Long Beach’s late, great Zed Records was literally responsible for punk rock coming to America. Owner Mike Zampelli’s brother moved to England in the ’70s and would ship punk records straight to the Southern California shop. A scene was born, and nurtured for over 25 years until the place closed in 2000.
The third and longest-lasting incarnation of the shop existed in a strip mall near a busy traffic circle. The store didn’t host many shows because it was a small room crowded with records and shirts, and because it had no permit to do so. One of the few gigs to go down at Zed’s was Rage Against the Machine in March of 1992. Now, through the wonders of YouTube and some former employees, we can watch and listen to a young band playing an illegal show before it went on to massive major-label success.
All of the songs, except the second one, “Darkness” made it onto the debut self-titled album that would come out eight months after this performance. “Darkness” was later released as bonus material on a reissue.
The rhythm section is more seen than heard, and there are plenty of too-close-ups on Tom Morello’s chest hair, and not much of the crowd, but the sound is very good. A 22-year-old Zach De La Rocha is a powerful firebrand almost too intense for the room (or this mix), reading lyrics he had yet to memorize on “Settle For Nothing” and working through a busted microphone with a crowd that already knows the “Now you do what they told ya” and “Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me” parts of “Killing in the Name.”
Watching this, one can’t help but think of Rage headlining Coachella seven years after this, or rocking a sold-out LA Coliseum after that. Here’s all that power in a space about the size of your living room.
And now the vid’s gone.
Sick sad world.
This sure made me feel somehow young and old at once. What a kick-ass time capsule, and exactly one month before the King verdicts set off the riots.
Some people were actually disappointed in this gig because Zach had been in some straight edge HC bands before, and when he shifted to politics, the no-drugs crowd did not feel the buzz.