Rage Against the Machine Schedule Show Near Republican Convention

Following their near-riot-inducing performance at this weekend's Lollapalooza, Rage Against the Machine have scheduled another concert they probably hope has similar results. The band announced that they'll perform in Minneapolis' Target Center on September 3rd, which is significant because that's the same week the Republican National Convention rolls into the Twin City of St. Paul. In 2000, the band played an outdoor show in Los Angeles during the Democratic National Convention, and that show ended with police using tear gas and pepper spray. In the announcement of the Minneapolis show, Rage made no mention of the political overtones their show will carry, but Tom Morello has already revealed he will play a union rally with Steve Earle in St. Paul on September 1st, the first day of the RNC. Protest isn't free, though: tickets for Rage's show in Prince's hometown are $60 and go on sale Saturday.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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