Rage Reconnects With Its Past at Warm-Up for Album

Was it really seven years ago that Rage Against the Machine’s Zack de la Rocha had a Los Angeles Lollapalooza crowd chanting “[Expletive] KROQ” to protest the rock station’s editing one of its songs? Having made up long ago, Rage and KROQ-FM (106.7) teamed Sunday for a special concert at the Roxy. But De la Rocha still got in a dig, wearing a T-shirt promoting KXLU-FM (88.9), which champions underground acts that KROQ won’t touch.

It was fitting. This show, a tune-up for the recording of a live album later this week in San Francisco and a tour with the Beastie Boys, was all about reconnecting with the quartet’s roots in a sweaty, frenzied club rather than a huge arena (as with two sold-out Forum shows in December).

In fact, Rage opened its hourlong set Sunday reaching back before its own history with “Kick Out the Jams,” the signature song of the MC5, the ‘60s Detroit band whose political radicalism is a model for Rage’s rhetorical rap-rock. It would have been great for the band to indulge more in such surprises instead of sticking to its most familiar songs. But even if the power ‘n’ polemics could be predictable, in this intimate setting it was never less than compelling.

Opening act At the Drive In bridged the MC5 spirit with Rage’s currency with a display of convulsive, concussive abandon. Singer Cedric Bixler crashed recklessly around the stage, spitting out lyrics at once fiery and poetic, to dynamic music that was both engaging and jaggedly challenging. The Rage fans were a bit subdued during the set, but one day--perhaps soon--they’ll be boasting to their friends that they saw this Texas quintet before it became huge.