Tom Morello is looking to the future while embracing the past on his current cross-Canada tour, which began in Vancouver with two electrifying nights at the Commodore Ballrooom on Thursday and Friday (July 10-11).
The Rage Against the Machine guitarist, who music-directed the big Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath farewell concert in the U.K. days earlier, showed no signs of jet lag as he and his Freedom Fighter Orchestra ripped through sets of classics and covers for adoring crowds.
Morello's vision for the future clearly involves charting a music career for teen son Roman Morello, who shredded on guitar alongside his father for a half-dozen songs both Thursday and Friday.
included the MC5's "Kick Out the Jams" as a bonus encore song 鈥� something Morello says the band had never done, until that night's final number.
New was the single "Pretend You Remember Me," a timely dedication to all the families torn apart by state violence and injustice in the U.S. by Trump's ICE goons.
Another new-ish song, "Soldier in the Army of Love," kicked things off with a mighty roar as Morello, clearly proud of his son, hit the stage with Roman to his right.
Friday's concert was slightly tarnished by tech gremlins including a front-of-house power outage early on, and a brief pause for a roadie to tune Morello's guitar before "The Ghost of Tom Joad," played more in the spirit of Bruce Springsteen's original than Rage cover.
Without singer Zack de la Rocha in the house, Morello opts to guitar-riff in medley style, urging the crowd to sing along to "Testify," "Bulls on Parade," "Guerrilla Radio" "Sleep Now in the Fire" and other '90s Rage-ers that caused mosh pits to form.
Likewise, for the old Audioslave hit "Like a Stone," tribute was paid to singer Chris Cornell with a solemn spotlight on the microphone and crowd sing-along moment.
While Morello sings with conviction, his vocal range is pretty limited. He could certainly hire a singer to perform those Rage songs, but would then risk falling into tribute band territory. Simply and smartly, he instead reminds audiences of the monster riffs that made him famous.
Like U2's The Edge, Morello is a master of guitar sounds and effects. Exactly how does he do this or that, sometimes with a cable unplugged for a solo? Who cares, it all sounds amazing.
Always holding the torch for leftist politics, Morello saluted union brothers and sisters before "Hold the Line" before bringing Roman back on stage for the Ozzy classic "Mr. Crowley." (For a good laugh, watch , also with Roman on lead guitar).
Morello is loving Canada right now with electric, full-band concerts this week, ending in Edmonton on Saturday (July 19), followed in October by several nights of "Stories and Music" shows, all in Ontario theatres. Check for dates and details.
