Rockin’ Thunder 2025: Revolution Engine live review

Revolution Engine is an insanely high energy, socially conscious, and aggressive rap-rock four piece. Hearing them live, their inspirations are very obviously Rage Against the Machine, and not just because of their skilled, and similar, vocal aggression, but their instrumentals as well. 

Being only the second band after Roll the Bones to play the YEG Rocks stage, Revolution Engine’s first song had their vocals cutting in and out, and at some moments, screeching over everything. And despite this, the band’s frontman, Kenny Canoe, kept going and kept the energy. Instrumentally, it could have been a Rage cover, but due to the inability to hear the lyrics really, I couldn’t tell. And Canoe’s Joseph Talbott-esc movement and energy kept the things high energy anyways. 

While the opener could’ve been a Rage song, they for sure covered a song off their 1996 release, “Bulls On Parade.” A ton of shows have Rage Against the Machine covers. Everyone’s seen a hometown hero bull off “Killing in the Name” at their local bar. But not the way Revolution Engine did it. I have never seen anyone cover Rage Against the Machine as well as Revolution Engine did. They weren’t just mimicking Zac De La Rocha’s singing and a bit of Tom Morello’s classically unique guitar playing. They fully embodied the sound, the messages, and their guitarist, Glen Peters, did the scratch solo perfectly, and I’ve never seen anyone even attempt it before. 

The guitar playing was a big highlight for me overall, Peters’ wah pedal usage and his confident ongoing licks on some of their original material was great. The bass and drums stood out at certain moments too. 

The absolute peak of the band’s set was when they played their most recent release, “No System Better Than War.” In this track, the band calls for unity, seemingly denounces American aggression, and acknowledges police brutality. And in all these issues that do affect the common folk, he pointed into the crowd, speaking right to them as if it was him and whoever only. It was emotional, in an aggressive sense, where you can tell the band really does care about their message. The instrumentation on this song was equally as great as the vocals. Krishna Ray, the band’s drummer, had dizzying fills, their bassist, Ryan Lawrie, would have solitary moments, and Peters’ guitar was perfect. 

To finish off their set, they played “Juggernaut Generation” off of their only album, 2018’s Fist and Flame. Before going into the song, Canoe called out to the crowd, saying “your job is not to change the world.” He told the audience to change themselves, and be the change they want to see in the world, and was met with cheers. His poetic monologue was met with his band slowly coming in, and making what would be some lonely spoken word, the intro to their last song. He called out about change and the next generation changing norms. It was high energy and it was a fun song to see. At one point towards the end, Canoe jumped off stage to mosh with a kid at the front.

Revolution Engine, despite the rough beginning, not that it was their fault, went on to have a great set. Check them out if you ever see them on a bill. Especially if you’re into Rage Against the Machine or Linkin Park, you won’t be disappointed.