Rise Against + Destroy Boys @ Olympia▪

Sacramento’s Destroy Boys are a curious fusion of punk rock niches. Collectively they look psychobilly, they sound riot grrrl, and with the white face paint and dark makeup of vocalist Alexia Roditis, you have to add a sprinkle of goth in there too.

However you want to describe them, there’s no question they’re getting popular. The packed Olympia crowd goes nuts for them for the duration of their 40-minute set. Drink is an instant banger, that riff sticking in your brain from the first time you hear it, and crowdsurfers are already airborne by the time Alexia and guitarist Violet Mayugba swap roles for a couple of songs mid-set, Violet proving herself a bona fide frontwoman too.

An enormous circle opens up as Alexia introduces the last song, and it implodes with fury as the opening bars ring out. Judging by the crowd reception, it won’t be long before they themselves are headlining rooms this big too!

Chicago’s Rise Against arrive in Montreal for the first of a few 2-night residencies on their current tour in support of last year’s Ricochet record. These 2-night things usually go one of two ways. On the one hand, you can play identical sets both nights, kinda like Men I Trust did last December, which makes it kinda pointless to go both nights, unless you are of the ultra-devout fan variety. On the other hand, you can break up your regular set across both nights and fill out the rest of the set with deep cuts and rarities; awesome if you can go both nights, but a little lacking if you can only go one of them.

Rise Against opt for the latter (I assume; I have no idea what the setlist of night 2 looks like). Frontman Tim McIlrath declares early on, “we’re gonna play some songs we haven’t played in a long time!” Set staples like Give It All, Re-Education (Through Labor), Under the Knife, and Help Is on the Way are shelved, making way for rare airings of songs like Wolves and Far From Perfect (played for the first time since 2018 and 2019 respectively, according to setlist.fm), as well as the live debut of Hairline Fracture in the encore.

It’s an awesome set if you are a lover of the The Sufferer & the Witness (2006) and the Appeal to Reason (2008) records. Half of the songs from the 16-song set come from those two records. Personally, I first saw the band in 2003 touring their sophomore Revolutions per Minute record, so I’m kinda bummed that record gets zero representation; Like the Angel will always be my favorite song of their catalog. Indeed, there’s only one song from across their first three records tonight; thankfully, it’s the magical Swing Life Away, which will never get old, hearing all those weathered punks singing such a delicate ballad at the top of their lungs!

Still, if I am a little disappointed by the omissions, it looks like I’m the only one. The rest of the room goes absolutely berserk from start to finish, from the front fence to the steps at the back of the floor. Tim drops off his mic on the very first song to let the crowd sing a deafening “ALL BECAUSE OF YOUUU!” on a colossal The Good Left Undone. Satellite is equally deafening in its singalong, Tim’s vocal section through a megaphone no match for the vociferous crowd. The singalong is even louder on the acoustic renditions of Hero of War and Swing Life Away, with phone lights illuminating to create a true stadium vibe.

The crowdsurfing is relentless throughout too. On Far From Perfect, there’s even a guy in his wheelchair doing it! There’s an absolute squadron of surfers airborne on the classic Savior and Prayer of the Refugee too, floating across the sea of hands as strobes blare and fists raise.

Whatever your catalog preferences may be, there’s no denying it’s a fun and thunderous 80 minutes, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if most of this crowd is back here for night 2 tomorrow!