Tom Morello put on his dancing shoes last night as he joined Måneskin for a live TV performance of their latest single, Gossip. Rage Against The Machine's electric guitar maverick has turned arch collaborator in recent years, with his solo work getting the likes of Eddie Vedder and Bruce Springsteen onboard for a cover of AC/DC’s Highway To Hell.
Most recently, however, he visited some high-profile six-string action upon the new Måneskin album, Rush!, laying down some leads on Gossip. Morello and the Italian rockers – who shot to fame via Eurovision and high-profile support slots with the Rolling Stones – took to the stage at Studio 6B in Rockefeller Center to perform the track for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
This is far away from the hooded Morello in an orange boiler suit at Reading 2008; this was disco Morello, rocking out with his battle-scarred Fender Telecaster in a riff-by-riff joust with the irrepressible Thomas Raggi.
For his part, Raggi relied on the Custom Shop '63 Stratocaster that he reserves for the big occasions – usually he is rocking the cheap electric guitar charms of a Squier.
Gossip is a track that is all strutting rhythm, a sound that works a treat with single-coils fencing for dominance in the mix. They give it a scratchy dance feel that’s sustained by a propulsive rhythm from Victoria De Angelis on bass guitar and Ethan Torchio behind the drum kit.
Now, you don’t send the email to Morello’s people and get the great man involved if you don’t want some anarchic pitch-shifting going on. When it comes time to solo, Morello does not disappoint, and brings the boot down on the Whammy.
His first solo itself has a weird feel, calling to mind the Steve Miller Band’s Abracadabra melody, but maybe that’s the heat from the TV lights cooking the brain. The second solo spot finds him in conversational with Fraggi, with both finding lingua franca in the pentatonics.
Morello also appears in the official and NSFW promo video for Gossip, which was shot by Tommaso Ottomano. It might be the only time you'd see Tom Morello in an actual office. Check it out above. Rush! is out now via Arista Records.
