RISE AGAINST COMES TO DC

Rise Against
by Jason Walsh

Last year was a busy year for the guys from Rise Against, having released their sixth studio album, Endgame, as well as touring relentlessly. Vocalist and guitarist Tim McIlrath was excited about traveling to some new places in 2011 and being involved in some big events.

“Getting down to South America for the first time, that was a lot of fun for the band,” McIlrath said. “We’ve been trying to get down there for years. Opening up for the Foo Fighters on the East Coast was a great time, actually a blast, and a lot of great European festivals where we hooked up with our old friends.”

Rise Against kicked off a headlining U.S. tour last month and winds their way to the Patriot Center at George Mason University on February 5. Having spent many years supporting bands on tour that influenced them, such as Sick of it All, Bad Religion, and Rancid, it felt good for McIlrath to return the favor for the upstarts in A Day to Remember.

“I thought this one was kind of sentimental, taking out a younger band out there and we wanted to sort of get up with them and put our fans in the same room and I guess we’ll see how it goes. I’m pretty excited about it. We’ve played a handful of shows with A Day to Remember in December and they’re a great fit. Our bands are different but bring a lot of people in a room.”

The guys from Chicago have been holding their own in a tough music industry for more than a decade now, maintaining their punk ethics and passionate melodic musicianship. They have enjoyed a great deal of success and last year’s Endgame was their highest charted record to date, debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard chart with 85,00 copies sold the first week. Rise Against just dropped their third single, “Satellite,” from the record and McIlrath says it’s a song that was an important component on Endgame.

“It was one of the first songs we wrote for this record and it was sort of a launching point, like a jumping off point for us,” he said. “It set the tone for the rest of the songs. When you’re a band and you’re doing records and touring, you take a little break and go away for a little while and when you kind of get back in the saddle, people are always wondering, ‘well, where are they now, where are their heads now, where are they musically?’ ‘Satellite’ is a kind of a rallying cry. We’re still the same band, we’re going to try and heat up on a lot of these issues that they’re talking about.”

More recently, Rise Against has participated in a huge project from Amnesty International. Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International is a new 5 CD release that features 75 tributes to the legendary folk hero and songwriter. On the roster of great musical talents is Pete Townshend, Elvis Costello, Dave Matthews Band, Bad Religion, and Flogging Molly, just to name a few. The ever-politically-charged McIlrath said Rise Against are strong supporters of the organization’s work

“First and foremost, we’ve always been behind the mission of Amnesty International,” he said. “They protect human rights around the world. They speak up for political prisoners, people who are held in prison simply for their ideology. It’s hard to believe that this still happens in 2012, but it still does and something like Amnesty International is a much needed force to bring awareness.”

And when the tribute was to Bob Dylan, their decision to participate was automatic. “This compilation came up and Bob Dylan is such an incredible songwriter, an incredible force that was satirical and political and always had something important to say. We wanted to jump on that immediately.”

However, choosing the right song that fit the band was not as easy a decision, but the “Ballad of Hollis Brown” struck a chord with the group. “That was something that took us a while to figure out, what song to do, because there’s so many great Dylan songs,” McIlrath said. “But this one, we were backstage somewhere and we were playing a lot of Bob Dylan stuff on shuffle, just kind of hearing the whole catalog, and that one came on and I remember me and our bass player Joe (Principe) just came up to each other and were like ‘I like this one.’ I kind of peeled back the layers, as much as the lyrics a little bit. It’s the story of a farmer who had fallen on hard times. I thought there were a lot of parallels to today’s economical climate.”

Living a life as a professional musician and songwriter was not something McIlrath would have expected. “Never in a million years,” he laughed. “I was far more of a realist. I got into it because I couldn’t not get into it. I picked up a guitar and all of it snowballed from there. I just kept playing because I couldn’t stop playing. I kept writing songs because I couldn’t stop writing songs. When we started up this band, punk rock wasn’t really as popular as it is now.”

And the praise, notoriety, and commercial success was just as much of a surprise. “I underestimated the audience out there I guess. I thought we’d always kind of be on the fringes of music and I’ve been pleasantly proven wrong. To find such a hungry audience out there who’s looking for music that reflects the questions they have about the world. It’s something that’s really inspiring, to see that…a lot of the people give a shit about what we do, and more importantly, just that people feel lost and are looking for direction and want to help and want to be part of fighting the good fight.”

A Day to Remember and The Menzingers will be opening for Rise Against on February 5.

Starts at 7 p.m. $29.50-39.50. - Jason Walsh
Patriot Center at George Mason University: 4500 Patriot Circle, Fairfax, VA; (703) 993-3000; www.patriotcenter.com