After a long time apart, Rage Against the Machine have announced that they’re joining back together to play a series of shows in 2020. The news broke Friday morning, 11/1, by way of the band’s social media.
As of now, Rage are booked for five shows spanning over the course of March and April. The short reunion will travel through Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before concluding in Indio, California where they are set to headline two weekends of Coachella.
The band first formed in 1991 and officially broke up in 2000. They reunited for a four-year period in 2007 but went their separate ways once again. As a result, Rage haven’t played a show together since 2011 at their L.A. Rising show at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Over the years following the band’s split, band members Tom Morello (guitar), Tim Commerford (bass), and Brad Wilk (drums) have done work with their groups Audio Slave and Prophets of Rage. Front-man Zack de la Rocha, for the most part, has continued on as a solo artist, but did have a brief collaboration in 2008 with his group, One Day as a Lion.
As a politically charged band, the timing of the reunion seems to be no coincidence. The starting date on March 26, 2020, in El Paso, Texas comes just eight months prior to the 2020 presidential election. Rage have always spoken out against the government, and the band is likely to make a statement through their live performance.
In the wake of the Rage reunion news, the side project Prophets of Rage has announced that they are breaking up. In addition to the three members of Rage excluding, Zack de la Rocha, Prophets of Rage was also comprised of Chuck D of Public Enemy and Cypress Hill’s B-Real.
Update: Rage Against the Machine have been added to the 2020 Boston Calling lineup as the Saturday headliner.
