Rage Against the Machine to Play War Protest Show During DNC

Already scheduled to play in Minneapolis during the Republican National Convention, Rage Against the Machine prove they are bi-partisan protesters after signing up to play the Tent State Music Festival To End the War, which happens to take place in Denver on August 27th, during the Democratic National Convention. Tickets to the event are free but only available through a lottery you can enter here. Joining Rage at the full-day fest are State Radio, MC5's Wayne Kramer and Denver's own poli-sci rockers Flobots. Flobots will also take part in Democratic portion of "Grammy's Rock the Conventions" on August 26th. Daughtry and Everclear will also take part in that all-acoustic performance. On the Republican side of the Grammy's series, songwriter Brett James (writer of "Jesus, Take the Wheel") and "up-and-coming singer/songwriter" Greg Laswell will perform on September 2nd.

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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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