October 30th marks the 23rd anniversary of the first ever Rage Against the Machine live performance and luckily footage exists from that day.
Long before they became fiery and fierce rap rock legends, Rage Against the Machine were just like any excitable young band.
The foursome – Zack de la Rocha, Tom Morello, Tim Commerford, and Brad Wilk – made their live debut in Los Angeles at a free concert at California State University.
While the live debuts of many great, old bands just doesn’t exist – the new Velvet Underground doc had to get creative due to having so little footage of the band actually performing – thankfully there’s footage of Rage Against the Machine taking their first tentative steps in music.
And this isn’t just a blurry clip lasting for a few minutes: the footage captures the entire bloody set, all 51 minutes of it. Whoever stood back then with their camcorder, videoing a random band for that long, is pretty weird but in a good way.
The concert took place on October 23rd, 1991, 30 long years ago. That was a full year before their self-titled debut album dropped on November 3rd, 1992.
It was Morello who confirmed that it was the band’s genuine first-ever public performance. That would be something to tell the grandchildren: “I was on the way to my morning Psych lecture when Rage Against the Machine were casually blasting through early demos in the quad.”
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The footage shows a fledgling band, still raw, but evidently ridiculously talented even at that young stage. De la Rocha prowls the stage, snarling his powerful words at the curious crowd. Morello unwieldy guitar riffs that would make any guitarist envious.
They start the concert off with a bang, playing an early version of ‘Killing in the Name’. Tracks like ‘Bullet In The Head’ and ‘Township Rebellion’ soon follow in a packed set.
It’s a wonderful time capsule and a timely reminder to always stop and check any little band; you never know who they might end up becoming.
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Check out footage of the live debut of Rage Against the Machine:
