Tom Morello’s show at The Rave in Milwaukee on September 20, 2026, was rescheduled from May 15. The show was worth the extra wait as Morello tore up the stage with his expert guitar work.
But the night started out with openers The Ike Reilly Assassination, a band that has a sound kind of reminiscent of the likes of Flogging Molly. The folk-punk band, fronted by Michael Christopher Reilly, had a great feel to their music, with stories to be told.
Reilly told us about their connection to Tom Morello: Reilly’s wife was the first one to ever pay Morello to play music back in 8th grade, $5 to be exact. Both grew up in Libertyville, Illinois, and have been friends since childhood, which has led to them touring alongside each other over the years.
The Ike Reilly Assassination had a stage full of band members, from Reilly’s sons on background vocals to the other musicians on their instruments. They had a tight-feeling sound that resonated through the venue.
Now, with Tom Morello hitting the stage, the energy was cranked past 10. Morello had a great stage presence, full of energy, and really knows how to engage the fans. Anyone who knows anything about Morello knows he has a very unique style of guitar playing, often bringing out sounds from the guitar that sound totally unlike a guitar. It’s a style that he has mastered and that brought a unique sound way back to Rage Against the Machine.
When Morello took the stage, he broke into the powerful “Soldier in the Army of Love,” which has a kind of rap-style vocal and a hard-hitting guitar riff. With his son Roman, who co-wrote the song with him, by his side, they got the fans pumped right from the start. Roman remained out for the next song also, which was “Adjourn It.” Then, as Morello’s son left the stage, he said he’d be back out later.
The set was full of songs to show off his work on the guitar, complete with a couple of different medleys of Rage Against the Machine songs throughout the set. “Killing in the Name” from Rage Against the Machine was played in full, leaving the vocals to the audience.
Tom Morello also had a tribute to former bandmate Chris Cornell from the Audioslave days, playing “Like a Stone.” He turned the mic towards the crowd and said he’d leave the vocals to us to sing. Morello also had another tribute, this time to his mother, Mary Morello, who had recently passed away. For her, he played Bruce Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad.”
During the middle of the set, Morello said it was the folk portion of the show. With an acoustic guitar, he played 3 folk songs, ending on a cover of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land,” during which Michael Reilly came back out onstage to sing along.
Roman Morello then came back out for an awesome cover of Ozzy’s “Mr. Crowley,” in which he totally blew me away with his precise guitar playing, hammering out every note of the song’s guitar solos. At 15 years old, Roman will be one to watch in the future. Roman has an expert guitar player for a dad, so it’s no surprise how good he is.
There were some technical issues going on with Morello’s effects pedals, as his tech kept coming out between songs to work on them. What those were, I don’t know, as it didn’t seem to affect the sound from what I could tell. But it did give Morello a couple of chances to do some storytelling about Rage Against the Machine.
One story was that they used to practice at a location where a lot of workers would walk by. One day, a guy came by and asked if he could come in and listen. They let him, and he ended up being the first to ever see and hear them play. After playing a couple of songs, they asked him what he thought. After thinking about it, he said, “Your music makes me want to fight.”
Another story was how they got director Michael Moore to do their video for “Sleep Now in the Fire.” Morello said he had a question he had been waiting to ask Moore. The question was how many times he’d been arrested, due to his edgy filming style. Moore replied he had never been arrested.
Long story short, during the filming of Rage’s video in New York City, which ended up causing the New York Stock Exchange to close its doors, Michael Moore was the one who ended up being detained by police. Some fun stories I didn’t know.
Morello put on a great show, and just watching him get into the music, watching his work on the guitar and hearing it, was a great time. Keep an eye out for any upcoming shows and tours. This is a show and artist worth seeing.
