Tom Morello, Alt Blk Era – Electric Ballroom – 13th June 2024

Tom Morello, of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave fame, drops by London and cranks up the volume, we checked it out.

Tom Morello is currently on tour around Europe, taking in some of the biggest Summer festivals. Before his appearance at the Download festival he made a stop at the Electric Ballroom in London for a suitable warm up show!

ALT BLK ERA

Before we got to see Tom, however, some there was support from Alt Blk Era. who are also doing their warmup show for Download! This is essentially a pair of sisters, accompanied by a (masked) drummer and a guitarist. The music is difficult to pigeonhole, strong solid drums, overlaid with heavy guitar lines but is defined by the energy and vocals of the two girls.

It is a mashup of a lot of different genres, a bit of rap, a bit of metal, a bit of punk, a bit of alternative stuff, a bit of emo. Very difficult to describe and genuinely genre agnostic! I would suggest you head over to their website to get a better idea. Suffice to say it is pretty unique and certainly not the direction your typical young, black artist would take.

The performance this evening, though, is typified by the boundless energy the girls have on stage plus a little bit of attitude, trading vocals and mixing it up between aggressive shouty vocals to soft, gentle passages. All driven along by a solid guitar / drums soundtrack. It is easy to see how this energy wins over a crowd and it isn’t long before we’re all being swept along.

After a short but well received set, the Ballroom is now looking pretty full, with punters filling the large standing space and hanging over the balconies surrounding the venue. The lights go down and Tom Morello takes to the stage. This is a man who has a wealth of experience in some of the biggest bands around and it shows, he is safely into performance mode as soon as he walks out.

TOM MORELLO

As I’m sure you know, Tom Morello is well known for his political stance & throughout the evening there are some not too subtle signs of this, a guitar with arm the homeless written across it, inter song banter etc. all backed up by a collection of songs that (mostly) carry the messages close to his heart.

With a set covering many Rage Against The Machine songs, some solo material and a load of politically fired up covers (including a Springsteen cover too), Morello doesn’t really have to do much to get the crowd onside, they were there as soon as he walked out.

For the Måneskin (yes, the Italian Euro winners 2021) cover Gossip he is joined by Måneskin guitarist Thomas Raggi and he stays on the stage for the MC5 cover Kick Out The Jams. Both roar along and the crowd laps it up. House Gone Up In Flames gives the band a break and Morello performs solo with just an acoustic guitar, slowing the pace somewhat but giving the crowd a much needed breather.

Let’s Get The Party Started is another track that hits the spot and finishing the set with the classic Killing In The Name which has everyone singing and bouncing along then finally Power To The People by John Lennon. This is a stroke of genius which leaves everyone with a positive feeling as they make their way out of the venue to start the journey home.

Another good gig and I’m certain the Download shows, both Alt Blk Era and Tom Morello, will both be crackers and not to be missed.

Tom Morello will now be undertaking an extensive tour of Europe which also takes in a large number of Summer festivals, catch him where you can!

All concert photography by Graham Hilling. You can check out more of his work on his website, here.

Tom Morello online: Website / Facebook / Instagram / X / YouTube

Alt Blk Era online: Website / Instagram / YouTube

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