A couple of years ago, I promised myself I wouldn’t return to Oxegen after a frankly crap year in 2005 and a horrible one-day experience in 2006. This year I returned under different circumstances as part of the State team with the proviso what we would review as many bands as we could over the weekend. It was actually a great experience plus, I got to avoid the campsites and head home to my parents house every night for a real bed and a shower. In the morning, as web editor, I collated everyone’s reviews and James Goulden (sample shot above) and Shawna Scott’s excellent photos into our reviews of the previous days. It was a gratifying job.
There were some clear highlights for me: most I have written about for State such as Aphex Twin, Vampire Weekend, Pendulum and Holy Fuck. However as is inevitable with coverage of a headliner, multiple writers were at the same stage so I never got to chance to write about one band: Rage Against The Machine and their closing set on Sunday’s Main stage.
It was my first time the whole weekend I paid attention to the Main stage. It helped that I bumped into some mates beforehand. From our vantage-point near the IMRO New Sounds tent, we could see a huge mass of people gathered in front of us. The light emanating from the stage highlighted every corner of the field, while in the distance, to the left, The Chemical Brothers with their amazing looking giant visuals juggernaut looked like a spaceship about to whirl off in a dash of lights and colour. I wished I could be at both but then again you only see Rage once, The Chemicals play nearly every year.
Rage were late but nobody minded the wait. By my possibly incorrect calculations, they last played here in 1994, exactly 14 years ago, almost to the day. So take a few minutes more lads if you need to, while we limber up.
The band take the stage with a backdrop of a Zapatista flag and Zack De La Rocha announces “We are Rage Against The Machine and we are from Los Angeles.” We hear the opening guitar scrapes and drum rolls of ‘Testify’ and everyone loses it when Morello’s riff kicks in. It’s like they never left. De La Rocha is still lepping around like its Feile 94. He’s lovin’ it and is stalking both sides of the stage slamming himself around. Bassist Tim Commerford is covered in his trademark tattoo armour and Morello still looks the same age as always and plays the guitar with same jaw-dropping trickery. ‘Bulls on Parade’ follows and all the teenage years come flooding back.
As the songs are picked off – ‘People Of The Sun’, ‘Bombtrack’, ‘Know Your Enemy’, ‘Bullet In The Head’, they bring back memories of times past. Every song is a dormant memory perfectly formed in hibernation until it is woken up during the set. I realise I know all the words even though it’s been quite a while since I listened to any of the albums. It was like stepping into the past. I remember the first time I listened to Rage, taking a copied cassette from my sister, the inlay of which was covered in black nail varnish and listening to it in the car while waiting for my parents to come back from a market. I remember watching their Feile performance on TV and thinking how awesome it looked. I remember listening to ‘Bulls on Parade’ at ear-splitting volumes in my bedroom. I remember learning ‘Bombtrack’ on guitar. I remember a friend I had once who used to play, yes you guessed it, ‘Killing in the Name of’ out of his room to piss off everyone else. Bit of a cliché that one.
The sound cuts out a little but it can’t hamper my enjoyment of the gig. Someone in the crowd is holding an upside down US flag, which reminds us of RAGE’s political machinations, which in all honesty, don’t feel so prominent tonight. Then again, during ‘Know Your Enemy’ , I replace the “All of Which are American Dreams” mantra with the Warlords of Pez version of “All of Which is an Irish Breakfast” so who am I to talk? Hey, you only live once, right?
As we reach the encore of ‘Freedom’, everyone knows what’s coming next. And they deliver. ‘Killing in the Name Of’ has become the clichéd expression of adolescent rebellion for many but no-one can deny that hearing 60,000 people blast out “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me / FUCK YOU, I WON’T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME!!” isn’t an experience born of the dealing with some kind of authoritarian bullshit. Rage leave me well and truly sated. We may have waited 14 years but it was extremely good timing in my book.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
it was unfucking real. i was about a mile away from the stage, and it felt like EVERYONE at sexygen was there to see ratm. i thought you would have your hardcore fans at the front, the moshpit generally remaining in that vacinity. but i was on the hill looking down at the crowd, and there was a continual mexican wave happening from the front of the stage to the back where i was. maybe the best gig ive ever been to.
Nice one Niall – I’m jealous now. Great write-up.
Great write-up indeed. Absolutely nailed the Rage experience there. I don’t think those guys will ever age!
Damn it, I’m still waiting for just one person to tell me Rage were a disappointment. But that’s probably not going to happen 🙁
Nice write-up.. I really wish I could have been there.
And now you do what they told ya?
have you any good video clips from RATM Niall? Nothing worth looking at on youtube yet…
I left the camera at home weekend. Wish i had to to capture the scene from where we were.
Thought they were fkn awesome. Just went to see them and they didn’t disappoint.
Was hoping they might have some new material, maybe after the summer they might start writing again?
Missed it so just gonna have to keep battling Tom Morello on Guitar Hero to keep me satisfied. Shit.
They’re communists or something right?
Do communists reunite for money?
Absolutely brilliant though, I was in the mosh area in the centre just outside the pit.
What an amazing performance!! I managed to get onto the side of the main stage to watch it!! Fucking shat myself being that close to them!!!!
Good write up man. Rage were awesome, as were Holy Fuck, Cat Power and Justice. Was nice meeting you for the couple minutes I did.
Well I think my cassette covered in black nail varnish is long gone Nialler, but your great review brought back memories of seeing them at Feile all those years ago! They have been lying dormant on my Ipod for ages so I really enjoyed listening to them today. Thanks 🙂
Bollox. Can’t believe I missed it. Crysies.
Incidentially, here’s De La Rocha’s new project – One day as a Lion
http://www.myspace.com/onedayasalion
The first time I heard rage, I bought the first album on tape from top twenty and i stuck it on in my walkman on a drive up to dublin with my parents. the hilarity of being exposed to this when you’re a middle class pre-teen in the back seat of your moms and pops’ car is indescribable. classic
I had a similar experience – bought the tape in The Record Room, Sligo and made our parents endure it on the way home so myself and my brother could hear it for the first time. It was the same when I got Appetite For Destruction on tape too! Gas times…
fuck you i wont do my homework.
i saw it written on the jacks walls in the pbs when i was there. never had heard them till a battle of the bands in the riverbank. they are prob one of those bands u gotta see at least once in ur life. just as good as the young lads on the stage that afternoon id say
incidentally the 1st cd i ever owned was bought by my parents for me at christmas, prodigy – fat of the land. listening to smack my bitch up in the car with my mother sayin, “whats this?!?!” is the closest to mikes experience ive had
my mother took a 200ad mag off me at the same age because she said it was too violent. got it in superquinn in walkinstown, she bought it for me 🙁
Waited in the pit at the front through The Fratellis and Kaiser Chiefs (who I actually don’t mind so much) for Rage, and it was easily worth it.
They were superb, and are easily up there with Muse as the best live band I’ve ever seen. My only slight disappointment was that they didn’t play Wake Up. Still, even songs like Ashes In The Fall, which I’d rate as one of their lesser tracks, were still superb, and the crowd was brilliant.
Was only down on the Sat, the lads all saw Rage on the Sunday and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Any reviews of the rest of oxegen. spent a fair bit of time in the dance hall-enjoyed Michael Mayer and Slam. The Japanese Popstars were good as was Chewy in the Bacardi Bar. Also saw Brian Jonestown and the Ting Tings – so so.
The Prodigy was a good laugh but nothing close to the perfection that was Daft Punk on the same stage on the Sunday last year.
Dublin Bus’ing it in and out of there each day is the only way to do it-at least for those of us pushing thirty or already there. Great Blog Nialler – keep up the good work.
[quote post=”1290″]Any reviews of the rest of oxegen.[/quote]
Plenty of Oxegen reviews (by me and others)
http://www.state.ie/blog/oxegen-review-round-up/