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Sunday
Sep052010

RATM, O2 Dublin, Tuesday 08.06.10

So RATM make their 4th appearance in Ireland (previous being outings at SFX / Feile / Oxegen) only the 2nd of which to be indoors. My personal experience was limited enough having seen them play an amazing show at Pinkpop in Holland in 2008 and the aforementioned Oxegen show.

The Dutch festival show was particularly memorable due to a v theatrical opening whereby the band were led to the stage at the beginning hooded and in jumpsuits accompanied by a deafening "escaped prisoner" siren. In what was clearly a nod to Guantanamo Bay the siren stopped the band were handed their instruments and proceeded to bang out "Bombtrack" without removing the hoods!Needless to say the place went totally ballistic. It was the first time I'd seen them play having missed them the first time around. For all the pomp that surrounded it - the impact of this stunt was not lost on me.

Their live show then (and now) shows RATM to be the most recent passengers on the heritage act gravy train. There is no new material - and only once out of the three shows ive now seen since their return have they played what is in my opinion to be their best track "War Within A Breath" (at Oxegen amazingly). Initially the fact that this was a band content to trot out the old routine was fine. Never ever occured to me to feel let down by the run-through of the hits. This changed at the most recent show in Dublin's O2.

Widely billed as a tour to pay for the free show RATM put on in London, the band rolled into Dublin on a muggy Tuesday night in June to a more-or-less sold out O2. Didnt make the support bands Gallows or Gogol Bordello unfortunately. Reports I've since heard said that Gallow's "Wall of Death" in particular was a highlight to say the least! RATM rattled through most of their biggest songs without interacting with the crowd. As a rule Zach seems to be the only person to speak at their shows but on this night it was clear that Morello was cheesed off at the sight of so many in the seated area of the O2 sitting down that he got on Zach's microphone and demanded the houselights expose those still seated. Needless to say they obliged but only after a lot of angsty encouragement. Sound on Morello's guitar was tinny and low in the mix throughout the gig - a number of times his tech was out investigating where the problems lay. Morello was distracted by this and put in a less than top quality performance as a result.

De La Rocha for his part told us to rise up and overthrow our capitalist pig overlords. Im no anti-capitalist but it really takes the 'king biscuit to hear him go on with this schtick over and over again expecting us to ignore the 50euro RATM shorts on sale in the venue. Whatever about anti racism/war messages. These suit the bands bombast perfectly. I am far less comfortable being preached to about the inherent evils of capitalism from a band that travel private jet and reportedly earn a cool million per show.

Highlights on a less than stellar night were a surprisingly fantastic "Township Rebellion" which didnt grab me on record but knocked me sideways on the night & "Bullet In The Head" which got a bigger response than anything else on the night bar their pop hit "Killing in the name of".

Testify
Bombtrack
People Of The Sun
Know Your Enemy
Bulls On Parade
Township Rebellion
Renegades of Funk (Afrika Bambaataa cover)
Bullet In The Head
White Riot (The Clash cover)
Guerrilla Radio
Sleep Now In The Fire
Wake Up
Encore:
Freedom
Killing In The Name

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