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‘F*** that guy’: Tom Morello’s Boston Calling set was one big middle finger to Donald Trump
Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello performed behind a 'F*** Trump' backdrop, shouted out Harvard and Bruce Springsteen, and called for revolution during his Boston Calling 2025 set.
When Tom Morello took the stage at Boston Calling 2025, the Rage Against the Machine guitarist welcomed fans “to the last big event before they throw us all in jail.”
Morello and RATM have always put their politics front and center in their music, and Sunday’s show was no different. From Bruce Springsteen to his alma mater Harvard University, Morello gave props to anyone who has been recently singled out by Trump during his hourlong set.
The atmosphere was one of cathartic defiance. Where you saw a smattering matte black American flag hats and Back the Blue shirts during Friday’s Luke Combs set, fans with “Nazi Lives Don’t Matter” T-shirts graced the Jumbotron at Morello’s set.
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The guitarist gave fans a taste of the greatest hits, playing the iconic opening licks to a medley of RATM songs like “Bombtrack,” “Bulls on Parade,” “Guerilla Radio,” and “Sleep Now in the Fire.”
But running through a catalogue of rock radio standards took a backseat to the message of fighting the power, a call to action that was embraced by the Blue Stage crowd.
After briefly reminiscing about practicing guitar for hours a day in his dorm stairwell, Morello gave a shoutout to Harvard for offering a free online course open to all that “covers basic U.S. government, understanding the Constitution, and how to recognize a dictatorship takeover of your country.”
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During “Let’s Get the Party Started,” Morello was more explicit in his meaning, playing behind a backdrop of “F*** Trump” paraphernalia.
Tom Morello’s entire set was a call to action. Here he is performing “Let’s Get the Party Started” in front of a F*** TRUMP backdrop. pic.twitter.com/PNYiTv9Eye
— Kevin Slane (@kslane) May 26, 2025
He dedicated “Hold the Line” to his union brothers and sisters. Then he played the “censored” verses of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land,” telling the audience to listen closely to the co-opted anthem.
“I learned this song in the third grade. It’s a beautiful song but they censored out all the verses that explain what the song is really about,” Morello said. “This is a revolutionary anthem. Woody Guthrie knew that music could be […] an uplifting, unifying, transcendent thing; a defensive shield, and a weapon for change. Authoritarians and billionaires think this country belongs to them. Woody Guthrie knew that this land is yours.”
Even during his most virtuosic moments, when Morello let his guitar do the talking, he still found a way to needle the current administration. At one point, he flipped his guitar over to play it with his teeth, revealing a bold-faced message of “F*** I.C.E.” taped to the back of the instrument.
Tom Morello doing Tom Morello things, revealing the back of his guitar reads F*** I.C.E. pic.twitter.com/56V5lKSn01
— Kevin Slane (@kslane) May 26, 2025
Bringing fellow Blue Stage act Chuck D of Public Enemy to the stage, the pair played the self-titled song of their side project, Prophets of Rage.
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Chuck D, who brought a similarly indefatigable energy to Public Enemy’s evening set, kept fighting the power as well: “F****** everything wrong with the system / People hungry and dyin’ / They ain’t got a home / This is the nature created /From the Terrordome.”
As the set neared its end, Morello played a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” hewing closer in style to the Boss’ original than the 1998 Rage cover.
“Bruce is going after Trump because Bruce, his whole life, he’s been about truth, justice, democracy, equality,” Morello said. “And Trump is mad at him because Bruce draws a bigger audience. F*** that guy.”
For the penultimate song of the show, Morello played an acoustic version of Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing In The Name Of,” encouraging the crowd to fill in the words from the opening notes.
As uniformed officers stood and watched, the audience called out the opening words in unison: “Some of those that work forces / Are the same that burn crosses.” And with a final middle finger to the world, the crowd shouted the song’s chorus: “F*** you, I won’t do what you tell me.”
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