Kanye West, Rage Against the Machine Energize DNC Crowds

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At 1 a.m. Thursday, Jamie Foxx jumped on stage during Kanye West's private-party show at the Exdo Event Center in Denver, surprising even West himself, and the two did a roaring "broke . . . broke" version of "Gold Digger." And that was just a small highlight of West's hour-long set at the packed warehouse-turned-club. He improvised lines about his late mother and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at the end of "Flashing Lights," did killer versions of "Touch the Sky," "Jesus Walks" and "Stronger," and generally rewarded a sweaty crowd at the packed-in party for Bono's anti-hunger One group and the Recording Industry Association of America. Earlier Wednesday, Rage Against the Machine provided the pre-protest soundtrack for Tent State University at the Denver Coliseum. Tom Morello sprayed riffs everywhere for the opening "Guerilla Radio," "Wake Up" and "Killing In the Name." Guitarist Wayne Kramer, who performed at the infamous 1968 Democratic National Convention protest in Chicago, sat in for an explosive take on MC5's classic "Kick Out the Jams." Later, Rage and Denver's Flobots joined thousands of protesters in a peaceful five-mile march to the Pepsi Center, just after Sen. Hillary Clinton demanded her party's vote of acclamation.

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• Crosby & Nash, Tom Morello, New Orleans Musicians Steal "E-Town" Show in Denver
• More Convention Coverage at the National Affairs Blog

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Song Stories

“V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.”

Fishbone | 1985

Quite a few musicians have utilized initials for song titles -- Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T.," Abba's "S.O.S.," Donald Fagen's "I.G.Y.," etc. But the more curiously initialed tune has to be "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.," short for "Voyage to the Land of the Freeze-Dried Godzilla Farts." Fishbone's original guitarist, Kendall Jones, explained to Rolling Stone, "When Norwood [Fisher] wrote it, he introduced it to the band saying, 'Man, I've been hearing about all these Nazi right-wing groups on the news saying the Holocaust was staged. So what if America said it never dropped two atom bombs on Japan, that it was actually Godzilla popping a couple off?' Only Norwood would come up with something that out." The same year "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F." was released, the film Godzilla 1985 appeared in North America.

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