It was like a repeat scene from Rage Against the Machine's infamous video for the single "Sleep Now in the Fire". In the video directed by filmmaker Michael Moore members of the L.A. agit-rock band play under the watchful eyes of New York's finest, following the city's refusal to issue a permit for them to play at the New York Stock Exchange.

Now the scene moves to Grant Park, downtown Chicago, the place where members of Rage Against the Machine lead singer Zach de la Rocha, guitarist Tom Morello, bass player Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk did their headline grabbing performance for Lollapalooza, one of America's most important summer rock festivals.

Minutes before Rage's performance, massed police from the Chicago Police Department stood on guard at the entrance to the AT&T stage, where the quartet was expected to play at 8.30 p.m. last week. In contrast, no police were visible during earlier performances from groups such as Wilco, Explosions in the Sky, Broken Social Scene or Radiohead.

At around 9 p.m. local time, the authorities could have had even stronger arguments to stop the show when, after only three songs, hundreds of over enthusiastic fans at the very front started to gate-crash the stage.

I feared that Rage would finally call off the show, when midway through their third song "Bullet in the Head", de la Rocha stopped singing (or rapping to be exact) and anxiously told the crowd to back up a little bit.

"I promise that we will play all of our set list tonight only if you agree to take a five-step back," de la Rocha told the crowd. And staying true to his reputation as a bonafide agitator he pleaded with the crowd to channel their aggression to where it belonged. "Save that s**t for the streets," he reprimanded the fans.

Several times de la Rocha had to stop the show, the last time to help those at the very front to get up onstage to avoid serious injuries.

Such was the danger of attending the show of one of the most incendiary bands on the planet. It was a risk worth taking if only it for the revolutionary fervor the band had to offer.

It was one of those hair-raising moments in music, knowing fully well that you, with left fist pumped high up in the air, were chanting the anti-establishment slogans from Rage's lyrics together with close on 75,000 people gathered at a venue in the heart of the world's biggest capitalist nation.

In the shows of Canadian indie rockers Broken Social Scene or Texas-based guitar band Explosions in the Sky earlier in the evening, most in the audience were white, college-age youths who merrily danced to the tunes, but in the Rage Against the Machine show Latinos, Asian-Americans, African Americans, Rastafarians (at least I thought so from their dreadlocks) all joined the anti-establishment chorus along with the white kids I saw dancing to Devotchka tunes earlier in the afternoon.

Even for those who have stopped believing in revolution, for a moment they must have felt that revolution was nigh in the streets of Chicago.

Or even if it was not a revolution, I still got goose-bumps from joining my fellow Americans religiously belting out the lyrics from "Testify", one of Rage's hits from The Battles of Los Angeles, their last album prior to their dissolution in 2000.

I'm empty please fill me//Mister anchor assure me//That Baghdad is burning//Your voice it is so soothing//That cunning mantra of killing//

Penned in 1999, this song is more relevant now than ever. And in between the smell of pot, beers and sweat the youthful angst and anger were palpable.

Yet, only one year ago, this type of scene was unlikely to happen. For people like me, seeing Rage Against the Machine performing live was almost a miracle.

The likelihood of Rage Against the Machine staging a show in Southeast Asia is small and such a possibility was further diminished when in 2000, after only three studio albums, the band called it a day for the oft-quoted reason, members' "creative differences". I suspect that de la Rocha was just bored and decided to leave his bandmates soldiering on with their new mediocre band Audioslave.

After three middle-of-the-road albums from Audioslave and de la Rocha's low-key solo projects, the band decided to reunite in 2007 and performed their first show in seven years at the Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival in Southern California in April 2007.

Rage's performance at the Lollapalooza 2008 was among a handful of shows they made after the reunion and it was indeed an electrifying performance. For a single-day pass of US$80 (with a bonus of tons of other performances from lesser-known bands) it was money well spent.

De la Rocha's rapping and political convictions were as fiery as ever. Donning a red shirt and three-color-wristband, the slightly older de la Rocha -- descendant of a Chicano rebel -- jumped, fist-pumped and ran round the stage in between leading the crowd with verses and choruses. It also gave me a funny feeling seeing de la Rocha and Morello, two forty-something folks jumping and running around on stage.

As anyone could expect, de la Rocha was as political as ever. Midway through the show, while Wilk pounded his drum for an intermission, de la Rocha made a speech, threatening Barack Obama that if he won the White House but didn't withdraw troops from Iraq, then he'd have a nation of angry, militant youths at his front door.

Morello, with his trademark "Unite" hat and short-sleeve brown shirt, delivered as only the world's best guitarist could. His guitar playing was as riffy as Southern rock, as dirty as grunge, as insistent as hip-hop scratching. He is a one-man army of guitar heroes, with his axe producing a wide range of guitar histrionics from pure heavy metal riffs to funky wah wah.

Every opening riff was met with screaming and shout-outs from the crowd and each guitar solo took them to a higher ecstatic state.

Wilk's and Commerford's rhythm sections were taut enough to leave no sonic space in between Morello's guitar wizardry.

It was these combinations that have won Rage accolades from critics. The band's two recorded works, their self-titled debut and The Battles of Los Angeles were respectively at number 368 and 426 of the Rolling Stone magazine's list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. And with albums like Getz/Gilberto by Stan Getz being placed at number 454, you know what this means.

And when the stage turned dark and what was left was the huge red star sign and Che Guevara picture beaming from the spotlight, I, just like everyone else at Grant Park that night, was thinking to myself how lucky I was to catch this rare performance.

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