RISE AGAINST + Comeback Kid + Silverstein +2 cents @ L'Olympia

By Josh Mocle - The Kids are So-So - 07/06/2007

For better or worse, I thoroughly enjoy Rise Against. This is what I would have readily said 10 months ago. For most of last summer I listened to little but Chicago’s best politi-punk export of the last seven years and without any hesitation named their latest release The Sufferer and the Witness my number one record of 2006 (although Murder by Death was a very close second.) That having been said, my overt love for the band had been waning in the months prior to their two night stint in Montreal and I was more than a little apprehensive in regard to their performance at one of the city’s lesser known mid-range rock venues.

I had seen Rise Against once before, at the 2006 Warped Tour, and they failed to really draw me in. The rest of the show’s lineup had me worried as well. Current flavor-of-the-week screamo quintet Silverstein were providing direct support, along with the usually awesome but really out of their element Comeback Kid and some band I had never heard of out of LA by the name of 2 Cents.

I’ll never really know how well 2 Cents performed that night as when I entered the venue they were just ending their set with a particularly lackluster cover of NoFX’s classic “Linoleum.” I was unaware that bands outside of the local high school battle of the bands scene still covered that song, and I learned something that night. A quick set change later and Winnipeg’s Comeback Kid took the stage. This would be their fifth performance in Montreal in almost fifteen months, three of which I was in attendance for.

I can safely say that Comeback Kid are one of the few hardcore bands out there who have continuously impressed me both with their recorded material and their live performance and tonight was no exception. Most of crowd didn’t seem to be into them, but the band brought their own brand of slightly (but not overly) melodic hardcore with one hundred percent intensity. Seeing Comeback Kid play on a large stage with a steel barrier and perpetually perturbed bouncers between them and the audience is not the ideal way to take in their performance, but I was still sufficiently entertained.

Silverstein, Canada’s favorite bleeding hearts (next to Simple Plan of course) were up next. Given my dislike of the band I retreated to the street for most of their set. No band in the world has gone from my favourites list to my shitlist faster than Silverstein. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that, despite my best wishes, I’m growing up and no longer find songs exclusively about wrist slitting and crying over ex-girlfriends entertaining. Maybe it has something to do with the band’s overt desire to repeatedly write and sing the same melodramatic songs they know will get 15 year-olds to shell out their parent’s money over and over again. However, for the sake of this review, I made my way back inside the venue to catch the end of the seventh Silverstein performance I’ve witnessed in my time on this Earth (which, for the record, is exactly six too many.) Once inside I had the strangest sense of Déjà vu, mainly since I was seeing something I had seen so many times before. Sure, the band was slightly older now, but they were still playing the same by the numbers screamo they always did. The same sing-scream vocals, the same butchered hardcore guitar riffs, hell, even the same Goddamn stage positions. For what it’s worth, they did have those kids (and I do mean kids) eating out of their hands. The crowd was going nuts, singing along with every whiney word of it. For a moment I almost remembered what made once like this band as much as I did, but didn’t come close to making me like them now. Three years ago I would have loved this performance, but in the here and now I was just annoyed.

Once Silverstein left the stage most of their pre-teen audience, much like I expected, retreated to the back of the venue or left entirely. As the stage was set up for Rise Against, complete with standing light fixtures and giant curtain artwork I thought to myself “man, that Geffen money buys an elaborate stage setup.” While this by far was not my first major label funded rock concert, it always amazes me how much money is spent on something the audience will notice once, think is slightly cool, and then forget about. Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge fan of a band adding a little extra to their visual performance, but when all that extra manages to do is conjure up memories of the last Korn tour I simply don’t see the point.

That aside, once the band took the stage I was honestly surprised by the energy they brought with them. For such small guys (I think singer/guitarist Tim McIlrath MAYBE comes up to my chin) they certainly know how to be loud. It didn’t take long before I found myself singing along in the crowd (which now contained people who were predominantly closer to my age (along with the occasional pre-teener.) After about forty-five minutes of their particular political based post-hardcore (including this fan’s personal favorite track “Like The Angel”) they left the stage. At shows like this one an encore is pretty much expected, hence when McIlrath returned with an acoustic guitar and played both acoustic songs in the bands catalogue (the acoustic version of “Everchanging” and “Swing Life Away”) I was not so surprised. After this mini acoustic set I, along with many, proceeded to exit the venue. I retrieved my backpack from the coat check, and it occurred to me that the music I was hearing was not the house DJ. I rushed back toward the stage and saw that the band had begun their second encore. While this is a concept I had heard of, it was not one I have ever outright experienced. For all intents and purposes these guys were really giving it all (no pun intended for those familiar with the band’s catalogue) with this show, which was a nice surprise, seeing as this was not only one of many shows they’ve played this year, but the second one they were playing in this city in two days.

Why these guys waste time opening for Billy Talent and don’t headline more often is a complete mystery to me.