Headlining Lollapalooza 2008 as part of their reunion appearances, Rage Against The Machine dominated the festival's second day with the band's signature delivery.
Needless to say, after the band's hiatus, fans went nuts for the performance, so much so that singer Zack De la Rocha had to repeatedly stop the show and ask the audience to step back away from the heaving barricades.
After Lupe Fiasco's set two hours before, I made the executive decision to skip additional bands that day and camped out waiting for Rage.
Even before this show started, anticipation – and nerves – were high. Security and production were on edge about safety, and before the show started, the decision was made to limit photographers to just 25 on a first-come-first-served basis, regardless of publication.
As evidenced by this photo set, I squeezed in at #16 while dozens of other photographers were forced to brave the pit and shoot from the crowd to secure their shots.
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Photographer's Notes:
This show was totally nuts. There was such a tense atmosphere around Rage Against The Machine's performance, that even those of us that were allowed in the photo pit were unsure of how long we'd be able to shoot.
One tremendous challenge was that for Rage's show, security forced all photographers to shoot from very close to the stage, giving security maximum room to deal with crowd surfers and people who had to be pulled from the crowd. Considering the already very high stages, this made shooting a beast.
This was all Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8, all the way. The acute shooting angle meant that a wider lens like the 24-70mm was almost useless except for a few instances.
Altogether, I think photographers got about one and a half songs before security pulled the plug and we were escorted out.
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