Rise Against Goes Full Volume in Calgary - Live in Calgary March 25th, 2025.

Photos: finitelightphotos

Right before you arrived at this review, you probably scrolled past a dozen posts about a world in chaos: wars over oil. The erosion of rights. Climate disasters. 

What does that mean? That in many ways, the world needs the justified anger of loud punk and hardcore rock more than ever before. Maybe that’s why it’s so cathartic to feel a riff from Rise Against wash over you in a sold-out crowd.

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March 25 is a snowy day in Calgary, but it seems to have no effect on the legions of fans – many of whom show up in the same punk outfits that they’d wear on any other day. It’s been a few years since the band has been here, and there’s plenty of pent-up energy ready to let loose as the lines for entry, booze, bathrooms, and merch snake around the venue. Soon, the entire place is a sea of people eager to get to the good stuff.

With two openers, the music starts early. Koyo is up first – a Stony Brook, NY hardcore/pop-punk group that explains how they used to cover Rise Against in the early days, and now they’re on tour together. They’re followed by Sacramento’s Destroy Boys, whose punk-infused frontwomen dominate the stage with crunchy guitars and equal parts ripped-jeans-and-Converse and fishnets-with-stiletto-heels. By the time they wrap up, the crowd has swelled to its sellout max of 3000 people, filling the room all the way to the back.

After the stage reset, there’s a long, dramatic, darkened intro as the quartet from Chicago takes the stage. Wasting no time, they launch into Re-Education (Through Labor), its familiar chugging riffs sending a visceral reaction through the crowd. It’s followed by Under The Knife and its high-impact choruses, buoyed by drummer Brandon Barnes, and then comes Give It All. For that one, Tim McIlrath leaves his guitar behind and goes rogue, hopping up on the barricade footholds and reaching out for screaming fans as crowdsurfers sail past.

Three songs in, and it’s everything this type of show should be. 25 years of screaming about politics have only sharpened McIlrath’s already-unique voice, and he sounds just enough “like the album” as a hardcore singer should, while still leaving plenty of room to improvise on the spot.

He and the rest of the band – Barnes, bassist Joe Principe, and guitarist Zach Blair – reconvene on stage and rip through another series of songs, old and new: Help Is On The Way, The Good Left Undone, and Nod, from their newest album, Ricochet. In between, McIlrath peppers in comments about his inspiration, how the tour is going, and what it means to be a caring citizen of the world with everything going on in it. If you’ve listened to Rise Against even once in your life, none of it will come as a surprise.

After this comes a half-dozen big hits that carry the night to the encore. In Ready to Fall, the entire crowd scream-sings along; in Satellite, a megaphone appears from nowhere to assist McIlrath in yelling out to the crowd. He plays the next two songs solo – Hero of War and Swing Life Away – but despite the toned-down performance, people are still crowdsurfing and cheering (which McIlrath notices and encourages, saying it’s one of his favourite things about playing in Canada). A sea of phones lights up the audience, each one representing a person who is there, listening to the message that the band has always been so eager to give.

The main set ends with two heavy hitters. Chamber the Cartridge comes first, inspiring thousands of fists to pump in the air as their owners chant in unison. Prayer of the Refugee gets nearly as many feet in the air from crowdsurfing as there were hands before, and Blair lays down a monstrous solo to a huge cheer just before the song ends.

But, eventually, it does end. The band disappears for a moment before returning for the three-song encore: Make It Stop (September’s Children), Like The Angel, and – the one that many people are here to see – Saviour. 

For many who have been looking at the world lately and feeling uninspired, a concert like this is a perfect reminder that it doesn’t have to be that way.

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