Rise Against

The Union Events presents… Rise Against with special guests Flogging Molly, and The Black Pacific at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, MB on October 5, 2011.

Starting off the evening was punk-rock band The Black Pacific. Playing an approximately half hour set The Black Pacific played unfortunately to a relatively empty arena. Ticket holders did not think to arrive prior to Flogging Molly, and Rise Against, most likely due to their ignorance towards knowing that the lead singer of The Black Pacific, was really the same lead singer of punk-rock legends, Pennywise, Jim Lindberg!

Imagine an Irish rock band with banjo’s, fiddle’s, accordions, and of course the classics of guitars, bass, and drums. That is how the 7 piece band, Flogging Molly does it. Definitely representing Ireland proud and well, they combined a mix of traditionally Irish music, with the whole, punk-rock genre, coming up with something completely unique and original to anyone else. These guys put on a good entertaining show, as each member of the band pranced around on stage.

Obviously the most anticipated band of the night, Rise Against, came to the stage to a roaring crowd. Unfortunately the arena wasn’t to close to filling up for this show, which I’m not entirely sure why. It may have been a result of the change in date, to make the show a day earlier, however I still would have expected the building to fill. Going straight into ‘Re-Education (Through Labour)’, Rise Against was ready to rock. Playing mainly their older songs, the crowd literally sang along to nearly every song played.

A very energetic act, consisting of members of the band jumping all over the stage, made up for the lack of visual affects. Consisting of an old-school background that didn’t feature any screens, with lights all over, it was still pleasing to the eye, and just made you focus on the excellence of their performing instead… which is really what a concert is all about.

Rise Against touched every hit of the night including ‘Survive’, ‘Hero Of War’, ‘Prayer Of A Refugee’, as well as many others. The band closed on an ultimate high, with bring on a 3 song encore, which consisted of Entertainment, Give It All, and Savior. Overall I can say this is one of the best concerts I’ve been to in a while… there was definitely not a single lull throughout the show, a high throughout.