Prophets of Rage 9/13/2016 Shoreline Ampitheater

[cranefly]

Lady Cranefly and I will be fluttering about the premises, along with the Lady's visiting oldest brother.

Be there or be docile.

[Greg]

I'm trying to picture Cranefly at a Prophets of Rage concert and I just can't see the connection. One these things is not like the other. One of these things is not the same.

That being said, I am jealous because this is a concert I would attend. Killing in the name of! What better place than here? What better time than now?

[cranefly]

I'm really really really into killing.

As long as no one gets hurt.

Hmmm.  Starting to get the feeling I know nothing about this band.

It is a band, right?

[Greg]

Oh, dear.

[Drunk Monk]

As soon as I saw this, I checked my calendar for availability. What did I find? Prophets of Rage @ SLA. Then I'm like 'wth? How did that get there?'  A quick web search (aka my long term memory) gleaned the answer. I already plan to be there.

Now I'm like 'wth? Why are the craneflies going to this show?'

[lady_cranefly]

Ask Brother #1.  He seems really excited.

[Drunk Monk]

It is an epic collab.  See you there.

[thatguy]

It is an epic collab.  See you there.

I've been trying to get in on the Ticketmaster voucher for that show, but apparently my free GA admission vouchers just aren't good enough for $20 lawn seats (or TM's systems are just crap...or they are doing this on purpose because they really dislike customers and are bitchy about having to give them back $$). "What'd you come in here for? This is abuse..."

They've released some more tix, so I'll try again. 

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

If all else fails tg, get your CPR & I can hook u up through RM. 

Might have to work tho. That show could be busy. It's epic enough.

[El Dingo]

I was thinking of using one of my 17 vouchers for this show but I really don't care for the Shoreline as a venue anymore (especially lawn seats) and it's a long drive.

[Drunk Monk]

LCF seen. CF yet to manifest.

[cranefly]

I'm not entirely certain what I saw.  There seemed to be three main performances.  The first was WAKRAT, which I'd describe as a warm-up to the warm-up band.  There were two songs I found appealing.  While I don't know their titles, I memorized the lyrics.  The first one went, "What are you looking at?  I know you don't like me.  What are you looking at?  I know you don't like me.  What are you looking at?  I know you don't like me."  The lyrics for the second song were, "If you fuck with me, I will kill you!  If you fuck with me, I will kill you!  If you fuck with me, I will kill you!"  I leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out the titles.  The lead singer clearly has some issues, but he showed considerable charisma, transforming these lyrics into mantras of meditative tranquility.

The second band was AWOLNATION, which was best in its opening and closing.  The opening was a loud reverberating bass number that made our bodies vibrate near the back of the seating section.  Never felt such overwhelming bass.  The ending was the cat song.  You know the one.  Here's a 20-second snippet you've no doubt seen. 

Finally there was Rage, and I won't pretend to understand all the elements of this collaboration.  The audience stood for the entire performance, often shouting along with fists or middle fingers in the air.  At times it was hard to see the stage, because of a contingent of 20 or 30 policemen who had the seats directly in front of us.  They seemed to be their biggest fans, whooping it up, fists constantly gut-punching the moon, shouting "Fuck!" louder than anyone; and when the show was over, they were the most vocal in calling for more songs.

Rage was a mixed bag for me.  Some of it was powerful, and I could appreciate it.  The spin doctor was a revelation.  It seems like such a cheap trick, and not at all visual, but his solo performances made an already standing audience rise up on point, enough to put the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet to shame.  As for the rest of Rage, too many numbers would start off interesting, with a nice subdued melody building, but then everyone would leap into the air and land in horse stance and pound their instruments hard as they could, giving a blaring discordant sameness to a lot of their work.

All in all, a fun if somewhat overwhelming experience for a hermit like me.

[lady_cranefly]

You forgot the "fucking" in the first of WakRat's lyrics.

---

Now that I think of it, there was some variant of "fuck" in every one of their songs.

[Drunk Monk]

I hadn't been to SLA in over a year.  They don't know what to do with me when it's not a psychedelic show, so they let me just run amok.  Which is fine by me.  One of my old JNK padawan showed, a Kung Fu sister of DM, CF and LCF (but the CF's didn't remember her - they were too stoned for sure).  I hadn't seen her in maybe three years so we had a great time catching up.  The supe at RM put the two of us on a team with an up-and-coming EMT (born after I had started working SLA, mind you).  He was cool though.  He was content to be the third wheel as we posed and watched the show.  Saw a few other old friends I hadn't seen in a while, but not many.  Touched Tower #2 for luck (remember this? http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/arti...rticle=469)

Wakrat - a typical opening act for this sort of show.  When someone said it was Rage's bass player, it made more sense.

Awolnation - I was excited to see them because I luv that Sail song.  But they were disappointing live.  The opened strong and overdid Sail.  The stuff in between was struggling to find a consistent sound.  I hear they play a lot around the area, but I hadn't seen them yet.  Sail is better recorded.  Much better.

Prophets of Rage - I'm not a huge fan of either Rage Against the Machine or Public Enemy, but I totally respect both acts and have seen them both before.  What drew me in was B-Real of Cypress Hill.  Luuuuuv Cypress Hill and have seen them countless times as you know.  PoR came out wearing Kaepernick #7 jerseys and knelt for the Anthem.  They were also selling some very tempting Make America Rage Again hats, but I gottalotta hats.  It was a good fusion and refreshing to see a band make some political statements.  I haven't seen that in a while...well, unless you count all the reggae 'legalize it' tunes, and even those are pretty dated now.  I was most excited for the Cypress Hill tunes, and the few anthemic songs from the other bands that I still recognized.  

The crowd was small for SLA, less than half sold, only the seats were full.  The lawn was spacious.  And it was a really warm night without wind, very rare for this time of year there.  The waxing gibbous moon was gorgeous over whoreline's canopy teats.  It was a lovely evening.  There was a mosh pit near tower #4 but it was wide open so no one got hurt.  We strategically positioned ourselves on the concourse right below it just in case.  That was right behind the Cfs, so we could see the vaporous clouds of cherry vape juice rise above them every time they snuck a toke with their new-found cop friends.  There were at least three biker gangs in full colors there.  But everyone was having fun and enjoying it all, so it's all good.