Events

[PUNK] With a president like Trump, punk should be having a moment right now. Leading the way is Chicago-based punk band Rise Against, who in their almost 20-year long career have released a series of blistering, emotional, and politically charged albums, including fan favorites like The Sufferer and The Witness. Their latest, 2017’s Wolves, one of the first major punk rock releases since Trump’s inauguration, taps into themes of the 2016 presidential election with songs like “Welcome to the Breakdown,” which has lead singer Tim McIlrath shouting lines like “When we all go deaf in the chamber of echoes / Cheering the missile parade / Agreeing to let all the banks rob the people / Together we circle the drain.” Though much of the record was written before Trump’s inauguration, McIlrath went back to rethink some of the lyrics after the election’s shocking outcome. On the live stage, the band has an intensity that is hard to match as they blaze through their powerful discography, and in the end, despite all of the talk of political Armageddon, they usually offer some hope and reassurance for the future. Rise Against comes to Niagara Falls for a show at the Rapids Theatre on Thursday, August 9 with a pretty huge bill that also includes AFI and Anti-Flag.