Reviews

Prophets of Rage – Molson Canadian Amphitheatre – August 24, 2016

Published

8 years ago

08/26/2016

Darren Eagles

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Photos and Review by Darren Eagles

http://prophetsofrage.com
http://awolnationmusic.com/home/

Supergroups, mashup bands, side projects, all of these terms can be used to describe the spectacle that hit the stage at Molson Canadian Amphitheatre in Toronto on a swelteringly humid Wednesday night this week. Prophets of Rage is the latest group to put remaining members of one band with a couple of new members that, in this case, offers up a compelling new twist on both musical genres their members hailed from. The snarling musical artistry behind Rage Against the Machine, sans vocalist Zack de la Rocha, has been melded with the gritty back alley vocal talents of Public Enemy’s Chuck D, and Cyprus Hill’s B-Real. Rounding out the stage was recent addition to Public Enemy, DJ Lord. Beginning the show alone onstage he warmed up the crowd with a series of tributes to fallen musical artists as well as scratching out the Canadian National Anthem. Tom Morello, the politically outspoken guitar sounds wizard was his usual in-your-face self for the show, with all the screaming guitar work and stage expressions intact from his RATM days. Tim Commerford on bass and Brad Wilk on drums are the thundering backbone to everything RATM has always been. And they looked and played like it was still L.A. in 1991.

Solid in every respect, whether it was a RATM song or one of the hip-hop tracks on the setlist. Beginning with Public Enemy’s epic “Prophets of Rage”, the show usually alternated between the hip-hop and the RATM catalog. The diverse crowd engaged with both genres nearly equally, with some extra gas in the tank for a couple of the monster RATM tunes. They even threw in the Bruce Springsteen, later covered by RATM hit “The Ghost of Tom Joad”, sung by Aaron Bruno, who was the opening act with his band AWOLNATION.

The surprise of the night came when Foo Fighters superstar Dave Grohl hit the stage with his seafoam green Gibson guitar for a frantic version of MC5’s “Kick out the Jams”. It was a treat you don’t see often at a big choreographed show like this. Ending the set, without an encore was RATM’s middle finger anthem, “Killing in the Name”, which took every last bit of energy the sold out crowd had left. B-Real was working the crowd from down in the pit, at the barricade while Chuck D headed out to the sides at the rail to get the fans worked into a lather. This tour, the band is donating a portion of the proceeds from the shows to a local charity in each city.