Audioslave Slay Havana With Historic Show

HAVANA — With an inspired 26-song set, Audioslave made history on Friday, playing by far the biggest show for an American band in this communist country.

An estimated 50,000 fans at the sprawling La Tribuna Antimperialista José Martí watched as the band made one of its longtime dreams come true (see "Audioslave To Make History By Playing Free Show In Cuba"). Many of the fans were wearing T-shirts of Audioslave and other American rock bands.

Heavy on music and light on banter, the nearly two-and-a-half-hour set included several Rage Against the Machine and Soundgarden songs alongside Audioslave favorites and tracks from the band's forthcoming second LP, Out of Exile. The group also played a "jam?" (as it was called on the setlist) with the local opening act, singer X Alfonso.

While the crowd chanted "Aud-o-slave!" (their accents didn't favor the "i," so it became a three-syllable word), the band took the stage at 10:14 p.m., setting off its performance with the fittingly titled "Set It Off."

A mosh pit quickly formed near the front of the crowd, with Cuban military and security forces using their bodies to reinforce the barricade at the front and keep it from buckling. Fans waved Cuban, Argentine, Venezuelan, Chilean and Canadian flags — and even an American one — as Audioslave rocked on, garnering an especially ecstatic response for the set's fourth song, "Like a Stone."

As guitarist Tom Morello — sporting a vest, tie, jeans with holes in the knees and his signature baseball cap — worked his guitar like a masseur would a high-paying client, his mother Mary, in an Audioslave T-shirt, watched from the side of the stage. At one point, she blew her son a kiss and he responded by flashing her the "OK" sign.