Music history is a long and complicated thing, but there is always going to be a nasty, awesome moment in time when Rage Against the Machine was the defining band of a generation. Combine that with Public Enemy’s genius and Cypress Hill’s recklessness, you have Prophets of Rage. Making America Rage Again.
In the game today, there is no guitarist quite like Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello. The man is capable of making sounds unheard on a guitar before the shout out from speaker stacks. One minute a classic riff, the next, a DJ set coming from his famous guitars. Hearing him jam out “Testify” was the dynamite being lit early in the night.
Public Enemy is one of the greatest rap groups in history, and arguably one of the most important bands in history. Of course, they’re known for their volatile and effervescent hype man Flava Flav, but every music fan knows the brains of the operation is Chuck D. He commands and audience with a billowing voice and still rocks the classics.
Side note it’s also great to hear him and Cypress Hill’s B Real spit these Rage verses. Obviously nobody could ever be what Zach De La Roche was to the band, but for two older rappers who have been in the game for longer than anyone reading this review has been alive, they did the songs justice in a major way.
The theme of the night was “Your voice is our voice, and our voice is your voice.” The power exchange between band and crowd was absolutely incredible. The packed house at Providence Medical Center Amphitheater was booming with energy from the first song, not relenting a single inch.
The real gems of the night were hearing Cypress Hill’s “Insane in the Membrane” Public Enemy’s “Take the Power Back” and Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name of,” all in the same show. Which is about as good as it gets as far as shows go. For one night in Bonner Springs, Kans., Prophets of Rage lived up to their slogan, to Make America Rage Again.