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24 illinoisentertainer.com june 2017
When I see tens of thousands of people on
the streets of Chicago for the Women’s
March, I think to myself, ‘Maybe Donald
Trump is making America great again. Just
not the kind of great he’s thinking.’ Like
when I see this resistance that’s building.
When I, as like this punk rock singer for
this political punk rock band, I’m finding
common ground with just every man on
the street, because they’re so enraged with
what’s happening. I look at myself and I’m
like ‘This place is becoming great. It’s
becoming great because people are getting
angry, and they’re getting activated, and
they want change.’ And that is something
that is so encouraging to me, because
bands like us are trying, are always trying
to get people to care, always trying to prod
people into thinking about the world
around them. And now I feel like every- sage-heavy moments. It’s a point McIlrath
is all too aware of. “We’ll accept some of
the blame for that. We are the guys that
decided to name our band Rise Against,”
he laughs. “So right away you’re kind of,
you're flashing a neon sign that’s kind of
giving you really quickly what we’re try-
ing to sell. But the name – it came first in
the band. It’s kind of like, we’re kind of liv-
ing up to that name. But at the same time,
we were always writing personal songs,
even from our very first record. I would
like to think that Rise Against is kind of,
lyrically speaking, is sort of a reflection of
the human condition, which is far more
complex than just simply personal or just
simply political. As human beings and as
people, we are complicated. And the
things we care about change from day to
day, from hour to hour sometimes.”
where I go, like, people are thinking about
the world around them. In some ways it
had to get this bad for people to finally get
prodded into action. But now it’s gotten
this bad people are activated and that shit
is really exciting to me. These ideas that we
were once condemned for being too radical
are now just commonplace. That’s some-
thing that’s exciting. That to me shows that
there’s a silver lining to what’s happen-
ing.”
Elsewhere on the record, another side
of Rise Against is fully exposed. Moments
like the yearning “House On Fire” and the
remorseful “Politics Of Love” rank among
the band’s finest power ballads, with an
emphasis on melody and emotional vul-
nerability. It’s a more personal side of Rise
Against that, despite being consistent
across the group’s library, is often over-
looked and seldom given the same consid-
eration as the band’s louder, more mes- One factor McIlrath doesn’t seem to
care for is getting sucked into any sort of
music industry marketing machine. He’s
the first to reveal that there’s a strong
philosophical through-line regarding the
inner workings of Rise Against that carries
across the band’s two decade career. While
the venues the group performs in have
increased in size and the audience has
grown exponentially since the band’s
Fireside Bowl days, the one-time Chicago
underground staple isn’t one to get too lost
in any kind of master plan. “I think that the
secret behind the Rise Against mission is
that there’s never been a mission,” McIlrath
admits. “There’s never been – like – an
agenda. I mean, everything came to us as a
surprise. The whole band has been a snow-
ball, going down the hill and gathering
size and speed that we never really expect-
ed. And now, to be at this point where you
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