RATM - Dublin (Venue TBA) - July 4th 2020

[Airneanach]

Rage give out stink about the fabled 1%, which they're clearly not a part of. I'm in it for the tunes. There's far worse minds in metal than fucking Zack De La Rocha. Never understood the school of thought that you need to be poor to talk about poverty.

[Cryptic Stench]

Worse minds sure. Music is ace no question. But when you're walking away with a million bucks and doing fuck all about it yourself it's all a bit bono. You know, preaching about taxes yet paying none and opening lucrative supermarkets in Latvia . So no you don't have to be poor to talk about poverty but you do not have to be a cunt.

[Airneanach]

He seems to do a fair bit of activism. More than your average joe. I really don't give a fuck. Battle of Los Angeles is a banger of an album and they should be paid for what they do. Couldn't give a toss about Bono either when I'm enjoying Achtung Baby. Fairly certain he's done more good than me, even though he dodges taxes. Might be a bit of a cunt. Zack? Doubt it. The Irish just hate anyone with notions.

Whatever.

[Cryptic Stench]

The Irish hate anyone with notions? Good lad.

[Airneanach]

The Irish hate anyone with notions? Good lad.

It's an oft-repeated trope in our national discourse with anyone in the media, yeah, although it's fairly obvious I'm intentionally generalising.

Saw a socialist buy a coffee from a SuperValu the other day. The bastard.

[Yung Led Zeppelin]

A lot of highly intelligent people in this thread

[Ollkiller]

Worse minds sure. Music is ace no question. But when you're walking away with a million bucks and doing fuck all about it yourself it's all a bit bono. You know, preaching about taxes yet paying none and opening lucrative supermarkets in Latvia . So no you don't have to be poor to talk about poverty but you do not have to be a cunt.

Ah here all the lads in rage have been in activism in various forms for years. And donate to charity. Christ like. Varg killed someone and people still listen to burzum. Get over it.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Worse minds sure. Music is ace no question. But when you're walking away with a million bucks and doing fuck all about it yourself it's all a bit bono. You know, preaching about taxes yet paying none and opening lucrative supermarkets in Latvia . So no you don't have to be poor to talk about poverty but you do not have to be a cunt.

Who's walking away with a million bucks? Your calculation was 14,000 x €65 = €910,000, gross. So even gross it's not a million, and it's pretty well accepted that concert organisers like MCD, Aiken, etc., take a huge cut compared to in other countries, since the cost of getting a band and crew to Ireland couldn't account for the difference in ticket prices between Ireland and the continent. And, generally speaking, Zack and Bono are nothing like each other in their activism. Zack doesn't sit down to gourmet banquet lunches with world leaders and religious leaders. He visits prisons and does interviews with Chomsky. Sure, the whole being a major label superstar while preaching about inequality seems irreconcilable from the outside, and maybe it is, but there really is no comparison with Bono, who proudly lives like a major label superstar...something no one has ever witnessed Zack doing.

[Paul keohane]

Isnt the whole idea of a celebrity preaching about global poverty etc  is to bring the issue to the attention of the wider public?
Isnt that a good thing?.(regardless of how much money they have)

[Cryptic Stench]

14,000 X €65 = Gross Sales

Yeah I said gross sales.

Well aware of things like venue hire, promoters cut etc but thanks for pointing that out. I may be exaggerating slightly but don't be forgetting merch sales which is a sweet lump of cash.

Anyway, I was rounding up but you're  getting bogged down in minutiae my friend, the point is that they walk away each night with a sizeable  bag of cash. So when they say "We, the poor" doesn't really carry much weight does it?

And when they say we're "putting on a free gig to thank our English fans" it's not really a free gig is it? Everyone else paid for it.

It doesn't stop me listening to them but it is irritating.

I do however take back the Bono comparison.

[Airneanach]

So when they say “We, the poor” doesn’t really carry much weight does it?

You talk about getting bogged down, but you're getting caught up in literalism, here. I'm not even one hundred percent sure that you're quoting him verbatim, but even if you are that statement can be handily explained if you apply a wee bit of imagination to the situation.

Rage's live activism is a bit of a rallying cry. "We, the poor" whips up crowd sentiment through broad inclusivity. Those with power versus those without. Those with real, genuine wealth and capital to influence global shifts versus those who sell a few records and their fans. Yeah, Rage are effectively poor in contrast to the systems of power they speak out against.

Now I'm not saying they're on the ball, or anything. We can dither on the naivete of their politics all day long if it's not your bag. But it's a bag they can get away with.

You've got some knobs out there - sweet Bono reference brah - but by and large this perceived hypocrisy around being a name actor/musician and speaking out against injustice is fucking bullshit. And really boring, to boot.

[Cryptic Stench]

We, the poor" whips up crowd sentiment through broad inclusivity

Not really, the bulk of the crowd at the three arena that night were Ivy League, probably went straight back to working for unethical multinationals .

[Airneanach]

We, the poor" whips up crowd sentiment through broad inclusivity

Not really, the bulk of the crowd at the three arena that night were Ivy League, probably went straight back to working for unethical multinationals .

Oh of course. Most people don't give a toss. Still, that's the idea behind the rhetoric so the point remains.