The greater Quebec City region will be invaded on July 18, with the legendary Californian group Rage Against The Machine coming at FEQ 2020 on July 18. When I say legendary, it is because only few amateurs have had the chance to see them perform live in the past 15 years, since the group split at the turn of the millennium. After an attempted meeting which will culminate in a handful of concerts in 2010 and 2011, it seems that the 2 leaders Tom Morello (guitar) and Zac De La Rocha (voice) are once again able to tolerate their respective presence since the group comes to announce a tour that includes more than 30 concerts that will span from America to Eastern Europe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl4wkIPiTcY

Arriving on the musical scene along the Grunge movement that swept across America and then the world in the early 90s, Rage Against The Machine clashes with more aggressive rock and a strong rap connotation, especially in vocal arrangements. The group’s rise was immediate with their self-titled debut album which was powered by titles like Take the Power Back, Bullet in the Head and the timeless Killing in the Name. We perceive a very politicized tendency, as much for the lyrics of their songs as the different mediums promoted by the group. A good example of their commitment to “destroy the government machine” is that of their video for the song Sleep Now in the Fire, which was partly shot during an improvised concert in front of the New York Stock Exchange, which ended with the early closure of the latter when the members of the group attempted to enter the building in the heart of Wall Street.

Ironically, it is their political commitment which is responsible for the separation of the group in 2000 while De La Rocha and Morello seem to disagree on the direction to give to the group, the first wishing to accentuate gestures with a political tendency while the second seems satisfied with the very committed inclination that the group has forged over the decade. With percussionist Brad Wilkes and bassist Tim Commerford, Morello tries to recruit a new singer and eventually set their sights on Chris Cornell, singer of the late grunge band Soundgarden, to form the Audioslave quartet.

When we no longer expected them, it seems that harmony has indeed returned within RATM with first the announcement of a handful of concerts at major festivals in the United States, including the famous Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival held in California. This was followed by the confirmation of around thirty concerts, including the one at the Quebec City Summer Festival on July 18, 2020, which will be presented on the main stage of the Plains of Abraham.

After the dissolution of Audioslave in 2007, De La Rocha and Morello attempted a reconciliation, which would result in a handful of concerts stretched over a couple years. The reunion ends in 2011 on a very bitter note and suggests to the millions of fans who were hoping for new material that it is indeed the end of Rage Against The Machine.

According to the director of the festival programming, Louis Bellavance, it would be a video of the Rolling Stones show in 2015 in the same place which convinced the members of the group to agree to perform on the mythical stage of the Battlefields Park. Those who attended the Mick Jagger band concert, as well as those who attended the Metallica one in 2011, can expect the same kind of craze for the concert of Rage Against The Machine at FEQ 2020 on July 18. I will be there without a doubt, and I invite all those whom ever shouted “F ** k you I won’t do what you tell me” in a bar under the notes of Killing in the Name to do the same, since we don’t know if harmony will remain for a long time within the group.