My younger daughter, a friend from high school, and I went to see the band Rage Against the Machine on the first night of their five-show tour stand at Madison Square Garden. The show was an intense concert of hard rock mixed with hip hop, and a big dose of socio-political and historical themes. 

I had sort of seen RATM as they are called (or just Rage) in 1993 at the earlier incarnation of the Lollapalooza festival when it traveled around the US. (I saw them at Waterloo Village in New Jersey.) I say sort of because my friends and I heard the band playing while we walked from the parking lot to the concert area. We made it in time to see the quartet standing on stage and then leaving shortly after.

Originally my two daughters and I were supposed to see Rage in 2020, but the tour was postponed due to Covid restrictions. This time around, my younger girl couldn’t make it so one of my friends took the other ticket.

The show was loud and full of intricate music, and they played their big hits as well as other songs. I really liked their versions of “Bulls On Parade,” “Testify,” and “Killing In the Name,” and there was barely any breathing room because they played almost the whole 90 minutes without letting up. 

Lead vocalist Zach de la Rocha was carried in and out to the stage by a few men and sat during the concert (I found out later that he recently hurt his leg). He is a fiery presence on stage. The guitarist Tom Morello is fantastic (and he doesn’t trim the wires on his guitars) as are bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk. 

We sat in seats in the 200s (which in the Garden are decent seats), but we watched as fans in the General Admission area hoisted a few different provocative flags: one read “F–k Putin” and another was the Ukraine flag and a third which I couldn’t make out.

This year I’ve been to several concerts already and hadn’t seen any other with fans waving flags. I’ve seen shows by the Sun Ra Arkestra, Wilco, Tyler the Creator, Herbie Hancock, Dead and Company, and a few others, and this was the first with flags. I’m not surprised that fans took it upon themselves to bring these to a Rage concert.  

My friend and I reminisced about other shows we’ve seen over the years at MSG. I first saw a show here in 1982 when I saw the J. Geils Band. I’ve seen the Grateful Dead (and variations of them), Billy Joel, Squeeze, David Bowie, Elton John, Prince, Scorpions, the Allman Brothers Band, and several other shows. I've seen Knicks and Liberty basketball games, two Rangers hockey games, the circus, and more. And never before have I seen flags.

But Rage fans brought the flags. This is interesting. Unique. Thought-provoking. Is it a harbinger of things to come?