Rise Against

Don’t just sit there. Get up. Raise your voice. Be heard. Throw a fist in the air. Stand up and be counted with RISE AGAINST at BIG DAY OUT 2010.

Following in the punk rock protest tradition of Minor Threat, Black Flag, Rancid and Bad Religion, Chicago’s melodic hardcore heroes RISE AGAINST have spent the last decade both rocking and challenging audiences with their passionate and powerful anthems. In doing so they have become, as FasterLouder declared, “one of the great punk bands of our time”.

Singer/guitarist Tim McIlrath, bassist Joe Principe, drummer Brandon Barnes and guitarist Zach Blair use their music to highlight everything from the post-traumatic stress disorder of soldiers returned from war to the dog-eat-dog nature of modern society. They’re long-time supporters of animal rights and PETA. They’ve rocked the vote and backed Barack Obama during the last US Presidential election.

“It’s about reaching people, making them think and challenging their ways of thought, creating conversation and dialogue and putting new ideas forth for people to consider,” says McIlrath. “And when you have a bigger fanbase, that’s even more fun to do, because all of a sudden your voice is louder.”

RISE AGAINST’s latest, fifth album, Appeal to Reason, has taken them further than ever before – to No.3 on the US charts. It is an album of “fist-pumping stridency” and “fierce, engagingly tuneful stomps,” says Spin. Their musical attack is a “heart-on-sleeve, insightful and forceful interpretation of punk,” says allgigs.co.uk. “Grit, sincerity and energy are in abundance… a stirring set.”

It’s no accident that this is a band with a song titled Give it All. When RISE AGAINST step on stage, they leave nothing and no one behind. See them give it all, and then some, at BIG DAY OUT this summer.