Nearly 8 times larger than any of their previous Rock the Bells (RTB) Festival's, Guerilla Union (the event organizers) brought nearly 50,000 people to the middle of nowhere, The Hyundai Pavilion at Glen Helen on August 11 for a day of music and madness.

It wasn't by chance that the event's attendance inflated, it was a result of genre bending headliner, a recently reunited Rage Against the Machine (RATM). RTB in years past has always been a primarily Hip-Hop event with headliners like A Tribe Called Quest and Wu-Tang Clan (twice) but never by an act with RATM's broad appeal and hardcore following. Not that they weren't a good fit, if you polled any amount of past RTB attendees and asked them their favorite rock group their answer would most likely be "I don't really like rock but RATM is dope." Another common ground shared by both genres is RATM's willingness to vocalize their political issues, a throwback to Public Enemy as well as up coming acts of today like Immortal Technique (both of whom are also on this events bill).

The festival grew so large this year that a third stage had to be added to accommodate all the acts. The main stage featuring both the larger independent artists and mainstream artists was hosted by Supernatural and Rahzel who would fill time for 20 minutes (or so) between each act. The performances were moved along with the aid of a countdown timer indicating the time of their set remaining. For the most part, I was impressed with how well it kept the show moving along aside from obvious glitches (artists not arriving on time). The "Paid Dues" stages (the second and third stages located side by side) were located a good half mile from the main stage and featured strictly independent artists. As one act would finish their set, the next act (usually) began immediately following on the adjacent stage (one crowd, two stages).

Festival's are a unique thing in being that everyone is there for the music, but in a way the music is almost secondary because of everything that is happening around you so I'm going break this event down in two parts, the music and the festival. So much of what is happening around you effects how you perceive the acts on stage and it sometimes clouds the way you perceive the performances. I had a unique perspective because while I had a press pass and watched a large portion of the show from the photo pit and the sidelines, I also had people I knew with vendor booths next to Paid Dues stages so I bounced in between both from time to time and also joined in the general admittance pit for a fair amount of the show and was able to experience all the "festival" events in between.

Let's talk about performances first. Like I said earlier, I had a press pass and when I do cover shows I always ask myself when its over if I would have paid for them and my answer after seeing the performances is yes, I would have definitely paid to see this show based on two or three specific performances alone even though I have seen many of the acts before in better venues and more than half of them at previous Rock the Bells shows. 

Hosts Supernatural and Rahzel were dope as usual. Supernat's "3 MC's" routine where he imitates other MC's is sounding a little rough but his freestyles about items the crowd hands him will never get old. DJ's C-Minus, Mark Luv and Icey Ice did a good job of keeping the crowd interested when the hosts weren't on stage even wisely spinning some Reggae to (attempt to) calm the crowd before RATM's set. On the main stage I missed openers Jedi Mind Tricks because of issues with getting into the venue but I was able to make it in midway through RTB veteran Immortal Technique's set. Tech did his best to get the still entering crowd into his show and went though his political spiel which probably would have gone over better later in the day with a bigger crowd who most likely had never seen him before. It was great for him to be on the main stage but it's too bad more people didn't get to see him because I'm sure that people would have enjoyed his performance.

Pharoahe Monch and his band took the stage next. I had never seen him live before this and didn't expect him to come out with a full band, but he did and he put on a great show. Monch performed tracks off his new album "Desire" and "Internal Affairs" and closed his set with "Simon Says."

Next up was EPMD, the one group I had really came to see today and told myself I could not miss. As the countdown clock began clicking away counting down their 30 minute set DJ Scratch introduced Erick and Parrish repeatedly but they didn't appear so he went into a set of his own on the turntables and was able to get a great reaction from the early arrivals in the crowd. Staged or not, his routine which included two wardrobe changes mid-scratch was ill. 

EPMD's set consisted primarily of material from "Business Never Personal" and prior. I was really hoping they would have performed "Da Joint" just because I love the intro and wanted to see them perform some more recent material but it didn't happen, however their selection of material to perform was on point. "So What'cha Sayin," "You Gots to Chill," "Please Listen to my Demo" and "Knick Knack Patty Wack" were all accounted for. Another moment everyone was hoping to see didn't materialize when they began their segue into "Headbanger." Everyone was hoping Redman would show up but then Erick said "If my man Red was here he's start it off like this…neeeeeegroooooo's!" Red wasn't in the house but it was still a great performance of another classic. The only lull in their show was something that's became a bit of a pet peeve for me, the obligatory tribute set where an RIP to a fallen MC is shouted out and one of their records are played. In this instance it ate up 4 to 5 minutes of their already short set where they could have performed another one of their classics instead.

Another RTB veteran took the stage next, Talib Kweli. Kweli performed some of his standards as well as new songs from his forthcoming LP "Eardrum," some of which played really well live ("Listen") and some that didn't ("Hot Thing" and whatever that bouncy, double flow record was). I've probably been to half a dozen Kweli shows in the past year and I can only imagine how tired he must get of hearing "Blackstar" chanted throughout his sets as it was at this show. His Black Star partner Mos Def was billed to perform next but he did not join Kweli on stage (for now). One of the longer transitions between performances occurred in between Kweli's set and Mos Def's. The hosts did the best they could to keep the already heat exhausted crowd form passing out with Rahzel performing his Pete Rock produced "All I Know" to fill time. 

The countdown clock was reset again to 20 minutes and Murs was brought out on stage. He pulled out a CD from his pocket and told everyone "I just burned this disc of instrumentals 5 minutes ago because they asked me to come out here" and then performed almost half of his "Murs 3:16" album. The surprised crowd was definitely into his set particularly the hometown anthem "L.A."

Mos finally hit the stage and honestly, I can't even recall what songs he performed and I was front row in the pit, that's how forgettable his set was. At one point while heading over to the "Paid Dues" stage I heard him performing "My Umi Says" and I heard Talib on stage with him so Blackstar fans finally ended up getting what they wanted.

For whatever reason we were told that Nas wouldn't be performing at all and that Public Enemy (PE) would be up next. This as expected was another highlight and must see performance for me. I can almost guarantee that the majority of the crowd was ready to laugh them off because of Flavor Flav's reality show antics, but a true PE fan and any old school heads at the show that was around for their tour with Anthrax knows better than to believe the hype they see on VH-1. Hands down in my opinion, PE had the best show of the night. Yes Chuck may be showing his age, and yes, it may be hard to remember that Flav is a lot more than a hype man, but they absolutely give their all on stage and know how to move a crowd. With the help of Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian, and the stage presence of the S1-W's, PE came out gunning with an incredible performance of "Bring the Noise" and kept that same energy throughout their entire set.

Typical of their "Game Theory" shows over the past year The Roots brought out a brass section in addition to their usual band lineup and this was the first time I got to see it live. It lived up to the hype and definitely brought something new to their show but by this time more and more RATM fans were arriving and many of the hardcore Hip-Hop fans that arrived early and were upset that Nas didn't show up made their way over to the "Paid Dues" stage to check out headliners Sage Francis and MF Doom which turned out to be a bad idea for a couple reasons. MF Doom was way late for his set and performed for only roughly 20 minutes. Nas eventually did make his way to the main stage for two joints backed by the Roots, "Hip-Hop is Dead" and "Made You Look." 

At one point it almost seemed like the Roots were performing for themselves and it wasn't until their guitarist Captain Kirk belted out his guitar solo that they were finally able to capture the ears of the tough crowd. Never one to phone in an appearance Black Thought was relentless on the mic and left their loyal fans who held their ground at the main stage wondering why the hell the rest of this crowd wasn't into their show.

Yet another RTB veteran group Cypress Hill reaped the benefits of the hometown venue and "herb" friendly audience and once again churned out another great performance. 

Their combination of local celebrity, weed infused rhymes, catalog of hits and rap/rock offerings made their performance at this festival in particular a guaranteed highlight for just about anyone in attendance. Cypress even retired their old stage prop, a 3 story tall inflatable Buddha for an even larger blunt smoking royal skeleton. DJ Fredwreck backed Cypress on the turntables with aid on percussion from Bobo as they rolled through classics like "I Wanna Get High," "Hand on the Pump," "Rock Superstar" and "How I Could Just Kill a Man."

Following in the theme of RTB veteran groups, Wu-Tang Clan (who headlined RTB two out of the previous three years) was up next and aside from Method Man's incredible stage presence and obvious thrill of performing, it almost felt like you could see a bubble over their heads with the words "been here, done this" in it. 

All the requisite classics were done and if you had never seen Wu-tang before (at a festival especially) then chances are you may have loved the show because they were all there and you got hear the classics and Flavor Flav hitting the stage and dapping up the clan was a nice bonus.

Last year ODB's mother was present for his tribute and this year Wu-Tang brought out his oldest son to honor his dad. Aside from that, it was pretty much a repeat of their performance at last years RTB.

Finally it was time for the headliners and not a moment too soon, just prior to both Wu-Tangs set and RATM's set the crowd was bombarded with pepper spray by security which almost incited a riot.

Fires were blaring both in the orchestra pit and in the general admission seating, VIP ticket holders were trapped back stage unable to get back to their seats due to extreme overcrowding in the pit area and it all combined for a perfect backdrop to RATM's music.

Front man Zach De La Rocha casually approached center stage and once the music kicked in exploded with more energy than any performer of the day (even Flavor Flav) and the fans went berserk. Bodies were being hurled through the crowd and tossed into the photo pit directly in front of the stage and once they were back on both feet they ran right back into the crowd. I saw at least two different people come flying into the pit more than once and I have no idea how they managed to do it. 

Some of the songs included in their set were "Bullets Over Broadway," "People of the Sun" "Killin in the Name of," "Guerilla Radio," "Down Radio" and the night's closer "Testify."

Moving onto the festival aspect of the event there's a lot to be said about the disorganization, madness, price-gouging, ticketing, lines and security issues but honestly if you don't expect all of that at a festival then a festival probably isn't for you. The biggest gripe I had about this festival is its lack of diversity over the years. As you read above, many of the acts have performed at RTB multiple times and it leaves me wondering what Guerilla Union can possibly do to top this year's turnout without again rehashing what has already been done. I had planned on writing in depth about a lot of the above problems, but in hindsight it was all expected and if none of it happened, I would be sitting here writing about how uneventful the festival was.

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