Tom Morello Rages and Rallies at Irving Plaza

Tom Morello co-founded Rage Against the Machine in 1991 in Los Angeles, California, but he was born in 1964 in Harlem, New York City. Granted, his mother moved him as an infant to Libertyville, Illinois, but his sold-out Tom Morello & Friends concerts this week at Warsaw and Irving Plaza were nonetheless a homecoming. Honoring his city of origin, Morello’s two local shows featured surprise guest appearances by some of New York City’s underground legends.

The Tom Morello & Friends concert at Irving Plaza was billed as "an electric full band show." Morello’s touring band consisted of three longtime associates, guitarist/vocalist Carl Restivo, bassist David Gibbs, and drummer Eric Gardner. They also supported the musicians that Morello invited on stage.

Morello is as much a musician as a political and social activist so, as always, his performance rocked hard with both live music and activist rallying. “It is a historical fact that there has never been a successful social movement in the United States that has not had a great soundtrack,” Morello declared to the audience. Tonight, his music was the soundtrack.

Breaking music industry traditions, Morello had no new music to promote on this 10-day, seven-show tour. Although the vocalist/guitarist has collaborated with many artists on random songs in recent years, he has not released a collection of his own new music since his two The Atlas Underground albums in late 2021. As such, his 2025 setlists consisted of songs from his solo and group albums, including many deep cuts, as well as a sprinkling of cover songs.

The local concerts began with a set by the Neighborhood Kids, a hard rocking duo of Latinx rappers from San Diego, California, backed by both a turntablist and a band. Rappers Verde and Amon the MC established the group in 2020 and five years later, “Kids in the Cages,” a viral rage rap anthem responding to ICE raids, turned the Neighborhood Kids into what Morello called his “new favorite band.” Morello first featured the Neighborhood Kids at his Defend LA concert this past summer.

After the Neighborhood Kids’ set and an intermission, Tom Morello & Friends curiously launched the headline performance with two hard-riffing songs that Morello wrote with his teenage son, Romeo. This ushered into a medley of four fan-favorite Rage Against the Machine songs. Morello rapped, Restivo sang, yet much of the music dispensed with lyrics altogether as the quartet ripped into crunching blasts of sledgehammer rock.

Morello held his guitar high and low as his guitar licks soared and raged savagely. He intuitively picked and tapped his strings, and liberally used guitar effects and feedback. From the start, his commanding presence and talent could not be unnoticed -- except that he is not the most convincing rapper.

Later in the set, Morello and his band performed a second medley of Rage Against the Machine songs. The set also revived songs Morello recorded with Audioslave and songs he recorded independently as the Nightwatchman during those Audioslave years. While the axis of most of the set was Morello’s signature hard rock, he also played the blues and recalled the folk tradition of protest music.

Halfway through the set in Manhattan, as he prepared for a quieter interlude, Morello tuned an acoustic guitar and asked the audience to use the time to “make more noise than Irving Plaza has ever heard.” With the audience in the palm of his hand, a few minutes later he asked the audience for total silence as he introduced “The Garden of Gethsemane.” He promised that after the song, the concert would be “all heavy metal for the rest of the set.”

Before leading a raucous version of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is your Land,” he reminded the audience that Guthrie wrote the song “not for the billionaires and oligarchs but for the people.” Morello added that members of the Guthrie family were in the audience. A few minutes into the song, he turned the microphone to the audience, subtly inviting the fans to embrace the song as their own by shouting the chorus.

Tom Morello with members of Gogol Bordello

Throughout the evening, Morello spoke articulately between songs about contemporary social injustices and criticized government leadership. He told his fans that he was “deputizing” them in the battle against fascism. When he did not speak, his guitars carried the preaching; several of his guitars were emblazoned with mini-messages, including “Soul Power”, “Whatever It Takes”, “Black Spartacus”, “F— ICE” and “Arm the Homeless.”

Morello also shared humorous quips related to his musical journey. He said the first person in New York City to hear Rage Against the Machine’s music live was the janitor in a venue the band was about to play. According to Morello, the janitor told him that the music made him “want to fight.”

Tom Morello with Vernon Reid and Cory Glover of Living Colour

Tom Morello with Jesse Malin and members of Living Colour

On a more sentimental note, Morello congratulated Soundgarden on the band’s 2025 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. A photograph of the late Chris Cornell appeared on the screen behind the stage as Morello shared a lengthy story about his band mate in Audioslave. Morello named Cornell as “one of the most beautiful and ferocious voices in all of rock music.” Morello explained than he and the band were leaving an unattended mic stand at center stage in honor of Cornell. Morello and his band then played Audioslave’s “Like a Stone.”

Morello and his band would have been more than enough for a mighty concert. Guest appearances made the show even better. Ike Reilly, Morello’s childhood friend from Libertyville, Verde and Amon the MC from the Neighborhood Kids and Cory Glover and Vernon Reid of Living Colour joined Morello and his band on stage at both Warsaw and Irving Plazza. Local heroes Eugene Hütz of Gogol Bordello, Jesse Malin (in a wheelchair), and Darryl “D.M.C.” McDaniels of Run-D.M.C. made guest appearances at Irving Plaza.

In the end, the Irving Plaza audience witnessed an outstanding concert. If there is to be a successful social movement, Morello provided the soundtrack. He also provided the merchandise. Hundreds of fans leaving the main room at Irving Plaza filtered into the merchandise area in the lobby extension. There, they could purchase souvenirs of Morello and the Neighborhood Kids, as well as other t-shirts and souvenirs with political commentary. Through merchandise, fans could relive the concert and take a political stance. In this age, the centuries-old American tradition of protest music has a soundtrack and also a merchandise line.

Tom Morello with Ike Reilly

Tom Morello with Verde and Amon the MC of the Neighborhood Kids and Ike Reilly

Setlist

1. Soldier in the Army of Love
2. One Last Dance
3. Testify / Take the Power Back / Freedom / Snakecharmer (Rage Against the Machine songs)
4. Let’s Get the Party Started
5. Hold the Line
6. One Man Revolution (The Nightwatchman song)
7. Secretariat
8. Cato Stedman & Neptune Frost
9. We Mean It, Man! (Gogol Bordello song, with members of Gogol Bordello)
10. Keep Going (Tom Morello & the Bloody Beetroots song)
11. The Last Rung on the Ladder
12. The Garden of Gethsemane (The Nightwatchman song)
13. This Land Is Your Land (Woody Guthrie cover, with Ike Reilly and the Neighborhood Kids)
14. Pretend You Remember Me
15. Bombtrack / Know Your Enemy / Bulls on Parade / Guerilla Radio / Sleep Now in the Fire / Bullet in the Head / Cochise (Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave songs)
16. Like a Stone (Audioslave song)
17. The Ghost of Tom Joad (Bruce Springsteen cover)
18. Cult of Personality (Living Colour song, with Cory Glover and Vernon Reid of Living Colour)
19. Kick Out the Jams (MC5 cover, with Jesse Malin and Cory Glover and Vernon Reid of Living Colour)
20. King of Rock (Run‐D.M.C. cover, with Darryl “D.M.C.” McDaniels)
21. Tricky (Run‐D.M.C. cover, with Darryl “D.M.C.” McDaniels)
22. Killing in the Name (Rage Against the Machine song)
23. Power to the People (John Lennon cover)
24. Rock and Roll All Nite (Kiss cover, with many of the guest artists)

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The Manhattan Beat covers New York City's live music circuit. All articles are written by Everynight Charley Crespo. All photographs are taken by Everynight Charley Crespo, except when noted otherwise.

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