Live Review: Rise Against, Clowns, Outright

Outright were pulling out strong political statements, thrashing guitars and guttural screams way before Rise Against hit the stage, setting the scene for tonight's show.

Clowns seemed to have brought with them a small legion of fans that were enthusiastically crowdsurfing and creating circle pits throughout the set, spurred on by lead vocalist Stevie Williams, who was also crowdsurfing by the second song.

After much beckoning from the crowd, Rise Against stormed onto the stage, opening with The Great Die-Off. Tim Mcllrath's vocals were slightly drowned out by the sound of thrashing drums and crunchy guitars, however, no one seemed to mind, with the mosh pit rife with circle pits during Satellite.

The crowd and band really let loose from Give It All onwards. This led into Mcllrath asking for a show of hands from those who'd seen them before, and sharing with us that their first Sydney show was also played on the Hordern stage, before proclaiming that we all just need to Survive — imbuing hope that carried through to the poignant Prayer Of The Refugee.

Mcllrath tried to tell a funny story, only to be attacked for his use of flip-flop over thong, and then encouraged us to lose our shoes in a proper Sydney circle pit for Blood-Red, White & Blue, finishing up with a gut-wrenching rendition of Ready To Fall.

Hero Of War and the ever-classic Swing Life Away were chosen for their acoustic numbers; it's a damn shame they didn't play People Live Here.

The band regrouped for an absolutely blistering rendition of Dancing For Rain. We could pretend that Mcllrath didn't break a guitar string in the last song, but it made Savior as the finale all the more special.

Rock on, Rise Against, rock on!