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Out of context: Reply #17
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- TheBlueOne0
My RATM tale:
Must've been 1997 or 98 or so and I had a new job - about three months in. The boss calls me in and says "My 13 year old son and his two friends want to go to some rock concert or other but I can't be bothered, you want to chaperone them? The tickets and all incidental costs are on me..."
"Sure who is it?"
"Raging machines or something..I don't know. It's Friday at the Nassau Coliseum."
"Rage Against the Machine?"
"Yeah that's it. All music has sucked since Clapton left Cream in my opinion. But you wanna do it?"
"Fuc..I mean, certainly boss."
So come friday I'm driving the three teens to their first ever rock concert. And I'm psyched cause I wanted to check out the old RATM. So our tickets are like at the lower end of the second tier in typical stadium seating. We sit through some boring ass opening band...and then during the intermission, house lights up and all, parts of the crowd start chanting "Rage...Rage..Rage..." Then one kid from the lower tier stage left makes a rush through the crowd and takes a flying leap onto the floor...he lands, security is all over him. But as security converges on this kid, another kid realizes an opportunity, and he does the same from stage right..security gets to him...and then slowly in drips and drabs more kids start jumping down to the floor...more police rush in and security dudes...and then "rage...rage..rage!!" is getting louder and fucking madness ensues, like a cork out of a bottle the entire first tier of kids just rushes the goddamn floor, like a huge wave..You're seeing security guys get tossed about and lost..the cops back lines up into the tunnels. Holy fucking shit...fights are breaking out all over the place. The three nitwits I'm with start inching down and I grab all of them by the scruff of their t-shirts going "You do not fucking move. Not one fucking inch."
Just then Rage take the stage, Zack is looking out across the crowd and starts saying "Fuck. Well, we're Rage Against the Machine... " And wham we're into "Guerilla Radio" The entire floor of the colissuem is a fucking whirlpool - security and cops just gave up and ran to the tunnels on the sides and in front of the stage and hold a line there. From that point on the energy in that building was so exciting and completely on the verge of being out of control. The band was super tight - one of the best sounding shows I had ever seen...and during the final "Fuck you..we won't do what you tell us..." bit..I swear a riot was about to break out...I was on one hand completely enjoying this, but completely freaking out having to watch these three kids...just before the last song ended I told these kids "Move..now..out to the car..."
Out in the parking lot we got to the car as the crowd starts streaming out, security is jacked, on edge, bottles ar egetting tossed a few kids jumping up and down on cars...I got the fuck out of there as quick as I could.
In the car these kids were like "Gee, I guess that was cool..." and I was like "That was your FIRST rock show? You have no idea how high a bar that just set...."