Three songs into Tom Morello's five-song set at the National Nurses United rally on Friday afternoon (May 18), just as the Nightwatchman sang the final lyrics of the Bruce Springsteen cover "The Ghost of Tom Joad," the sound died. An awkward silence befell the estimated 5,000 protesters converged beneath the 50-foot Picasso sculpture at Chicago's Daley Plaza.

Given the circumstances, the immediate thought was the omnipresent Chicago police department had pulled the plug on the outspoken rocker. But this wasn't Morello's first time at the rodeo, so to speak. The long-time social justice crusader quickly took matters into his own hands.

"Mike check!" Morello screamed, initiating the call-and-response tactic revived by the recent Occupy Wall Street movements. "Mike check," the crowd roared back louder. "The power went out!" Morello shouted. Immediately, the statement was put on human reverb. "Either by design or by accident," Morello yelled. "But that will not stop the show." In fact, nothing could stop this show.