*Rage Against the Machine*
Like baseball season ending when the cold fall days start to arrive, Rage Against the Machine, who disbanded in 2000 on the eve of George W. Bush's ascendancy, seemed to leave us just when we needed them the most.
But there was frontman Zack de la Rocha onstage at Alpine Valley Friday, Aug. 24, declaring that, while most congressional Democrats are too timid to slap a meaningless censure resolution on Bush, Rage would have no problem seeing him tried and executed for war crimes.
Thankfully, after a long, seven-year wait, history's premiere hard-leftist rock band is back.
As astonishing and prophetic as de la Rocha's militant poetry"" was - can a song like ""Vietnow"" have ever been more relevant? - it's easy to forget how good Rage's music was, too. Many have tried, but no band has ever come close to combining the potential power of both rock and rap the way Rage has. The convergence of Tom Morello's radical guitar technique and de la Rocha's alternating current of flow-spitting and metal-screaming was a once-in-a-generation musical event.
No new album is planned as of now, but the mere idea is almost unbearably tantalizing. Judging from how happy they looked performing in East Troy, though, a new album in, say, November '08 or so looks very possible.
- Dan Wohl
*The Police*
Notorious for physical confrontations and battling egos, many thought the Police's 1984 Synchronicity tour would be their last.
Twenty-three years later, the Police reunited in celebration of the 30th anniversary of their hit single ""Roxanne"" with a performance of the song at the Grammy's and a year-long tour that is set to hit nearly every corner of the Earth. Even with ticket prices ranging from $50-250, many stops on the tour sold out in minutes.
In July, the Police hosted a two-night stand at Chicago's historic Wrigley Field and played to an estimated 40,000 people each night. Absent from these performances was the band's high energy live show, which made the band stand out during their rise to fame in the late '70s, but the Police's more mature sound has allowed each member to showcase how he has developed into an excellent musician over the years.
Highlights of the Chicago show included a rousing rendition of ""Every Little Thing She Does is Magic,"" a spacey and extended ""Can't Stand Losing You"" and an impressive ""Driven To Tears,"" which proved how underrated Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland really are as musicians. If you fancy yourself even a slight fan of the Police, be sure to catch the band in 2008 when they will likely return to the Midwest.
- Brien Barrett
*Van Halen*
Van Halen's nearly two-and-a-half-decade-long merry-go-round of lead singers appears to have finally reached a halt - for now.
Guitar virtuoso Eddie Van Halen and original Van Halen lead singer David Lee Roth have quelled their notorious animosity and put a Band-Aid on their rancorous relationship to engineer their first Van Halen tour together in more than 22 years. The classically trained Van Halen brothers, Eddie and Alex, along with the charismatic showmaster Roth, redefined rock with their emergence in the late 1970s - earning admittance into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March this year.
Eddie Van Halen's revolutionary, lightning-quick guitar techniques are indelibly imprinted upon almost every hard rock/heavy metal band that followed Van Halen, and the band rode their unique sound to a litany of No. 1 singles and massive album sales until Roth's falling out with the band in 1985.
Van Halen played a perpetual game of musical chairs with lead singers Sammy Hagar, Gary Cherone and Roth until months of recent speculation finally culminated on Aug. 13, 2007 with the announcement of a 25-date North American Van Halen/Roth reunion tour - resulting in immediate sell outs and additional dates.
If you aim to catch this highly coveted reunion act, look for Eddie Van Halen's teenage son - a wizard on the bass - to play beside his father and uncle as he replaces former member Michael Anthony for the tour, which includes dates in Illinois on Oct. 16 and 18 and in Minneapolis on the 24th. And if you've got hopes of a new album, Roth told Billboard.com, ""We're already plotting and planning.""
- Alex Morrell
*The Smashing Pumpkins*
During summer 2005, the Smashing Pumpkins' guitarist/lead singer Billy Corgan put out ads in Chicago newspapers advertising his desire to reunite the Smashing Pumpkins.
This past summer, Corgan's dream came to fruition as the Pumpkins released an album, Zeitgeist, and embarked on a world tour for the first time in seven years. Prior to the tour and release of Zeitgeist, skepticism surrounded the band and the fact that founding guitarist James Iha and bassist D'arcy would be absent from the reunion, and some said it would not be the Smashing Pumpkins without the two.
Upon their first show in Paris, many critical voices were silenced as the Pumpkins proved that the only essential members of the Pumpkins are Corgan and drumming virtuoso Jimmy Chamberlin. Throughout the summer, the band has played mostly Europeans dates along with a few festivals and a week-and-a-half long residence in both San Francisco and Asheville, N.C. The Pumpkins recently announced their first North American tour since 2000.
Most noticeably absent from the dates are shows in Wisconsin and the Pumpkins' home town of Chicago, so you might have to wait until winter to bask in the Pumpkins' reunion glory close to home.
- Brien Barrett
*Genesis*
After 40 years, nearly 20 albums and vast commercial and critical celebration, the most surprising omission from the legacy of Genesis is the discord and venomous loathing that plague many bands and inhibit successful reunions. Far from dysfunctional, this Phil Collins-led progressive rock contingent boasts more congeniality than the Brady Bunch.
""This isn't the most natural environment for us, but we do get on really, really well,"" admitted Collins at their Nov. 7, 2006 press conference for their Turn It On Again tour.
""We just had two weeks in New York, and it was 50 percent laughing - well, 25 percent laughing, 25 percent playing and 50 percent hanging around. It was great fun.""
Their harmonious rapport begs the obvious question: Why the 15 year absence?
""We just sort of felt that now was the kind of right time to have a go, really ... we kind of [brought] it up every time we sat down together to talk about it - and sometimes we talked ourselves out of it and we just decided that this was as good a time as any to sort of actually do something,"" Collins remarked.
The lineup for their Turn It On Again tour includes original members Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks as well as long-time supporting musicians Daryl Stuermer and Chester Thompson, but talks with original members Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett to perform Genesis' 1974 concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway live on tour stalled, though future plans were not ruled out. The U.S. leg of the Turn It On Again tour commences Sept. 5 in Toronto and includes three dates in Chicago from Oct. 2-4.
- Alex Morrell
