Tom Morello at Emo's
Tom Morello, guitarist of Rage Against The Machine, paid a visit to Emos on Monday night, marking his third visit to Austin in the last year. BONES UK opened with an outpouring of angst and heavy guitar. As the pre-rain mist gathered over Austin, Tom Morello began his politically charged set with a sepia-colored video montage of factory workers, refugees, minorities--anyone oppressed by ‘the system’. Without warning, standing on a box in the middle of the crowd, he launched into his hour and half soundtrack to anarchy with a bone chilling guitar solo.
As he made his way to the stage, clips of people (including Jack Black and Gary Clark Jr.) saying what freedom means to them played onscreen. Finally, an old woman says the right answer: “Freedom means rock ‘n roll.” With that, Morello rips through his second song, while politically charged videos play behind him. He didn’t have a microphone for the first 30 minutes of the show, wielding his swirling, aggressive guitar to deliver the angry message. Videos highlighting society’s pitfalls like racism, inequality and injustice came to the forefront of the show, while Morello heightened the cinematic drama with an anarcous score of raging guitar.
The Harvard graduate has been politically active since the beginning of his career with Rage Against the Machine, one of the most famous hard rock/metal bands of the 1990s. Provocative messages like “Those who do not move do not notice their chains” flashed behind him as Morello shredded, sometimes just using his elbow. He even unplugged the guitar and made beats on the 1/4” -- a hallmark of his influential style of distortion. Simulated chopper blades and wailing police sirens cut through the air and said more than words could, as footage of violent fires and riots raged behind him.
Half way through the set, Morello switched to acoustic guitar and sang a few ballads, including “The Garden of Gethsemane” off his political alter-ego The Nightwatchman’s first album. The show brought out an undeniable reaction--either you loved it or you passionately hated it, a testament to Morello’s polarizing artistry. He played a legendary Rage Against the Machine song, “The Ghost of Tom Joad”, that separated OG fans from those there just to see a legendary guitarist. To close the night, he invited the crowd onstage for his last song. It was a wild scene of screaming, fist pumping, shredding and jumping -- the entire crowd contributing to Tom Morello’s soundtrack to anarchy.