Rage Against The Machine - Live At The Grand Olympic Auditorium [2000]

Amazon.co.uk Review

This imaginatively titled release contains both footage of Rage Against the Machine in concert and uncensored versions of six of the group's videos. This isn't quite the value for money it might sound, since most of their videos are heavily reliant on concert footage anyway, and in a couple of cases it's difficult to tell one from the other.

That said, the concert footage, taken from a few different RATM shows, is crisply shot and conveys enough of RATM's intoxicating (if one-dimensional) ferocity to be effective. A couple of the videos are also worth seeing, if only because they wouldn't have much hope of getting played on television: the clip for "Freedom", especially, is a clever and acute retelling of the story of American Indian Movement activist Leonard Peltier, shortly to complete his third decade of imprisonment.

On the DVD: Rage Against the Machine on disc has a choice of stereo sound or Dolby Digital 5.1. English subtitles are available on most tracks. Special features include a track selector, contacts for organisations with which RATM are sympathetic, and a book list largely comprising indigestible polemical tracts of the sort often bought, but rarely read, by the earnest students who constitute Rage Against the Machine's core audience. However, given that most bands use any spare capacity on their DVDs to flog T-shirts, RATM deserve credit for trying something different. --Andrew Mueller

Customer Reviews:

This isnt live at the grand olympic auditorium.......2006-01-21

Many, but not all, reviewers seem to be confusing this DVD with Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium. This is a DVD re-release of a much earlier video. So Cypress Hill aren't on it, and there actually are no songs from Battle of LA because that hadnt be made at the time. Personally it is my favourite Rage DVD, the performances seem to me to be stronger than on Battle of Mexico City/Live at Grand. But it could just be because i prefer the material. By the end of their existence Rage were playing very little from the underrated Evil Empire. Live versions of tracks like Vietnow and Tire Me are therefore only on this release and not the later two, which have more emphasis on the Battle of LA album which i think is a bit weaker. Of course, the self-titled first album gets a good showing on all their DVDS. This one also starts with Ghost of Tom Joad, a brilliant cover, and a better version than the one that would appear on the Renegades album.

As Tom said: "A good song should make you wanna tap your foot and get with your girl. A great song should destroy cops and set fire to the suburbs. I'm only interested in writing great songs." This is full of great performances of great songs

In One Word, THE-BEST-DVD-EVER!!!! I hyphonated, didn't I?.......2005-01-13

Well, it is RATM, so what would you expect? This is the closest I have got to seeing them live as I only started getting into them when they split up. It does a damn good job as well. You really feel like you are there. I also saw a review earlier on that said that there weren't any from Battle Of Los Angeles, well actually the majority of the songs are from there. Also the people at Amazon have no taste in music as they said that this was bad and Renegades was shoddy too when I think it was their most original album (even though it is all covers... its hard to explain and I can't be bothered...). Well whatever, this is the best DVD ever and there is also a special performance with Cypress Hill which is very good. The only flaws are the videos for How I could Just Kill A Man and Bombtrack (alternate video) as they were not made too well and HICJKAM just relies on live performances... but it is not too big a flaw as they are great songs. Special features include their performance at the Democratic National Convention 2000, two special performances and the two vids i mentioned earlier. Overall Zach's storng political voice is brought out in songs so well, Tim's thumping bass is great, Brad's nimble hands on the drums just blow you away and Tom; well, lets just say he wasn't voted best guitarist of the year at the Grammy's 4 years running for nothing...

Great Performances, Rubbish Quality.......2004-07-16

Okay, let's start with the good. This DVD has some incredible performances from the best live band in the world, especially Tom Morello's solos. They rock. There's a bit where he uses the jack lead to make the noises by pressing it against the bridge and... I'm not gonna bore you with the details. Despite the legendary live stuff, the videos are crap, the picture quality sucks, and the sound is rubbish, even on 5.1.
It's worth the money, though, but you're better buying Live At The Grand Olympic Auditorium.

A must have Rage DVD for all Rage fans.......2004-03-17

This DVD is great. Here it is, their last ever show as a band and performing all their best and well known songs all on 1 seperate DVD. They perform at great quality and never make mistakes. Their best songs on it are Bulls On Parade, People of The Sun, Freedom, Testify, Born Of A Broken man, Bombtrack, Bullet In The Head and of course their classic song Killing In The Name live. And if that wasn't enough then you also get 2 bonus performances plus the rare promo videos to Bombtrack and How I could just kill a man. If you are a big RATM fan and like all their music and their other DVDs then this is a must for you.

Get yer moneys worth.......2004-02-20

To start with, the sound quality on this DVD is perfect, having hooked up my dvd player to my Stereo, the quality was crystal clear, and none of this out of sync rubbish which I've heard about on other Rage DVDs.

The Main gig on this DVD has a great selection of tracks and goes on for a fair amount of time, and, as a extra brucey bonus, it also includes 6 tracks from another performance held at the Democratic Convention 2000. This Isn't just a bit of filler for the DVD, its almost like another whole gig (well, a bit shorter) If by now, you still havn't had enough RATM, then there are a couple of extra music videos to watch, "How I could Just Kill a Man" and "Bombtrack".

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