Rise Against
w/ Rancid & Riverboat Gamblers
at Myth Live
by Joe Toeben
Being that Rise Against is pretty much my favorite band; I had some pretty high expectations for this concert. I knew going into this concert that it was going to be out of control to start with. I had heard of Rancid before, but I had never actually listened to them. As for the Riverboat Gamblers they are relatively unheard of. Before going to the concert I had listened to one of their songs, but not much more than that. When I got to the Myth it wasn’t too packed to start off with. When it was time for Riverboat Gamblers to go on I took my place in the area in front of the pit so I could secure some good shots of the band.
I am sporting a small Kodak camera and trying to take pictures of the lead singer, which in 90% of the bands out there is jumping all over the stage and the singer this band is no different. You can tell these guys not only take influence from Rancid (because the lead singer cited them as an influence) but from Rise Against, The Clash, Sex Pistols and many other influential punk rock bands out there. The lead singer was jumping all over the stage, kicking his legs up in the air and bouncing around like a ball in a pinball machine. Their music style can be described as straight up punk rock. They play normal punk songs that reach lengths of no more than 3 minutes with the most of them ranging from 2 to 2 ½ minutes. I will openly say that the lead singer of Riverboat Gamblers is one of the most entertaining singers ever to watch perform. Now I have no clue if he does this at every show but when he decided it was a good idea to climb from the stage to the guard rail on the pit, I was most certainly surprised. Things really got interesting when he attempted (and succeeded) in walking on that rail, balancing himself by using his free hand to hold the fans hands. After he made his way over the other side of the rail he jumped on another rail that holds back the crowd standing on the sides of the venue. He continued to barely balance there and sing 2 more songs before making his way back to the stage so Rancid could get their set ready.
Rancid is a ska/punk band that dates back to 1993 when they released their first self-titled debut album. I can’t exactly explain why I never got into listening to them with the only reason being that I just didn’t. Made up of 4 guys who’ve been playing music almost 20 years together, Rancid is just as rowdy as they were back in ’93. They played a good portion of their set from older albums but they managed to get in a few new songs from their 2009 release Let The Dominos Fall. Even as I said earlier that I had never really listened to Rancid I still knew what was coming when I heard them play the first few notes of “Ruby Soho.” They played quite a few songs before breaking out one of the best new tracks of theirs “L.A. River.” Again for the first 3 songs I was in the photo area and I was loving it! Getting as close as I was to such punk legends was an honor in my opinion. In my book Lars Frederickson and Tim Armstrong are up there as punk legends with Sid Vicious, Johnny Rotten, Joe Strummer, Mick Jones and all of the Ramones.
Rancid finished up their set after playing a good 20 song set with some circle pit action to “Last One To Die.” Next up was Rise Against, the band that most of the people were there to see. After a 20 minute wait I was down in the pit again for the Rise Against set. After watching a video being played on the backdrop, Rise Against blasted out onto the stage rocking out just like you hoped they would. Lead singer Tim McIlrath was bouncing around stage and running around like I imagined. Out of all the performers he was the hardest to get a good picture of, but I did manage to snag a few when he slowed down. Lead guitarist Zach Blair was jumping around too and succeeded in scaring me a few times when his leg kicks got a little close to my face.
Rise Against play that style of punk known as melodic hardcore. It mostly involves Tim alternating singing and shouting the lyrics. They played all the fans favorites, “Give It All”, “Audience of One”, “Ready To Fall”, “Long Forgotten Sons”, “Hero Of War” and even throwing in an older song that about a third of the audience knew the words to. Just as I expected during the harder songs such as “Give It All” a pretty nice sized circle pit formed with pushing and shoving to boot. The only song that I wished they would have performed was “The Approaching Curve”, which on the studio version requires female vocals which is part of the reason I think they don’t play it live.
I got tickets to this event as a birthday present months ago from my girlfriend and to her I say thank you dear. I have been to my fair share of shows and this one is definitely in the top 5. The combination of bands on this tour couldn’t have been better. Riverboat Gamblers brought it and really showed everyone where punk rock is going these days. Rancid was there to set an example for all those aspiring bands out there. They proved that you can still put out music when you are damn near 40 years old. If it weren’t for Rancid I seriously doubt that either Rise Against or Riverboat Gamblers would be in existence or at least playing this kind of music. Rise Against was as filled with energy as they could have been. They put on such a good show; their performance of “Hero Of War” to seal off the night was perfect. Such a concert filled with emotion, anger and happiness was a great way to start off my summer and mark an end to my summer class that was finally over.
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/riseagainst
