...now scream bit!� Played out.� Hip hop is great, but not all groups are able to pull it off live.� Beastie Boys, the Roots, Wyclef + Fugees, and even Everlast are a few that have success, largely in part because they are backed by and play live instruments.� Some other hip hop groups are good performers too, but Gang Starr's performance was average at best

Scorecard:
Rage Against the Machine (A)
Gang Starr (C-)
At the Drive Inn (F)

Peace,
Damo-
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