Politically charged Rise Against still raging against injustice

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On Jan. 30, Rise Against guitarist Zach Blair and vocalist Tim McIlrath performed a short set at First Avenue, an iconic Minneapolis venue that has been a gathering spot for inventive musicians since the 1970s.

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They were part of the Concert of Solidarity & Resistance to Defend Minnesota. The protest concert also served as a fundraiser for the families of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two protestors shot dead by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on the streets of Minneapolis during the federal government’s recent siege of the Twin Cities.

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Blair and McIlrath played stripped-down versions of their own songs. That included politically charged originals such as Welcome to the Breakdown, a 2017 song that seemed eerily prescient in decrying the rise of right-wing, populist leaders and the attack on democracy. They played Prayer of the Refugee, a song about resilience, discrimination and displacement among marginalized communities in the U.S. They finished the set with a cover of Neil Young’s Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World, a fiery anthem the singer-songwriter wrote to protest the newly elected George H.W. Bush administration back in 1989. Solidarity & Resistance was organized by Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, one of the most politically vocal bands of the past 30 years. The surprise guest that evening was Bruce Springsteen. He had just released Streets of Minneapolis about the ICE killings, but has been writing politically progressive songs for more than half a decade. At the end of the night, the participants all got together for a rousing version of Power to the People.

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“Seeing it full of people who have been dealing with all these atrocities and watching their city be the epicentre of all this injustice peacefully protesting, standing together — it was just beautiful,” says Blair, in an interview with Postmedia from Los Angeles. “As artists, all we can really do is play music and sing about what is important to us. To be able to do it at that moment in that place was just amazing.”

Band rose to prominence in the wake of 9/11

As their name suggests, Rise Against has always been unabashedly political. While McIlrath is the lyricist for the band, Blair says the years since Donald Trump’s 2016 rise have given the band and other like-minded acts plenty to rage against. Historically, political unrest and right-wing dominance have produced fertile periods for artists, particularly in the punk scene.

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“I’d rather we didn’t have to deal with it, but here we are,” says Blair, who will join his bandmates for a Canadian tour that hits Toronto’s HISTORY for back-to-back shows on March 10 and 11. “That’s OK, because we’ll still be here and we’ll still respond to it. You have to put yourself in the place of our forefathers — the guys in the ’80s that were doing this then and responding, at least in the States, to Reaganomics or, in England, the Thatcher years and things like that. It seems like, unfortunately, history repeats itself. You would think we are modern thinkers now and we’ve moved on, but for some reason it just keeps repeating itself, even the worst parts of it… Thankfully, there is pop music and just art in general that can respond to it.”

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Formed in Chicago in 1999, Rise Against rose to prominence in the wake of 9/11 as part of a new wave of politically motivated punk acts. They have never been shy about voicing their opinions, so their involvement in a growing protest movement among artists against President Donald Trump is hardly surprising. The band has been outspoken supporters of environmental causes, anti-war initiatives and aligned themselves with projects such as the pro-LGBTQ organization It Gets Better.

While Blair didn’t join Rise Against until 2008, he says the band’s roots in the politically chaotic days just before and after 9/11 were crucial in forming its identity.

“Back then, it seems like you had two choices because it was politically charged and it was post-9/11,” says Blair. “You were either the band that was going to talk about it and lean into it, or you were the band who were going to give people an escape: let’s talk about partying, let’s talk about anything but what is happening. A lot of people were like ‘Just shut up and play your music.’ Neil Young has been getting that his whole career: ‘No one wants to hear a musician’s political beliefs’ or whatever it might be. I think since Tim is the voice of the band, literally, and he also writes the lyrics, I feel like he just couldn’t hold himself back. Maybe that’s just a natural evolution of who he is as a person.”

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‘We’re coming up and apologizing pretty much’

Rise Against released its 10th studio album, Ricochet, in 2025. While the songs are still political and the imagery often dystopian — chronicling “our collective unravelling ” as the press release suggests — the overall themes seem to be interconnectedness and community. The band’s fanbase has always been tight-knit, and Rise Against launched The A.R.T. Project earlier this year, which invited dozens of dedicated fans to create original posters to serve as a backdrop to a series of music videos.

Sonically, the music is still urgent, still sounds best when played loud and still reflects the band’s early roots in melodic hardcore. But, as some critics have pointed out, Ricochet is also a lot more polished and embraces anthemic stadium-ready sounds. Australian producer Catherine Marks was at the helm, who may be best known for her recent work with the superband boygenius and its 2023 Grammy-sweeping debut The Record.

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“In a nutshell, the prime mover was ‘Let’s try things differently,” says Blair. “Let’s go to a different producer, let’s go to a different mixer, different engineer… It’s going to be really hard to not sound like Rise Against because that’s who we are. You put the four of us in a room and give us any number and we’re going to sound like Rise Against. We took some creative risks, some leaps. I, and I think all of us, want to be part of a band that pushes itself. Some of my favourite bands made records that I didn’t get at first. I just wasn’t ready for it at the time, and they were onto some other sh-t and I wasn’t ready to grow with them. Sure enough, a few years later, I get it. I think we made that record. I wanted to make that record.”

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Canadian fans have been among the most devoted over the years, following the act since its earliest days, Blair says. Given the special kinship Rise Against has with the country, the Canadian tour seems all the more important.

“Even if you’re not a political band like we are, you’re still an ambassador for your country when there is this shameful (expletive) idiot running everything into the ground,” he says. “You have to sort of answer for that. So we’re coming up and apologizing pretty much. I feel like we owe other countries an apology, even though we are not responsible. We still are ambassadors for our country and that changes every day in the circus. It’s ridiculous.”

Canadian tour dates:

March 5 – Montreal, QC – L’Olympia

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March 6 – Montreal, QC – L’Olympia

March 8 – Ottawa, ON – Hard Rock Casino

March 10 – Toronto, ON – HISTORY

March 11 – Toronto, ON – HISTORY

March 21 – Winnipeg, MB – Burton Cummings Theatre

March 22 – Winnipeg, MB – Burton Cummings Theatre

March 24 – Edmonton, AB – Convention Centre

March 25 – Calgary, AB – Grey Eagle Casino Event Centre

March 27 – Penticton, BC – Penticton Trade + Convention Centre

March 28 – Vancouver, BC – PNE Forum

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