In a career stocked with disruptive moments, perhaps Rage Against the Machine’s most memorable was when the anarchic video shoot for 1999 single Sleep Now in the Fire managed to shutter the New York Stock Exchange itself.
The video for the intense, riff-driven track was helmed by Michael Moore, a few years prior to his era-defining Bowling for Columbine.
As Sleep Now in the Fire's lyric detailed the multi-faceted ills of capitalism, and the often violent exportation of Western values - any video would need to be suitably incendiary.
Moore's basic plan for the video indicated that live performance footage of the band (Zack de la Rocha, Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk) would be shot. With RATM delivering the energy-filled song to a crowd within the very centre of American financial power: Wall Street.
The band were to set-up on the steps of the Federal Hall National Memorial.
This performance footage would then be intercut with studio-filmed clips of a mock-version of popular gameshow Who Wants to Be a Millionaire - with questions emphasising the economic disparity between the wealthiest and poorest.
After a fair bit of wrangling (and pleading) with city officials, Moore and the band were finally granted permission from New York's authorities to capture the live performance section of the video on the Federal Hall’s steps.
But, they were given a strict instruction - Not to move from that spot.
If they did, they’d be in violation of Wall Street’s strict no weekday film-shooting policy, enacted to reduce possible disruption to NYSE workers - and the hallowed market itself.
As Morello recalled in an interview with Yahoo, he’d just met Moore for the first time, and was thrilled to be working with the respected, truth-exposing documentarian.
“[Moore] said, “This is what we're going to do today. We’ve got a permit to play on the federal steps. We do not have a permit to play on the city streets, but we're going to be up on the federal steps. But don't stop playing, no matter what happens.”
On January 24th, 2000 the NYSE announced record profits and layoffs, and the following day then-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani - who’d caught wind of the band’s upcoming video shoot plans - oddly made the proclamation that ‘Rage Against the Machine shall not play on Wall Street.’
It was music to Moore's ears. The stage was set for a dramatic day…
A day after Giuliani’s decree, RATM set-up on the steps, and Moore ran them through a few mimed takes of Sleep Now in the Fire.
Officially speaking - and despite Rudy’s speech - the band still had permission to do this. So far, they were technically on safe ground.
But, noticing the surrounding police, and feeling the tension in the air, the ever-impetuous Moore hatched a plan.
Agreeing with police that he and the band would finish by 3:30pm (and keep the volume at the current level), Moore walked away. Without anyone noticing, he defiantly raised the volume of the song for the next take.
But his next move was more provocative. Moore instructed the band to come down from the steps, and continue their next mimed performance of the song on the street - a move that would contravene the laws.
The police were stunned as the band complied with Moore's direction. Morello recalled; “We [come down to the street and] continue to play, continue to mime along, and a police sergeant comes up to me and says, ‘You’ve got to get back up on the steps.’ I remember what Mike said - no matter what happens, to keep playing - so this clearly falls under the auspices of that.”
As the growing number of police officers became increasingly incensed, things began to get physical.
“[A police officer] is so mad that he unplugs my guitar - and to his surprise, the music keeps playing,” Morello told Yahoo, in reference to the fact that the band themselves were miming to the now incredibly loud backing track. “Then he unplugs Tim’s bass and he can't believe what's happening. He gives us a look of, like, religious horror on his face. And so he [detains] Michael.”
Moore, now being led away in handcuffs, knew full well that the images captured for the video were legitimately resembling an actual RATM-fuelled insurrection at the very core of the US financial system. It was perfect.
As he was being bundled off by the police, Moore turned and looked over his shoulder to give his final, and most impulsive, direction of the day: “Take the New York Stock Exchange!”
Rage Against the Machine were finally able to live up to their monicker…
“We rush over there. I go through the door, and there's a frumpy dude and a security guy in a jacket,” Morello told Yahoo. “And I’m like, “Hey, I’m here to take the New York Stock Exchange. Is that a right or a left?” And he hits the panic button and the riot police come and the riot doors slam shut.”
As the doors came down - so too, apparently, did trading.
According to Green Left that is, who stated that trading paused during 2:52pm and 3:15pm, (though some have countered by saying that trading never really stopped).
Whether it did or didn’t actually halt any trading - the disruption caused on Wall Street that day, and the finished video itself, drew attention to some pretty colossal economic disparities between the richest and poorest in America.
These facts included the horrible statistic that 35 million Americans live in poverty - a number that has only risen in the subsequent decades.
“At 2:52pm, in the middle of the trading day, the Stock Exchange was forced to close its doors. No money was harmed,” states text at the end of the Sleep Now in the Fire video.
"We decided to shoot this video in the belly of the beast,” Moore told Green Left. “And, for a few minutes, Rage Against the Machine was able to shut down American capitalism - an act that I am sure tens of thousands of downsized citizens would cheer."
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