Show Review + Photos: Rancid, Rise Against at Pop's, 6/13/09

"I want to make sure your voices echo across the Mississippi and into downtown!" And so went the "Heys!" -- the fist-pumping of a couple thousand Rise Against fans, shouting for social change during the Chicago punk band's set Saturday night. And if fans needed any reminder of their setting, the neon glow of P.T.'s and Dreamgirls signs was there to remind them, as well as probably lure in a few after the show ended about 10:30 p.m.

(View a slideshow of the concert.)

But wherever the setting, Rise Against singer Tim McIlrath never fails to get his fans appropriately charged, even if they're already shit-faced. If you managed to get the set list, please post in the comment section. However, the band's set did sound much like what they've been doing this tour. (Here's a set list from the June 6 show on this tour.)

Maybe it was the fact that the sun had went down, or the impressive stage show (all that smoke! and three spotlights!), but Rise Against's characteristically intense performance was what its fans have come to expect. The headlining band owned the night, topping buzzy newcomers the Riverboat Gamblers, and the kinda ok-they-really-are punk legends Rancid.
Last night's punk show -- that's a bit of an understatement, it was more of a Warped Tour/festival atmosphere -- in the parking lot outside Pop's had fans cut from the whole animal of punk culture, old and young, the very young, the sober teens and the incredibly drunk, err, teens. Roughly 2,900 people -- young punk mothers, toddlers in Rancid shirts, pogoing teens and all the other stereotypes one could imagine -- were present for the rare outdoor gig at Pop's.

"What a perfect night for a show, what a perfect fucking night," McIlrath proclaimed during a break in the songs. "We don't get to play outside much, this reminds of Warped Tour."

Openers the Riverboat Gamblers, the Denton-to-Austin transplants, put on its now characteristically energetic, punk rock set, with the emphasis on the rock 'n' roll -- an apt starter for the night. On the giant porto-stage set up in the parking lot, there was no bar for singer Mike Wiebe to dance upon, much like he did in February of last year at 2 Cents Plain. Some things are just lost on a festival stage.

After a between-sets mix of the Cro-Mags, Discharge and Cockney Rejects that was pumped through the parking lot, Bay Area punks Rancid took the stage at 7:57 p.m., immediately going into familiar tunes, and testing out three songs off its new and seventh release, Let the Dominoes Fall, which was released June 2.
Here's a set list for Rancid, who tightly played a 50-minute set, much shorter than its headlining gig that was inside Pop's about a year ago.

Radio
Last One to Die*
Journey to the End of the East Bay
Roots Radicals
Nihilism
Olympia, WA
Salvation
Bloodclot
L.A. River*
Fall Back Down
Time Bomb
St. Mary
East Bay Night*
Maxwell Murder
Ruby Soho

*On Let the Dominoes Fall