"The Battle of San Diego", Dec. 18th, 1999

well, considering that i saw rage over a month ago.. this review isn't going to have the fine details of the night, but here it goes.. i have no idea what went on with the ticketing at the other rage shows, but at ours no one knew what was going on with floor tickets because (in my case and many others) i ordered floor seats and then i got tickets with seat numbers in the mail.� there were zillions of different theories that people heard before the show, but when we got there (i got there 4 hours early and waited alomst in the front of the line), no one had a clue either. after sitting around for forever in the cold (i was wearing my home made rage shirt which was a skimpy red tank top with ANGER IS A GIFT written on it with black marker), some guy came over with a bullhorn and started saying that there was to be no moshing or crowd surfing (which was a laugh and a half), to which the entire line of people started yelling "fuck you, i won't do what you tell me!".. it was cool.. so then the guy announces that they are going to let us in, and that people with floor access tickets had to go to a special table to get a wristband.� by this time i was completely freaking out because i did not just fucking wait in line for 4 hours to not be on the fucking floor (besides the fact that i was having a bad day considering my grandma died that morning).. so they started letting people into the outside area around the arena, but they hadn't opened the doors to the actual arena yet.. so i walked over to the wristbanmd table hoping to figure out what the hell was going on, and some guy showed me his ticket, which said GENERAL ADMISSION on it.. so i walked back to my friends in a very bad mood.. but just then the kick ass guy i was talking to in line about the whole ticket thingey came up to me and told me that the people distributing wristbands had no idea what they were doing, and they had given him one even though his ticket was for a seat.. so i ran back, got a wristband, and ran back to the front of the door just as it opened.. i ran down the really steep cement stairs as fast as i could (which was scary.. it would have hurt like a mother to fall) and i was the 3rd person on the floor, so i ran up to the barrier and centered myself in front of the stage.. that is where i stayed for the rest of the concert....

so now finally, the concert... for some reason unkown to me, Anti-Flag wasn't able to play at out concert, so Gang Starr came out at 8:30 (the concert was supposed to start at 7:30).. they came out, and they were kinda having a hard time warming up the crowd (i was in the front row and i wasn't even being smashed) until they started yelling something "i say fuck the.. you say police!" and stuff like that and then the crowd went psycho.. i was just rocking out.. minding my own business when i noticed that one of the members of Gang Starr (at my concert he was carrying a big sledgehammer) kept on looking at me (more will happened with this later).. i was a tadd bit confused by this, but as far as i could see, i was he only girl in the front row.. so i have no idea why i got to be special.. so i just smiled back at him and continued to rock out... then they were throwing posters to everyone in the crowd.. and all of the sudden the guy next to me tapped me on the shoulder because one of the members was trying to get my attention!!! so i looked in his direction, and he personally handed me a poster (they were randomly chucking the rest of them).. once again, i have no idea why i got to be special... so then Gang Starr's set ended, and the intermission began.. it was pretty damn boring except that the sledgehammer from Gang Starr came down to the ara between the stage and the barriers and was giving high 5's to everyone... so then he came to me, and he winked at me!!!! i was more than shocked, so i kinda smiled and said hello to him.. we talked for a couple of seconds, but then he had to go on.. but i consider myself quite special to have been hit on by someone in Gang Starr! GO ME! the rest of the intermission was dumb.. there were these stupid chicks up in the seats who thought they were at a limp bizkit concert and decided it would be a good idea to flash their non-existent tits.. it was idiotic... so then.. the lights went out.... (YAY!!) and the crowd went completely crazy... then all of our favorite boys came out on stage and broke into TESTIFY...the big black thing hanging up behind brad fell and there was a giant BATTLE OF SAN DIEGO sign.. i cannot even believe how fucking close i was.. i mean like 5 feet or something.. it was fucking amazing.. zack was going crazy (as usual), tom was jumping everywhere, and tim and brad were rocking out.. i have never seen anyone (ang i have seen soooooo many bands) have as much stage energy and presence.. zack is so intense it's not even funny.. i was so close i could see the fire in his eyes and he just fucking rocked! (sorry i can't really describe this very well.. i asically remeber the emotions i was feeling and the music more than every little move they made up on the stage).. after they finished TESTIFY they went into GUERILLA RADIO.. of course, the entire place went crazy, and they had a great performance.. the best part was the "it has to start somewhere....." part because everyone was screaming along.. and it was beautiful...then then everyone sang the "all hell can't stop us now!" part, and it was the coolest thing in the world because it felt like nothing could stop us, and we were all united together by our love for rage and each other.. it was the coolest thing that i have ever witnessed (there wasn't even an energy like that at the Tibetan Freedom concert in Amsterdam!).. it rocked!!! after that.. i lost track of the song order (i wrote it down when i got home).. but i'm going to just list the songs and put any specific things about them underneath...

Calm like a Bomb
Sleep Now in the Fire
Born of a Broken Man
~ this is my absolute favorite Rage song.. and it was one of my favorite parts of the concert.. zack took a mike stand and went in front of the drum set facing sideways.. he sang the verses kind of leaning on the stand and rocking.. he looked so beautiful and intense.. it was amazing..
War Within a Breath
People of the Sun
Bulls on Parade
Vietnow
Roll Right
~ they kinda blended Roll Right into the music that they were playing during Zack's speech.. in which he said "there are some people that say that Rage Against the Machine supports cop killers... let it be know that we do not support any kind of killer, ESPECIALLY KILLER COPS!!!!".. of course, the crowd went insane... this is what they ended the concert with
Bullet in the Head
Killing in the Name
~ of course.. there was another one of those beautiful moments (like guerilla radio) when everyone did the "fuck you i won't do what you tell me" part...
Know Your Enemy
Freedom
~ this was probably the craziest song of the concert.. i thought i was going to be fucking smashed to death against the barrier.. the band was rocking out and it was cool...
No Shelter
The Ghost of Tom Joad
~ this was another one of the songs that they played that was just fucking beautiful.. they extended the end of the song to the background music for Zack's speech (see above)

misc. stuff that happened during the concert:
Seth Green (scott evil from austin powers) and brekin meyer (travis from clueless) were there.. and seth crowd surfed through like 5 times.. i said hello to him and he said hi to me.. it was cool
I swear on everything i own that Brad threw a drumstick right at me.. i mean, i saw it going right for me, and i was kinda scared but in too much pain from being smashed to react.. i have no idea what happened to the drumstick.. but brad threw it at me...
that's about it for my wonderful concert experience.. it was fucking beautiful...