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| Rise Against @ the UC Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
BERKELEY, CA - It had been just over a month since Rise Against took the stage at Aftershock 2024 in front of 40,000 or so metal fans when they returned to the Bay Area Tuesday night for a sold-out audience at Berkeley’s UC Theatre Taube Family Music Hall. In that short amount of time, they had blitzed across North America with 24 additional concerts.
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| Rise Against @ the UC Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
I had spoken to them about an hour before their Aftershock set and they were already looking forward to it. Guitarist Zach Blair told me that day that their tour of theater-size venues would “allow us to take some liberties and play some deeper cuts for every era of fan. You know, we’ve been a band for 25 years, so we wanted to celebrate that a little.” As promised, Tuesday’s concert spanned the band’s entire catalogue and showed their range with metal anthems, mosh-pit alternative and even tender acoustic ballads.
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| Rise Against @ the UC Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Opening with their traditional show-starter of "Satellite" from 2011’s Endgame they blasted the audience into a frenzy. Blair was a blur jumping on and off his platform while drummer Brandon Barnes and bassist Joe Principe deftly changed the pace of the song back and forth from driving intensity to sprinting exhilaration. Lead singer / rhythm guitarist Tim McIlrath exhorted on the crowd in the center of the stage – bringing out his megaphone mid-song to lead the crowd in singing along before the song was brought to a close with its blistering finish.
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| Rise Against @ the UC Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
2014’s “Tragedy + Time”’s lyric of “All that matters is the time we had. Doesn’t matter how it all went bad” was sung with the knowledge of a band singing with twenty-five years of experience since they blasted out of Chicago as a punk band back in 1999. “Give It All” saw McIlrath at his most engaged and connected with the audience as he leapt from the stage onto the barrier to lead the audience. McIlrath distributed high fives aplenty as his team held him back by his belt from falling into the fans and crowd-surfers cruised by on arms around him.
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| Rise Against @ the UC Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
After “Help is on This Way” – which McIlrath introduced as “a song about how Mother Nature Always Wins” – he asked how many in the audience had seen Rise Against before and how many were seeing them for the first time. Judging by the reaction levels, the crowd seemed to be nearly split. Despite the band’s longtime comfort in standing forward on various public issues, the concert was virtually void of political discourse outside the band’s lyrics, McIlrath focused more on reminiscing and celebrating. Frequently referring to the band’s history and connections to the Bay Area. “I believe this is the first time we have played this song in the Bay Area,” McIlrath told the crowd before launching “The Strength to Go On” off 2008’s Appeal to Reason under a deep green light.
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| Rise Against @ the UC Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
McIlrath grabbed his acoustic guitar for a tender “People Live Here” accompanied only by Blair’s electric guitar and then performed a solo “Swing Life Away.” A few songs later, they capped the main set with huge 2006 hit of “Prayer of the Refugee” that sent the fans into a swelling, swirling frenzy.
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| Rise Against @ the UC Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
In all, Rise would play sixteen songs on a stage that was unadorned other than a large standing platform for each band member and a giant “RISE” banner behind them. Their three-song encore saw them finish with “Audience of One”, “Black Masks & Gasoline” and 2008’s “Savior.” They will return to Northern California with their March 29th show at Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center on the agenda of their Spring 2025 co-headline tour with Papa Roach that will visit arenas and amphitheaters from March until October. At Aftershock, McIlrath promised “We’ve got new music percolating in the works, and we can’t wait to get it out…” Perhaps, the coming visit will see some of these songs make their Northern California debut.
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| L.S. Dunes @ the UC Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The featured act in the second slot, L.S. Dunes has been heralded as a “super-group” – emerging out of Covid at 2022’s Riot Fest and producing their debut album “Past Lives.” The group is fronted by the incredibly charismatic vocalist Anthony Green (Circa Survive, Saosin and The Sounds of Animals Fighting), guitarist Frank Iero of My Chemical Romance, Coheed and Cambria’s guitarist Travis Stever, drummer Tucker Rule and bassist Tim Payne of Thursday. The band has joked that the name either ties to LSD and that the LS stands for “low stress” compared to their other bands. Drummer Rule joked that “the name was beamed down via spaceship.”
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| L.S. Dunes @ the UC Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The members of L.S. Dunes seemed to equally be having a terrific time playing for the fans in the venue and with each other. Green expressed his gratitude and appreciation between nearly every song and despite their brand of aggressive “post-hardcore” they had smiles on their faces throughout. Songs such as “Bombsquad” and “Benadryl Subreddit” spotlighted the band’s power as they performed before a full audience that had arrived in time to see them. Green was in constant motion and waging a war with his microphone whether he was casting it out in front of him or holding it like a yo-yo.
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| Cloud Nothings @ the UC Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Cleveland’s Cloud Nothings opened the show with a strong half-hour of angst and exuberance that seemed to blend the style of Kurt Vile with the energy of Blink 182. Much like Blink, the band’s pace was driven by standout drummer Jayson Gerycz, who impressed throughout the set.
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