Life in the deaf lane...

January 13th – Two significant events today: Zach de la Rocha (‘Rage Against the Machine’ (RATM) vocalist) was born on this day 1970. I believe I've mentioned this before so stop me if I have…One of the things that being old, into music and having children who are also thus interested (one drummer – one guitarist – one dancer – one music critic) means I have been regularly directed to performers and musicians that I would never have listened to by all four of my kids and the extended family of their partners, and I thank them for it…sometimes.

That’s how I got to see RATM when they toured the U.K. on the back of their first album. Took my son and friend of his plus a lady who was and is very dear to me, and her now-ex, to Brixton Academy to see them (well, my son was only about 15 then so you really don’t think I was going to let him go without a chaperone, do you?) and, I have to say, it was a trip I undertook with some trepidation. Why? Well this was in ‘92’or ‘3’ so I’d be about 40-odd, so safely outside the R.A.T.M. core demographic one might say. This age increment, plus the ‘social state’ of the gig area and the political leanings of its inhabitants (and in all probability, the gig's attendants) meant that I was…‘aware’; yup, you can safely say that I was as aware as a mongoose-facing a really stroppy cobra. I was not to be disappointed when the gig started either; ABSOLUTELY PACKED…JAMMED. You remember the Blues Brothers movie? That bit in the club when they do ‘Rawhide’…? The netting across the stage? Good. Keep it in mind. 

The support band probably had the most un-enviable task of any support band as they had to act as the fence between the fans and their revolutionary leaders. We had hardly got forty seconds into their first number when the bottles, containing beer dregs and very likely piss and vomit, started flying, their drummer very narrowly being missed by one of the many bottles that managed to get by the netting slung across the proscenium. For them, it really was all downhill from then on… and, truth to tell, they weren't at all that bad. Bless. They stuck it out, finished their set and retired luckily unhurt…except for their pride…after twenty minutes. 

Back to the bar to recharge (as if the audience needed it) and then back into the hall to witness what I can only describe as one of the best rock shows I have ever witnessed – was one of those, ‘mouth open, breath coming in gasps, empty chest cavity’ experiences; absolutely top-drawer. The music, the moshing, the flying bodies, the stage-diving, the volume, the spirit of the band and the quality of the sound mixing was all of such an intensity and commitment that just blew me away; me and, what does the Academy hold…? Two, three thousand? Whatever, to have a full house screaming “a bullet in the fuckin’ head” whilst RATM blinded out the backing track was a terrifyingly, exhilaratingly, wonderful thing to witness. It was one of those ‘connect’ moments we've all experienced at a gig where the collective recognition and sharing of a future of possibilities rises through and around the assembled crowd, lifting them onto a higher level where they can get a glimpse of a horizon usually hidden by the mountains of insecure outcome that were the landscape of their pre-gig future. I remember thinking, ‘If this lot ever get loose and act as one ideology then God help John Major and his Tory cronies; they’ll last about thirty seconds.’

I came out of that gig with my head ringing from the volume and sheer, jaw-dropping spectacle of it all…then, I believe, on the way back the car  (mine) broke down and we didn't get home until about four in the morning…but worth every second of it, and for that I have to thank one of my children. Ta.

The second event? In 1968, Dr. K.C. Pollack, who ran the audio lab at Florida Uni., determined that rock and roll concerts caused hearing damage… Very probably, Dr. Pollack but after witnessing that RATM gig…do you wanna go out there and tell them; “Now, dears, you really must put in these ear plugs and we’re not starting ‘til you do.”