News: Rage Against the Machine to rage against the RNC and DNC

[We've once again rousted our Editor from his Black Postcards reading to reminisce once more about a concert and to covertly deliver you the news. He's none the wiser]

Growing up in Indiana, there was nothing to do but listen to vapid 'alternative' radio and drive to Deer Creek (now another outdoor music venue absorbed into Verizon) and see a show to kill the time. It just so happened that to kick off my Senior year of high school, a few of us (mainly a group of pretty girls and a boy--and then three of us not so pretty) went to check out the hub-bub of the Rage Against the Machine/Wu-Tang Clan double bill. It was a night when Method Man would be arrested for causing a riot, but I remember his missive to the lawn to ambush the seated patrons and enjoy the show as the time I hit on one of the pretty girls and enjoyed a nearly-empty lawn as everyone bumrushed Wu-Tang and overwhelmed the yokel security Deer Creek employed. Other than the tragic death of a young female who was trampled (which no one knew of until the next afternoon), it was a great show.

Not great in terms of musical prowess. By then, Wu-Tang was already devouring itself and RATM was more about broad political statements than musical proficiency but for an Indiana youth that knows no better beyond the stack of books he pretended to read, it was a glorious night.

So it comes as no surprise that the newly-minted, reunited Rage Agains the Machine would dare to shed their Chris Cornell glamour stentch by sticking it to the men, no matter their color, creed, or unilateral political stance. RATM, fresh off anouncing a gig in Minneapolis to coincide with the Republic National Convention, have delivered news that they will be playing for free (if you enter a lottery and nab a ticket) as part of the Tent State Music Festival to End the War in Denver during the Democratic National Convention. If you were planning to head to Denver to hear Obama give a rousing speech in an 80,000 fans in rock star fashion, then perhaps you can head over and hear RATM and pretend that it's 1968 and MC5 are tearing up the crowd as Chicago's finest (replaced by Denver's finest) gas and beat the idealist out of everyone.

Of course, this is 2008, so there's no chance of that happening--which is something we can take solace in even as...{Insert self-righteous socio-politcal rambling here or listen to your RATM albums}.

Oh, to be young and in love with RATM again...