Tim McIlrath of Rise Against performing on the ‘Mourning in Amerika’ Tour at Concord Pavilion in Concord, CA. Photo Credit: Jared Stossel
Rise Against
w/ AFI, Anti-Flag
Concord Pavilion
Concord, CA
September 28, 2018
Photos and review by Jared Stossel
Last Friday evening, some of the finest acts in modern punk rock music took the stage for an unforgettable show at the East Bay’s Concord Pavilion. The “Mourning in Amerika” tour, headlined by Rise Against , brought the Chicago four-piece to the Bay Area, along with supporting sets from the Bay’s very own AFI , and Pittsburgh’s Anti-Flag.
Anti-Flag kicked off the show with a forty-minute, politically charged punk rock set that spanned the band’s eclectic catalogue. Their set ended up being one of the highlights of the entire evening, with a concluding song that featured drummer Pat Thetic moving his drum kit into the crowd and finishing the show amidst a sea of people in general admission pit up front.
One of the only bands out there that could give Rise Against a run for their money, as far as headlining sets go, is AFI. And no, we’re not just saying that because they’re from the Bay Area. The NorCal four-piece have continuously grown and evolved throighout the span of their career, experimenting with genres, new aesthetics, embracing the true meaning of the term “punk”. While they only played a set that covered a small fraction of their massive discography, the band brought the house down with classic tracks like “Girl’s Not Grey”, “Love Like Winter”, “I Hope You Suffer” and “Miss Murder”.
Rise Against took the stage for an hour and a half long set that contained a great mix of material both old and new. While a good number of tracks did come from the band’s critically acclaimed album The Sufferer and The Witness, the set had a healthy mix of songs from classic Rise Against records like Endgame, Appeal To Reason, and Revolutions Per Minute. The band included a number of new tracks from their most current album, Wolves, and it went over very well, particularly the show’s opening number “The Violence”. After powering through twelve high-voltage songs, vocalist Tim McIlrath returned to the stage for a four-song acoustic set, comprised of tracks like “Hero of War” and “Swing Life Away”.
The full band returned to the stage to provide the audience with a heavy-hitting encore set that consisted of “Make It Stop (September’s Children)”, “Wolves” and one of the band’s signature tracks, “Prayer of the Refugee”. This was a night of music that showcased some of punk’s finest acts, all of which are still carrying the torch high and proud throughout some of the largest venues in the country.
Rise Against Set List
The Violence
Satellite
Survive
I Don't Want to Be Here Anymore
House on Fire
Ready to Fall
Help Is on the Way
Chamber the Cartridge
Give It All
Blood-Red, White & Blue
Re-Education (Through Labor)
Savior
Voices Off Camera (Acoustic)
Like the Angel (Acoustic)
Hero of War (Acoustic)
Swing Life Away (Acoustic)
Encore:
Make It Stop (September's Children)
Wolves
Prayer of the Refugee