Sacto. Review
Arco arena 11-20-99

The night started with the line, long line of cars outside of the Arco arena. The time was 5:00p.m...Early birds?

No, just some anxious RATM fans. We parked the ride,�all 9 of us jump out the van, (well 8 and a half - lil Chris, my bro's son, is 9 years old) On go the Zapatista ski masks and......We walk up to the entrance line.

The wait to go in begins, some guard starts anouncing "only 8000 wrist bands will be given out and if you get one you can either stand on the floor or sit in the lower seat level.

We walk in get our wrist bands and make our way to the floor, We take a seat at the edge of the floor and watch as the arena fills slowly but surely.

Dialated peoples opens up to a not so intrested audiance, Gangstar is up next, so now we make our way on to the floor, Good performance by Gangstar but the crowd is still making there way in and again just not to receptive to true old school hip-hop.

Gangstar is done and the lights come on, the stage is being set, The energy in the arena picks up, more crowd surfers, more chicks flashing their breasts, less room on the floor and the arena is looking full.

Then a big roar from the crowd. No it's not show time - it's about 80 heads rushing one of the lower level stair entrances.

They ran over the guard, it was the running of the bulls, Spanish style. The guy in the front was leading the way with a trash can over his head, Stanley cup style, it was an awesome sight, the crowd on the floor was waving and cheering them on.

More fans got the courage and started doing the same, some even hung from the upper level and jumped down, that was crazy!

Then the lights went out, it's on. The stage had red lights on it, Zack appears followed by Tom, YtimK and Brad, the crowd is loud as hell. Everyone is set, Zack steps to the mic....

..."Good evening were RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE from Los Angeles California"......Tom kicks in to Testify, When Zack gives you the "UHH", the black curtain behind the stage covering the new album cover DROPS! - but insted of reading "The Battle of Los Angeles" it reads........"The Battle of Sacramento". The crowd just loved that, it got even louder and crazier in there.

After the second song, "Guerrilla Radio", Zack broke it down to the crowd about "Guys touching women improperly, and showing them the fucking door!"

The entire show was electrifying, and it was nice to see RATM play "Darkness", when the encore hit.�The energy reached critical mass! Bulls, Freedom dedicated to Mumia and Leonard Peltier by Zack and then "Killing in the name".

Words can not alone explaine how powerfull RATMs music really is, you have to "FEEL IT" to believe it! - NO - not only hear it or see the shows...BUT FEEL THEM!

It was all well worth the drive up from Los Angeles to see "The GREATEST BAND IN THE FUCKING UNIVERSE! From the"BIGGEST RATM FAN" in the San Fernando Valley, of California...........Jose Contreras