Tom Morello has been staging benefit shows since before Rage Against the Machine made him an icon: $10 at the door, proceeds to a homeless shelter, guitars loud enough to wage a sonic revolt against the establishment.
asserted
him → stag → establishment
Last year, while serving as musical director of Back to the Beginning, the Birmingham farewell concert for Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath, he began imagining something bigger: a multigenerational, multigenre festival built on his foundational proposition that music can be an act of resistance—aimed squarely at Donald Trump and the forces he has unleashed.
asserted
he → serve → Trump
"It's no accident that the concert was about three weeks out from the midterms," Morello told me after the Oct. 3 Power to the People show at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md., less than 30 minutes from the capital whose balance of power those elections will decide.
asserted
elections → tell → power
In a time where injustice is rampant, this is a festival celebrating those who are standing up against injustice.
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who → celebrate → injustice
And in a time where artists are either being canceled or censoring themselves, it was a guarantee the artists were going to be able to play what they wanted to play and say what they wanted to say."
asserted
they → cancel → what
To that end, Morello assembled a sprawling roster of rebels and rock-n-roll royalty: Joan Baez and Public Enemy; Jack Black and the Dropkick Murphys; Cypress Hill and Nathaniel Rateliff; Killer Mike and Serj Tankian; Stephen Stills and Dave Matthews and the Foo Fighters.
asserted
Morello → assemble → rebels
Headlining the event was Bruce Springsteen, fresh off a 20-show tour that had become a nightly rebuke of Trump, MAGA, and the authoritarian currents he saw threatening the American experiment.
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he → headline → experiment
Power to the People suggested a rebellious energy stirring at a moment when many artists had grown wary of speaking out, fearful of backlash, of alienating part of their audience, of the wrath of an administration that has repeatedly targeted prominent critics.
uncertain
that → suggest → critics
"I feel as though we're trying to turn the tide and we're facing a tsunami," said Baez, who sang alongside Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger during the protest movements of the 1960s and '70s.
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who → feel → 1960s
Then she turned to the crowd.
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she → turn → crowd
With Rateliff beside her, she launched into a haunting rendition of Woody Guthrie's "Deportee."
asserted
she → launch → Deportee
Inevitably, the place felt like a progressive family reunion: aging boomers who carry the counterculture as a kind of secular inheritance; younger activists animated by rage against corporate power, democratic erosion, and the war in Gaza; keffiyehs, protest shirts, and homemade placards scattered across the grounds.
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who → feel → grounds
One read, Keep the Immigrants. Deport the Racists.
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One → read → Racists
MS NOW livestreamed the proceedings.
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NOW → livestreame → proceedings
It would be easy to dismiss the show as an exercise in preaching to the converted.
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It → dismiss → converted
But movements have to begin somewhere, and politics is downstream of culture.
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politics → have → culture
If the message travels beyond the lawn, Power to the People may come to represent one of the seminal cultural events of the era: a gathering of artists, at a liminal moment in American life, turning their influence into a political insurgency to preserve the nation's democratic future.
uncertain
Power → travel → future
Morello had been planning the festival for more than a year, but he says the "turning point" came after the Operation Metro Surge, when Trump administration deployed roughly 3,000 federal officers to Minneapolis this winter for the largest immigration-enforcement operation in the country, which culminated in the killings of two Americans, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
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which → plan → Americans
"When you're putting on a show like this, managers and agents are not always eager to get involved," Morello told me.
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Morello → put → me
But after Minneapolis, something changed.
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something → change → Minneapolis
"Artists started calling me up and raising their hand, saying, 'I understand you're putting on a festival.
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you → call → festival
Can I be involved?'"
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I → involve → ?
One was Ken Casey, frontman of the Dropkick Murphys, who tore through a 12-song set that ended with the band's signature anthem, "I'm Shipping Up to Boston," built around lyrics by Guthrie.
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I → tear → Guthrie
"Days like today let us know that there's a community out there that wants to see a peaceful America, an empathetic America, a unified America, that wants to see control of our government given back to the people," Casey told me.
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Casey → let → me
The concert began at one in the afternoon and ran for 10 hours, the history of American protest music compressed into a single day.
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history → begin → day
During Morello's early-evening set, Tankian from System of a Down joined him for Audioslave's "Like a Stone," a tribute to Morello's late bandmate Chris Cornell.
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Tankian → join → bandmate
Macklemore, recently dropped as an opener on Ed Sheeran's tour because of pressure from New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft over the artist’s pro-Palestinian advocacy, had been invited but was unavailable.
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Macklemore → drop → advocacy
So he sent a video message that played on the giant screens.
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that → send → screens
The controversy itself reinforced the festival's defiant argument—rebelling against a world where speaking out still carries a price.
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speaking → reinforce → price
The lineage grew explicit as the night wore on.
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night → grow → ?
Baez, Rateliff, and Matthews joined for "Deportee," then moved into the civil-rights standard "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around."
asserted
Nobody → join → Me
As they left the stage, Stephen Stills appeared and reached back to another era of upheaval with Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth."
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It → leave → What
Cypress Hill followed, then Public Enemy with their landmark "Fight the Power," then Dave Matthews.
asserted
Hill → follow → Power
The Foo Fighters opened their set with "Times Like These," a song born of uncertainty and near-fracture for the band that transformed into an anthem of renewal.
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that → open → renewal
They closed with "Everlong." a track about the desire to make a perfect moment last forever, despite knowing that it can’t.
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it → close → desire
At 76, he summoned the power and energy that have defined him over a half century, as he occupies yet another role now, too: the elder statesman among a generation of musicians deciding how much to risk by taking a stand.
asserted
he → summon → stand
"When you have a guy that's at that stage of his life, he's done all the stuff, he's comfortable, he didn't have to go on the road and do that and put the crosshairs on himself, but he did it anyway," Casey said.
asserted
Casey → have → it
"If artists can't take a lead from that, then my God, nobody's paying attention."
asserted
nobody → take → attention
Springsteen opened with "Streets of Minneapolis," his protest song against Operation Metro Surge, written days after ICE flooded Minnesota's streets and murdered two protestors.
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ICE → open → protestors
He then brought Baez onstage for a searing acoustic rendition of Dylan’s "Chimes of Freedom.”
asserted
He → bring → Freedom
…and 18 more, not listed.
The Aporia
