This is a video of Rage Against the Machine from yesterday at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota (courtesy of Above the Fold). It’s good to see these guys haven’t softened up, or aren’t so ridiculously rich they’ve lost sight of why they’re looked at as the Che Guevera of the 21st Century. (Remember when they filmed that video on Wall Street, and then bum-rushed the NYSE? Pretty hilarious.) Although I can just hear my friend call the above video a “smelly hippy fest”, there’s one really cool moment where guitarist (and Harvard grad) Tom Morello addresses the audience:

I’ve got a message for the police who are cutting us from the stage tonight:

I suspect that some of the police may actually even be fans of Rage Against the Machine
I suspect that some of the police come from working class and middle class backgrounds like we do and like you do
I suspect that the cops here today have much more in common with this band, with you people, than the people at the RNC
SO before this weekend is over, they may turn their batons, and their tear gas, and their rubber bullets against us,
but it’s my hope that they realize that we all have something in common
and one day very soon they turn those batons, and their tear gas, and their rubber bullets against those jack asses over at the RNC.

This one’s called “Killing In the Name”…”

And then they launch into an acapella version of “Killing In the Name”. Although its a bit goofy to hear everyone mouthing guitar riffs, the idea is still mad cool. (It’s always mystified me why a bunch of guys making $50K/yr spend so much energy protecting millionaires from the Average Joe. I’m just saying.) Apparently, the police wouldn’t let RATM play cos their permit expired at 7 pm. Organizers of the Ripple Effects event, however, said police detained them till 7 so it was their fault: “A state patrolman held the band and wouldn’t let them enter [backstage] until it was too late,” a spokesman claimed. Who knows, tho I tend to believe the police would benefit from not having Rage excited a couple thousand kids into a froathing liberal frenzy. Who knows how much granola would be consumed and parkspace dominated by napping dreadlocked hacky-sackers. Shit coulda gotten crazy.

“Fist in the air in the land of hypocrisy…”