Here’s how Rage Against The Machine got down in the ’90s: When asked to contribute a song to the soundtrack of a soulless and witless summer blockbuster, they came out with a towering banger about the way that mass-media consumerism renders us soulless and witless. Cynical? Self-contradictory? Sure! Plenty of people missed the band’s message, to the point where various clueless viral tweets still make it clear that some fans just never realized that these guys were leftists. But plenty of people caught that message, too, and it changed more than a few lives. And while Roland Emmerich’s utterly beat 1998 version of Godzilla is better off forgotten, Rage’s Godzilla-soundtrack banger “No Shelter” is perfectly capable of rocking an arena 24 years later.

Rage Against The Machine’s current reunion tour does seem a little snakebit. After two years of pandemic-related delays, Rage came back with a triumphant Wisconsin show over the weekend. Then, on Monday night, they played the tour’s second show in Chicago, and frontman Zack de la Rocha injured his leg early in the night. He didn’t let that stop him. For the rest of the set, de la Rocha stayed seated on a stage monitor, and the rest of the band came over to hug him at the end of the show, before stagehands carried him off. It looks like the tour will continue, whether or not de la Rocha is able to stand.

Last night, Rage played their second Chicago show. Once again, de la Rocha had to rock the show while sitting down, this time on a stage cabinet. But Rage still blasted through a 17-song set. It included a couple songs that they hadn’t played in the tour’s first two nights. One of those songs was “No Shelter,” which Rage hadn’t played live since 2007. It still sounded sick. Below, check out a fan-made video of the “No Shelter” performance, a couple of other videos from last night’s show, and last night’s setlist, via Setlist.fm.

https://twitter.com/aquariummusicsc/status/1547050935653892098

https://twitter.com/87StarsBen/status/1547070188570517505

SETLIST:
01 “Bombtrack”
02 “People Of The Sun”
03 “Bulls On Parade”
04 “Bullet In The Head”
05 “Testify”
06 “No Shelter”
07 “Wake Up”
08 “Guerrilla Radio”
09 “Vietnow”
10 “Know Your Enemy”
11 “Calm Like A Bomb”
12 “Sleep Now In The Fire”
13 “War Within A Breath”
14 “The Ghost Of Tom Joad” (Bruce Springsteen cover)
15 “Freedom”
16 “Township Rebellion”
17 “Killing In The Name”