Anthrax invited Public Enemy legend Chuck D onstage to perform their collaborative rendition of “Bring the Noise” on Friday (July 29th) at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.
“Imagine if you guys could fucking yell so loud, it could fucking conjure Chuck D on this stage,” Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian bellowed into the mic. “Let me ask you again Los Angeles… can you bring the noise?!”
To the delight of the raucous crowd, the emcee and pioneering political hip-hip artist appears alongside Ian as the band kick into the song. Fan footage captured the entire performance up-close, and can be seen below.
After Public Enemy had recorded “Bring the Noise” in the late ’80s, Anthrax famously covered the song incorporating Chuck D’s vocals in 1991. The cut was released as a single and stands as one of the original rap-metal songs, introducing Anthrax to a new audience of listeners.
Speaking to the Cleveland Music Examiner (via Blabbermouth) a while back, Ian recalled the origins of the collab and the impact it had on the band’s career.
“By that point, there was a new audience, and we certainly reached a lot of new people with that Public Enemy track,” Ian said. “People who maybe weren’t into what we’d done before, or who weren’t metalheads. So that track crossed over for us and took us into a new zone. But it’s funny, because we haven’t done anything rap or crossed over since ‘Bring the Noise,’ yet people once again still talk about it, which shows me how special it was.”
He continued: “People still want to hear it and people still reference it all the time, and it’s almost 25 years old. And sometimes we’re categorized as a ‘rap metal’ band, when we only ever did the two songs — other then maybe screwing around with ‘Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun’ with the Beastie Boys as a B-side — but yeah. People still talk about it as if that’s what we do.”
In addition to busting out “Bring the Noise,” Anthrax have also been playing the 1993 John Bush-era song “Only” on this outing for the first time since 2011.
The band recently kicked off a North American co-headlining tour with Black Label Society. The trek resumes Monday night (August 1st) in Denver, and wraps up August 28th in Philadelphia. Get tickets via Ticketmaster. You can also check out our “Two for the Road” interview with Scott Ian and Black Label Society’s Zakk Wylde.
Watch Anthrax perform “Bring the Noise” with Chuck D in Los Angeles from a couple of angles below, followed by a performance of the aforementioned “Only” in Sacramento.
