Interview
Interview
Stage Times: Rise Against
From beer-soaked nightmares in Germany to talking guitars with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Rise Against’s Tim McIlrath walks us through his most memorable performances
In a world perhaps more divided than ever, a band like Rise Against has never felt quite so pertinent.
Formed amidst a buzzing Chicago punk scene back in 1992, their aggression-laced outspoken songs have long-existed to shine a spotlight on the social, political, and economical issues plaguing our society. Jostling people awake and delivering moments of necessary discomfort, they’re uncovering hard truths about the world we live in. Served up as a blend of pop melody and astute hardcore punk sensibilities that blurs all lines, Rise Against are intently focused on bringing brutal honesty back to rock.
“Honestly… there’s a never-ending source of material for a band like hours,” frontman Tim McIlrath shrugs.
“There’s a of lot of low hanging fruit out there in the world, and a lot of frustrated people. A lot of them are looking for music that mirrors their frustrations.”
Cultivating a community that spans generations, from the disenchanted youth to the aging punks feeling increasingly disengaged from the politics of their scene, over the last three decades the four-piece’s impact has snowballed well beyond their control. Starting out life as a scrappy punk band venting their frustrations in sticky basements, they’ve become an unstoppable catalyst for change. Speaking out on LGBTQ+ rights, environmental causes, modern warfare, animal rights and more, they’ve become one of the most vital punk bands of the 2000s, inspiring countless music fans to stand up and speak out for what they believe.
Known for their explosive live shows, the four-piece will be crossing the pond for some headline and festival dates this summer. Rounding off the anti-establishment call-to-arms of their ‘Nowhere Generation’ era in preparation for whatever comes next, we sat down with McIlrath to talk about the most memorable shows of the punk legends’ career.
The one that made you want to play music
There’s a band called Pegboy from Chicago, and I remember seeing them play at the Fireside Bowl. Their songwriting was incredible, and their live shows were so energetic. The crowd would just take over, and their frontman – Larry Damore – was such an endearing character. He had this dynamic love/hate relationship with the crowd, where he clearly loved them, but they were making him sing these things that he didn’t always want to sing. Everybody would just prod him to keep going, and it was amazing. It’s like a sports team that you root for even when they’re losing. It was a great community of live music fuelled by participation, backed by some of the most powerful drums, guitars, and bass I’ve ever heard. They’re such an underrated band internationally, but they’re much beloved in Chicago. When I first saw them, I remember thinking, ‘I want to do that’. They were such an inspiration when Rise Against first started, and I wanted people to feel the same way that I felt at those shows.
The first
The first Rise Against show was in a basement in the suburbs of Chicago. I don’t remember all the bands that played, but before he was in Fall Out Boy, Patrick Stump had a band called Patterson. That band played the show, and I’d become friends with Patrick later, but I didn’t really know him at the time. It was only much later that I figured out we played that show together. It was in the basement of somebody’s parents’ house, and we were a band that had a lot of false starts before we even played a live show. Because of that, people already knew our band by the time we played our first show. It was still a basement show, but there was a buzz around us, and that buzz came with a lot of pressure. We had never played live, so we were so worried that we were going to let people down. It turned out to be a lot of fun though.
The smallest
There was one point when we were well into our career, but we did another basement show in the suburbs of Chicago. We knew somebody who was having a party, and their band was playing, so they invited us to come and see them. We all happened to be in town, and we were all going anyway, so they asked us if we’d play. We played this tiny basement to around 30 people, which you can watch on YouTube. We played shows like that a lot when we first started, so every show was small, but that one was funny because it was after we’d had some success. We were filling up the venues in Chicago by then, but we still went back and played in the basement. It was fun to give a nod to our roots.
The smaller shows are a lot of fun because you can really reach people. It’s more intimate, and you can see everyone in the crowd, so it’s easier to create a vibe. Our next tour in the States is going back to that feeling, and we’re playing a lot of venues that we haven’t played in a long time. The small shows are a morale boost for any band, but honestly, I like a variety. Doing anything repeatedly eventually becomes a little stale, and that’s the last thing you want when you’re playing live music. I love showing up to Reading and Leeds Festivals and playing for the faceless thousands stretched back as far as you can see. At the same time though, we love playing shows at places like the Electric Ballroom. When you can mix it up, it keeps you on your toes.
The biggest
The biggest crowds have easily been at Rock am Ring and Rock im Park in Germany. We played for over 70,000 people there, which is crazy. We also opened for Rage Against the Machine at the Oakland Coliseum, which was around 40,000 people. The biggest headline show we’ve played though would have to be in Chicago, or maybe at Red Rocks in Denver. We’ve opened for the Foo Fighters in Australia at huge football stadiums, but when you can play big shows as the headliner, that’s a feather in your cap. I can never believe it when so many people come to see our band.
It must be especially humbling when you’re over three decades into this…
It’s crazy. We’ve been doing this for a long time, and we started out playing small shows. When the crowds got bigger, we were all surprised, but people were connecting with our band. You assume that the shows will get smaller eventually, and that you’re just enjoying a moment. That happens sometimes, but other times we show up to places and our shows are bigger than they ever have been. People are still getting into our band, so it’s not just our original fans that are coming to the shows. I expect us to be in a part of our career where we’re just doing shows for our core fans, but the new fans are still coming along, so the shows are getting bigger. It’s a head scratcher, but it’s so rewarding. People aren’t just looking at your band as a product of the past, they’re looking towards the future.
The weirdest
We were playing a festival in Memphis, Tennessee, which is not a place where Rise Against goes a lot. We were on an outdoor stage along the river, and we were the opener. The Cult were the next band on, and Stevie Ray Vaughn was the headliner. I wondered what the hell we were doing there, and we went out to play for mostly Stevie Ray Vaughan fans. The crowd was cool, but in the middle of the show we looked over and saw Stevie Ray Vaughan on the side of the stage watching us. It was crazy, but he didn’t just pop out and watch us for a few songs before going back to the dressing room, he waited after the show to say hello. We were shaking hands and high fiving, and we had some nerdy talks about guitars. He wanted to show us his guitars, because he’s a famous guitar collector. He couldn’t have been nicer to a bunch of dudes that were forty years his junior and playing a totally different genre of music. You never know what a show is going to be like, you never know who will appreciate your band, and you never know what artists are going to be stoked that you’re there.
The worst
In the early days of Rise Against, we had our own identity, but other people were still trying to figure it out. We started in the hardcore scene, but we were signed to Fat Wreck Chords, so the pop-punk scene was checking us out too. We were opening for ska bands, New York hardcore bands, and radio rock bands, so people weren’t always expecting to see us. I remember touring with T.S.O.L, The Casualties, and Agnostic Front, and the crowds were all skinhead punks. They weren’t happy to see us, and the whole tour was hard to pull off. It was one of those tours where you went onstage every night knowing it was going to be a grind. You had to decide if you were going to put in the grind or if you were going to put your tail between your legs and go home. Those shows made me a better frontman, and they made us a better band. We could pout, sulk, and get combative with a crowd that didn’t like us, or we could use that half hour to try and win them over.
It can be a tough learning curve, but those are the shows that keep you hungry to prove yourselves…
Definitely. I remember opening for Sick Of It All on our first European tour over 20 years ago, and Sick Of It All fans in Europe… just want to see Sick Of It All. They’re a legendary New York hardcore band, and we were just these kids that no one had heard of. We were the thing standing between them and their favourite band. In Germany, we played at a venue where the stage was only knee-high, and these tough German punks were staring at us from the front row. There was no security and no barricade, and this one guy decided to throw his beer at me, but he was so close that he basically just poured it down my shirt. He looked at me like, ‘What are you going to do about it?’, and at that point I probably weighed around 115 pounds. I was soaking wet, looking at this giant dude, and if I started a fight I was going to lose. At the same time though, it wasn’t a great look to start fighting the crowd. I just kept singing, soaking wet, and covered in beer. I don’t even drink!
The best
The hometown gigs are momentous occasions, because oftentimes they’re in venues that we grew up seeing our favourite bands in. We’re surrounded by our friends and family in the town that brought us up, so the best shows were probably any time we’ve played the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. We’ve done a few night stands there, and that was a place where I saw Nirvana play in 1993, and where I saw Rage Against the Machine in the mid 90s. I saw so many cool shows there, and so the importance of being on those stages is not lost on me. It’s such a crazy full circle moment.
Rise Against will play dates in Manchester and London this August. Find tickets here.
