Rise Against | Trash Boat
O2 Ritz, Manchester
20th August 2024
Chicago punk outfit Rise Against returned to Manchester for what felt like an intimate show at the city’s iconic O2 Ritz. Louder Than War’s Dave Beech and Liam Maxwell were there.
Up until two years ago, Chicago punks Rise Against were a band that always eluded us. Whether that was from missing early shows with the likes of Alexisonfire, to unavoidable clashes at festivals later down the line, we just never managed to catch them live. That was, at least, until 2022. It’s a shame then, that having seen them several times since, they’ve never managed to truly blow us away.
That’s not to say they’ve ever been bad by any stretch, but when you go so long without seeing a band you’ve followed for years live, your expectations can run away with themselves. And as we enter the already sweaty surrounds of Manchester’s O2 Ritz, we hope tonight the band can live up to previous expectations.
But first, there’s the small matter of the St Albans-based Trash Boat to attend to.
Arriving on stage at exactly 8pm, the five-piece quickly introduce themselves before an explosive opening number in the form of Break You sets an impressively high bar to follow. Having been hugely impressed by the band at Slam Dunk Festival a couple of years previously, we had made a mental note that we needed to see them again. As such it’s a little disappointing then that the following couple of tracks, Delusions of Grandeur and Bad Entertainment, don’t quite reach the lofty heights of their opener.
Any doubts are quickly put to bed, however, as the band’s energy and earnestness bleeds through into every track. New single Be Someone feels like a combination of Alexisonfire and Bring Me The Horizon, whilst their penultimate offering sees mosh-pits tear holes in an already impressively large crowd, whilst crowd surfers are thrown stage-ward with wilful abandon.
It’s a short and sweaty support set from the Hertfordshire punks. Having warmed the crowd, and indeed the entire venue, up, they take their leave knowing full well their job tonight has been done perfectly.
It seems barely anytime passes before the house lights dim and the familiar intro to Satellite bursts forth from the stage; the audience clapping along before Tim McIlrath’s inimitable vocal elicits a cheer from a now-capacity crowd. A smaller venue than the last time they graced Manchester, not to mention a more characterful one, there’s a sense of intimacy about tonight’s show that’s noticeable almost as soon as the band kick things off.
An early outing for Give It All sees McIlrath, and indeed the crowd, in full voice. Eschewing his guitar in favour of making use of the venue’s sizeable stage, the energy McIlrath exudes is nothing short of impressive, and he finishes the song standing on the barrier, the crowd in the palm of his hand.
An angular, chunky Re-Education (Through Labour) sees mosh pits erupt across the venue and feels especially impactful given recent events across the country. Ready To Fall sees another huge sing-along, maintaining an almost breakneck pace that relents only as the band disappears off stage, leaving Tim alone.
“Let’s do a quiet song, but make it loud” he instructs, before the devastating opening notes of Hero Of War ring out. Now a staple of the band’s live sets, and a damning portrait of the American military, it’s an emotional half-way point; its gravitas offset only by the following number.
Arguably Rise Against’s mainstream breakthrough, Swing Life Away is perhaps their poppiest offering. A rose-tinted ode to the simple things in life, it’s clearly still a fan-favourite; one that means a lot to plenty of us in the crowd given that there’re more than a couple of wet cheeks around us.
The only recent song on tonight’s set-list falls to Want It All, and while it doesn’t so much as stymie the breakneck pace, it does give the crowd, who has been in full voice throughout, a chance to get its breath back. At least until they follow it up with another fan-favourite in the form of Like The Angel. A punk tour-de-force, arguably a gateway track given its inclusion on a Tony Hawk’s game, the mosh pits open once more and it’s clear we’re heading towards tonight’s encore – but not before Prayer of the Refugee closes out the main set, complete with extended guitar solos and obligatory crowd-surfers, before the band disappears for a brief moment.
“This one’s for the survivors” McIlrath announces as he launches into Survivor, the first of a three-track encore. Audience Of One follows; a sprawling and anthemic offering that eschews the band’s trademark weight and politics in favour of something more personal, more resonant. It’s final number Saviour that shows just how important this band are to the 1500 people in front of them.
With the crowd almost drowning out McIlrath’s vocals in one final show of solidarity, it’s clear that tonight has been something special; a more raw, more intimate version of Rise Against than we’ve previously seen. The fire-in-the-belly energy we craved from them before now is present in spades, and as we leave the venue, ears ringing, we know we’ve seen Rise Against finally live up to their reputation.
Rise Against can be found on their website and Facebook.
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Dave Beech is a music writer based out of Manchester. Links to his work can be found over at his blog, Life’s A Beech, as well as his Louder Than War Author Archive. He also tweets as @Dave__Beech.
Photos by Liam Maxwell
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