Rise Against
DATE: Saturday, July 14, 2007
VENUE:  The Myth – Maplewood, MN
www.riseagainst.com

Pure energy. That is the only way to describe a Rise Against show.

The Chicago quartet rocked The Myth Saturday night for 80 minutes. With a great stage setup and a good light show to accompany the band on stage, there was not a single second throughout the night where the energy in the venue dropped below 100%.
 

Frontman Tim McIlrath interacted with the crowd the entire night. At one point he even tried a few jokes, to which everyone politely laughed. Tim then replied with "Yeah – I promise you we sing better songs than my jokes." The band followed with one of their hit singles "Ready To Fall", to which the kids responded with the most crowd-surfing and had the hardest moshing of the night.

After the band exited the stage, McIlrath returned by himself with an acoustic song. After displaying his amazing range of vocals on a cover of Jawbreaker's "Tour Song", the blended into the anthem "Swing Life Away" to which everyone sang along so loud, it almost drowned McIlrath's vocals out.

The rest of the guys came back onstage to join McIlrath to play three more songs, ending the night with the "Prayer of the Refugee".  As the lights came up in the venue, I looked around. Not a single person wasn't not sweating or not on a natural high. I stood and watched the show in one spot the entire night away from the crowd and I was on that high.  I looked down and saw myself sweating. Not because it was hot, but because that is just how much energy was in the venue. The energy Rise Against gave off for 19 songs transpired into every single kid in the going home that night on a natural high.









 

BY: Asif

PHOTOS: Asif

SPECIAL THANKS TO: Victoria Torchia @ Geffen/DGC