Rise Against w/ Thursday and Poison the Well [Live]

3 scene titans threaten to traumatise Glasgow

On a typically cold and wet Glasgow night the Barrowlands is always a very attractive proposition when one of your favourite bands are playing, but with a line up as immense as tonight’s I was positively salivating at the chaos that was about to be unleashed in Glasgow’s best venue tonight.

Shuffling in out of the cold, Floridian metalcore heroes Poison the Well hit the stage and quickly warm us all up. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the bands biggest fans but they certainly won over a few folk tonight with an energetic and tight performance. The sound is absolutely spot on and every lick and every riff is bone crushing but when backed with Chris Hornbrooks machine gun like precision drumming the result is truly devastating. The band like revitalised when compared to the last time I seen them with Jeffery spitting every word like he means it. I’d even go as far to comment on the passion in his eyes if I were close enough to see them, but I’m afraid I can’t lend any truth to the claim. All I can say is the batter out most of the good stuff from their back catalogue and hammer home some of the highlights of their new album “The Tropic Rot”. They leave the stage like they looked happy with what they’ve achieved today. I think many new fans were made. 4/5

Thursday are a band I also don’t really get on with but unlike Poison the Well I’ve always been intrigued to see live. In tonight’s venue they pull absolutely no punches, with the aural assault they usually churn out sounding absolutely fucking monstrous tonight. Unfortunately Geoff’s voice doesn’t fare as well live as it does on the record and his seemingly boundless energy starts to take its toll pretty early on in the set resulting in some severe pitching issues which is especially apparent in their closing song “Jet Black New Year”. I’m not going to lie, I’ve not even heard “Common Existence” but they did play the only two Thursday songs I like (the aforementioned “Jet Black New Year” and “For the Workforce, Drowning”) and they did sound almost apocalyptic with the synth sitting at just the right place in the mix and the guitars packing a mean punch. Oh, and the drumming? Spot on. If you were in the pit you’d be pulverized by now, and the headliners are still to come. So a great performance from the New Jersey sextet then, just a pity about Geoff’s voice. 4/5

I won’t bore you with the past here so I’ll be blunt; Rise Against are my favourite band ever. I’ve seen them every single time they’ve played this city and I was rather excited about seeing them tonight as Geoff from Thursday exclaimed during their set that he’s never seen them as good as they are on this tour. Well, he wasn’t wrong. Strobe lights going crazy they crash onto stage with “Collapse (Post Amerika)” and make a bold and bright statement from early on. They follow this with an especially vicious performance of “State of the Union” by which point I’d already screamed myself horse. Tonight they are absolutely on fire. I’ve literally never seen them as tight as I have tonight. Performance wise they’re all over the place but in a good way, never staying still but always looking into the whites of the crowds collective eyes. The only real issue I had with tonight was the poor set list choice. They managed to somehow put the lacklustre “Paper Wings” alongside the dull “Long Forgotten Sons” which drove me to the bar for more beer. The crowd lap it up however, and being the fan I am, I end up singing every word regardless. Highlights; “The Good Left Undone” was tighter than a ducks arse and “Drones” just about made my vocal chords burst. “Blood to Bleed” is a song I’ve never seen them play live before and bathed in indigo light it was a sight to behold. “Survive” was breath-taking and the one song they played from their 2nd album “Revolutions Per Minute” was “Blood Red White and Blue” which I think was really good but for the first time in about 4 years I lost my shit and decided to jump into the biggest circle pit I’ve ever seen. Good times were had and make no mistake.

The obligatory acoustic encore was followed by a second encore including a rather epic performance of “Dancing for Rain” (complete with piano intro) and then of course closing with the two singles; a hearty rendition of “Give it All” and a powerful execution of “Ready to Fall”.

Was it a good gig? Damn right it was. Set list left a lot to be desired but the band only dropped one note all night and I’ve never heard them sound this good. A 4/5 which would easily have been a 5/5 if they’d at least played “Heaven Knows”.