Date: September 26th 2014
Opening Bands: Touche Amore, Radkey

I’ve been a fan of Rise Against since 2003 when Revolutions Per Minute was released on Fat Wreck Chords. Believe it or not, I only saw the band one time and that was in 2004 with Anti-Flag, Against Me and some other bands at BB King Blues Club. So yeah, it was really long overdo to see Rise Against again. Not only are they an incredible live band but they are a blast to photograph as well!

The opening band was Radkey, 3 siblings from Missouri playing old-school sounding garage punk. I never heard of the band before and they sounded great and were a lot of fun! I’m sure people will compare them to Bad Brains for obvious reasons but honestly they sound like The Misfits to me. You know, minus the whole horror punk thing. The audience didn’t seem to be into them at the start but man, they had the entire place cheering for them when they were done. I guess it helps when the band is rocking out, and running around the stage; playing their instruments on their back and doing headstands while doing it. Highly recommend checking Radkey out if you’re seeing this tour.

Touche Amore were up next and they are a post-hardcore band from California. I never heard of them before but I’m sure I’ve seen their name around the internet. I’m not a fan of post-hardcore since I prefer punk and hardcore. The band came out to a long dramatic intro and then went into their stuff. The audience seemed to like them but their music just isn’t my cup of tea. I don’t know, it all sounds the same to me but that’s my opinion.

Rise Against came on a half hour after Touche Amore got off the stage. They had to set up those fancy RISE letterings that had LED lights in them I suppose. Once the band come on the stage, they simply ROCKED! They first played “Ready to Fall,” and then went into one of my favorite Rise Against’s songs “Give It All.” I can’t believe I haven’t seen them since freakin’ 2004. Tim and the band have such stage presence, bouncing from each side of the stage. They have the “ego” risers to stand up higher and make their presence even more known. As a photographer, I like the risers because it makes for some interesting photos.

Some of the songs they played that stood out to me: “Re-Education (Through Labor),” “Long Forgotten Sons,” “Like an Angel,” and “I Don’t Want To Be Here Anymore.” It was great hearing an old song like “Like an Angel;” I was hoping to hear “Heaven Knows” but wasn’t meant to be this time around. There wasn’t a whole lot of new tunes from The Black Market played besides “I Don’t Want To Be Here Anymore” and then later on the set, “People Live Here (acoustic).” I’m glad they played those two tracks though.

Towards the end of the set, they played “Alive and Well” from The Unraveling, “Audience of One” from Appeal to Reason and then finished off the set with “Satellite” from Endgame. Tim came back out with Zach to perform 2 acoustic tracks, “People Live Here” and of course “Swing Life Away.” Next time Tim plays an acoustic set somewhere, I need to check him out because the acoustic stuff was just as good as the full band music. The final 2 songs of the show were some more favorites “Make it Stop (September’s Children)” and “Savior.” “Make it Stop” is one of my favorite songs from Rise Against and glad they played it, though not sure why I had a doubt that they might skip it. Judging from the crowd’s reaction, they wanted to hear “Savior” a lot.

Note to self, next time Rise Against comes to NYC again, don’t skip the show!

Here’s some photos from the show. Be sure to visit SkaPunkPhotos.com for all the photos throughout the week.

Radkey

Touche Amore

Rise Against