In another amusing piece of news today, Pitchfork Media reports that Rage Against the Machine was barred from performing on stage in Minnesota! Given RATM’s propensity for getting a crowd excited, one might expect that this series of events would turn out very, very ugly. (More information below the fold, including video from the rally)

Amusingly enough though, that is not at all what happened. After being told they could not perform on stage (by means of a seemingly bogus technicality related to the Ripple Effect’s permit for the day’s event) the boys from RATM went into the crowd armed with just a single megaphone and performed a few of their hits with Tom Morello orally reproducing his guitar skills and Zack de la Rocha on vocals entirely a capella. The result is a rather endearing, and as the Pitchfork Staff put it “cute” moment.

While this particular performance hardly lives up to Rage’s reputation, no doubt they’ll remember it as some kind of pivotal moment in the 2008 election year. (I’m reminded of a RATM cover band we heard playing outside of the Capital on Independence Day this year… That performance also left much to be desired, but at least the band who played managed to get a stage to play on.)