Rage Against the Machine performed across the street from the Democratic National Convention at Los Angeles’ Staples Center in 2000 just months before breaking up. Live at the Democratic National Convention 2000 on vinyl will be released on April 21st as part of Record Store Day 2018. Check out the tracklist as well as video footage from the concert below.
Live at the Democratic National Convention 2000 tracklisting:
01 Bulls on Parade
02 Testify
03 Guerilla Radio
04 Sleep Now in the Fire
05 Freedom
06 Killing in the Name
YouTube’s BVMTV recapped the performance, “Rage Against the Machine (RATM) played a free concert in protest of the two-party system. The band had been considering playing a protest concert there since April of that year.In the months leading up to the convention, cable channel MTV began planning a large, free concert to take place in downtown Los Angeles as a part of its ‘Choose or Lose’ campaign aimed at getting youth out to vote. MTV decided that popular rock group RATM would be the ideal marquee band.
However, RATM’s aggressive political message combined with the title of its most recent album, The Battle of Los Angeles, caused serious concerns from LA city leaders. MTV’s applications for staging the concert were denied by the city and the channel eventually gave up its attempts to plan one. After MTV’s attempts failed, a number of protest groups agreed to give their one hour time allotments on the stage in the Protest Zone. RATM was offered prime time slots coinciding with the marquee speaker on the opening night of the convention, then-President Bill Clinton.”
