Swedish Parker!

Coachella, Day 3 (see the full photo album @ flickr)

What else to say… I can die happy having seen Rage Against The Machine play live.

I had to stand in the one spot, in extreme heat, for eight hours in order to get a good vantage point.

I decided I wouldn’t risk my life by going into the front area (there are four areas bordered off by metal fences, sort of in the shape of a double-H laid on it’s side in front of the stage…).

Good thing I didn’t, I was front row of the second area, so I had a perfect view without getting squashed (so I thought…). Three hours before Rage came on Crowded House did an awesome set that was unfortunately played to a crowd that wanted only one thing, and therefore didn’t really appreciate just how brilliant this band is.

Then two hours before Rage came on the crazy side-to-side crowd surges began in the front areas. Then about an hour before Rage came on all the little people in the front realised the surges (which by now were just looking plain dangerous) were only going to get worse and started bailing over the security fences to safety.

Unfortunately the safe little walk-ways between each area (where only security guards can walk) had their exits blocked off by the massive crowd. So this meant all the people jumping the fence to safety were stuck in no-mans land (which would stay that way until about four of five songs into Rage’s set).

I was watching all of this craziness unfold literally half a metre away in my cosy front-row spot. There was no crazy crowd surges in our section before Rage came on, and I could even turn around and talk to the guys behind me it was that chilled out.

(our calm and peaceful area, a few hours before it descended into chaos)

Then the lights went out, four guys walked on stage, Zack de la Rocha announced “We are Rage Against The Machine from Los Angeles, California.” and the entire crowd went absolutely mental.

I think I moved about 3 metres to my left in the first 10 seconds, desperately clinging to the fence so I wouldn’t get sucked back into the abyss of the crowd.

I managed to hold my own – thanks largely to the big sweaty shirtless guy behind me that was sandwiching me in – and then proceeded lose my voice screaming “I AM THE NINA, THE PINTA, THE SANTA MARIA”, “ALL OF WHICH ARE AMERICAN DREAMS”, “FUCK YOU I WON’T DO YOU WHAT YOU TELL ME”, and so on.

I wandered around in a daze afterwards, before heading back to my tent – via the riot squad guarding the camp site entry that apparently were there in case any hard-core Rage fans decided to start a revolution – and reliving the moment into the early hours with a couple of cool Brits, a Canadian, and a girl all the way from the Isle of Man (Hey Dave/Mak/Michael/Louise…).

…

In the preceeding ten hours I’d had no choice but to also watch:

The Feeling
Explosions in the Sky
The Roots
Willie Nelson
Crowded House
Manu Chao (Radio Bemba Sound System)

All of which were pretty cool, especially Crowded House.

…

Here are a few incredibly short and dodgy videos I managed to capture during Rage.

The random blackness is a result of someone crowd-surfing over my head, and me quickly trying to prevent a flying foot coming in contact with my camera.

Rage Against The Machine
Know Your Enemy (short clip)

Rage Against The Machine
Down Rodeo (short clip)

Rage Against The Machine
Sleep Now In The Fire (short clip)

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 29th, 2007 at 11:59 pm and is filed under Coachella, U.S.A.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.