Rise Against Brings Their Fan Experience to MOCA Toronto [Show Review]

Back in May, Rise Against announced a few fan experience events that included a Q&A with the band and a six-song acoustic show. Toronto was their last scheduled fan experience, scheduled days before they would headline the Saturday night of the All Your Friends Festival in Oro Station.

The night started off with the Q&A, with many questions being related to the band’s new album Ricochet, which is set to be released in August. The band revealed that they’ve been working with Grammy Award-winning producer Catherine Marks, and gave fans a look at how she works with the band.

Marks was labelled as a workaholic who does everything she can to make sure a record is perfect and is very involved with the creation of her records. Frontman Tim McIlrath told a story about driving her home after a recording session, and while he was clocked out for the day, Marks was thinking about how to perfect the hi-hat on one of the tracks.

Rise Against at MOCA Toronto, photo by Ethan Jones

The band revealed that McIlrath wanted to scrap their hit song “Savior” from the Appeal to Reason album in 2008, but with pushback from the band, it remained on the record and hit Platinum in the United States.

The band answered two questions that had the crowd roaring. Firstly, they confirmed that Ghost Symphony Vol. 2 will be a thing, and secondly, that they love Toronto and plan on coming back.

After the Q&A, the band took a short break to sound check before guitarist Zach Blair and Tim McIlrath took the stage, kicking off the set with “Prayer of the Refugee.” The band made sure to include a mixture of old and new, giving the crowd a first look at an acoustic version of “I Want It All,” “Nod,” and “Prizefighter.” These three singles were released ahead of the album’s release date.

For “Swing Life Away,” Blair left the stage, leaving McIlrath for a completely solo and acoustic performance of their 2004 track. They ended the set with their biggest hit, the aforementioned “Savior,” the same track that they revealed earlier in the night that they thought about scrapping during the album production in 2008.

Rise Against fans are in a perfect position. With the new album coming out August 15th, and the band joining Papa Roach for the “Rise of the Roach” tour in the fall, the band is spoiling fans, and they don’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon!