Moon & Back Music

Poltical Punk from Chicago Heavy-weights Rise Against.

First things first, this gig was at the Apollo which, frankly, is shit. Quite possibly the worst venue in the world, and their shitty beer is 3.70 a can, which is an insane price for a crap can of Carlsberg, disaster… or so you would think.

We got to the gig just as New Jerseys finest, Thursday, were ending their set and unfortunately only got to hear their last three songs, but they were a trio of rock-cocking bad boy songs so we still enjoyed our brief encounter with that band.

I would like to say that Rise Against really got the crowd going when they came on, but to tell the truth, the crowd seemed to be pretty energetic already, pitting to the backing tracks (Rage Against the Machine would get any crowd going) whilst Rise Against prepped to play.

They opened with Collapse (Post-Amerika) from their latest issue, which I still need to get a copy of as my only encounter with this album was highly intoxicated at 6 am! Thankfully they played a good mix of new and old tracks including fan favorites’ such as Paper Wings, Survive and so on. Surprisingly, Like the Angel didn’t make it into their set-list; unfortunately the only song from Revolutions per Minute played was Blood-Red, White and Blue, (not unfortunately because I have a problem with their later material, I LOVE their later albums, just I would have liked to hear Broken English.

The band left the stage after Prayer of the Refugee, which left the crowd lusting for more, after a brief interlude, the house lights gently came back up giving a somber ambience that left the audience a little confused but eager for the next installment non-the-less. At this point singer Tim McIlrath re-entered the spot-light armed only with an acoustic guitar and tore into Swing Life Away, an acoustic masterpiece co-written with Lawrence Arms drummer and fellow Chicagoan, Neil Hennessey. An abundance of lighters, phone torches and any form of illumination are raised into the air as Tim serenades an audience spanning all ages and backgrounds, it really is a sight to see. Hero of War is the next in this duo of acoustic marvel but not before a heart-breaking speech about the current situation involving the war and all the troops fighting over there, the overall message is “send them home.”

After this acoustic installment, the band return and blast into Dancing for Rain, this gets the crowd rocking again. “I want to see a fucking circle pit!” McIlarth shouts to the adorning audience, they comply with no problem what-so-ever and the crowd explodes into a blur of Mohawks, band shirts and torn jeans.

The gig was not without fault though, even though the band put on a sterling performance, with new guitarist Zach Blair enthusiastically playing through the bands catalogue, songs new and old, with enthusiasm in the form of spin-kicks and other mid-air crowd pleasers, the rest of the band keeping up with the energy with such precision that no one could argue with their on-stage presence, but we feel (me and my friend Tom Shortland) that the band got their final two songs in the wrong order. The band played Give it All, and ended with Ready to Fall, which we agreed, the former would have been a much stronger closer. This minor thing did not affect our opinion of the concert in any real way, was just an observation based on our personal opinions.

The gig overall was an incredible experience and even in a dog-shit venue with over-priced drinks, Rise Against did not fail to disappoint their fans, young and old. They truly rocked out with their cocks out; they jammed out with their clams out.

Setlist

Collapse (post-amerika)
State of the union
Re-education (through labor)
Paper wings
Long forgotten sons
The good left undone
Chamber the cartridge
Drones
The dirt whispered
Audience of one
Blood to bleed
Savior
Survive
Blood-red white & blue
Prayer of the refugee

encore 1
Swing life away
Hero of war

encore 2
Dancing for rain
Give it all
Ready to fall

Mega thanks to Jodie Weatherley for the full set list!