The rock underground, dead-end kids with mullets wearing death metal band shirts, badass skateboarders looking to land on their groin over and over again, and biker types straight out of Hunter S. Thompson’s Hell’s Angels, were the domain of rebel outliers on Saturday at Barclays Center as Prophets of Rage opened its set list by confirming its allegiance to the crowd, with the blasting of “No Sleep Till Brooklyn.”
Mixing rap and metal, the diverse young and old headbangers moshed, crowd-surfed, and hurled themselves onto the stage, while lobbing beer in the air and sneakers at the band, as physical chaos was met with clouds of weed wafting overhead.
All that was missing from the onslaught was a Charles Bukowski hologram reading. And so, the screaming tremolos of guitarist Tom Morello, the shrill bass of Tim Commerford, the explosive dynamics of drummer Brad Wilk, and the splattered rapping styles of B-Real and Chuck D were so distinctive and contagious, gathering so much momentum that it led to this summer’s ultimate mosh party.
The hooks of “Know Your Enemy,” “Bombtrack,” and “Sleep Now in the Fire” caught security personnel so off guard that manly men with reserved seats climbed over ushers and barricades to join the tension-releasing general admission floor brawls.
The drunk and angry crowd got some breathers when Tom Morello requested that moneyed types out there donate some cash on the way out to WhyHunger, a world hunger relief organization. A fraction of the night’s proceeds would also go to WhyHunger as well.
B-Real also took the opportunity to address the absence of Rage Against the Machine bandleader Zach de la Rocha: “We are so thankful to Zach for allowing Chuck D and me to be a bullhorn for his lyrics.”
The lovable loser types, wearing red and white “Make America Rage Again” trucker hats, with their broken bones and black eyes politely applauded.
