Rage Against The Machine [ tickets ] is expected to perform a free concert outside the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Monday (8/14) as part of a protest demonstration timed to coincide with President Clinton's speech inside the arena during the Democratic National Convention.

The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that the band circumvented permit concerns by choosing to perform in an area near the venue designated as an approved demonstration site.

Local and federal officials originally sought to bar protesters from a broad area comprising several blocks around the Staples Center during the coming week's convention, citing among other issues safety concerns for the President and Vice President Al Gore, who is seeking the presidential nod in this year's election.

Those wishes were thwarted when a federal judge ruled in late July that the 1st Amendment protected the rights of protest organizers who choose to be near the venue during the convention proceedings.

While police spokespeople quoted in the Times report said the Los Angeles Police Department is "gravely concerned" about the potential for trouble at Monday's concert, Rage guitarist Tom Morello used the opportunity to respond to the police with his own set of concerns.

"We're a rock band; we make CDs," Morello told the Times. "We're certainly not the danger to society that the rogue elements of the LAPD are... We don't beat homeless people, we don't steal, we don't kill people."

The band's performance, scheduled to take place alongside speeches by United Farm Workers leader Doloros Huerta and others, will commence in the early evening as key speeches are scheduled to begin inside the venue. Ozomatli [ tickets ] will also take the stage during the evening, according to information released via the d2kla website.

On Sunday, the smaller but celebrity-studded Shadow Convention is scheduled to kick off at Patriotic Hall near the Democratic National Convention site. At press time, that convention had scheduled Chuck D and Confrontation Camp to round out the first day of activities with a free concert.