Antillectual

Ever since Rise Against released their first album, we’ve been fans of the band. I think their 2003 Revolutions Per Minute album has made such an impact on our musical development that you can hear their influence. It’s not just the sound of the band that appeals to us; their social awareness and the way they incorporate it into their lyrics and media appearances inspire how we do things.

Written by Willem, photos by Tom Roelofs

The first time we played together with them was in June 2008 at Oosterpoort in Groningen, with Long Way Down from Groningen opening the show. By then, they had already played big venues, and I remember that they had brought their own catering on that tour, something we hadn’t experienced yet. Not sure if it had to do with vegan or health preferences, but the food was delicious!

In 2011, we worked with Glenn Gillmann of Mighty Vision Bookings. He received an email from x-why-z Konzertagentur with a request from Rise Against management to check whether we wanted to support them on their show at the Philips Halle, now called Mitsubishi Electric Halle, in Düsseldorf. We would be the second of three bands, and they offered the highest fee we had received up to then. We didn’t know how quickly we could reply to Glenn to say that we wanted to do this show! Not only was it with Rise Against, but it was also at a venue we had never heard of; after looking it up, we found it had an 8,000-capacity! And not long after confirming the show, we got the news that it had sold out! The opening band of the night turned out to be Templeton Pek, who we now consider friends.

When we arrived at the arena in the afternoon, there was already a line of people outside waiting to get in hours later. We parked our van in the middle of the Rise Against bus park, a big group of huge nightliners and trucks, making our not-that-tiny van look tinier than ever before. Even though empty venues always look smaller than filled venues, this one was still huge when empty. We walked around, taking in the absurdity of it all, checking out the view from the balconies, looking at how small the people on stage looked from the back, and thinking about how political punk rock bands like Rise Against had, at some point, made it to venues this size. We put up our backline and backdrop, which usually helps us feel at home at a venue. Not this time, our big backdrop looked tiny; this place was too wild to feel at home in. I do remember that at soundcheck, right from the start, I had the best sound I’d ever had on stage, as if I were listening to one of our own albums. The people behind the knobs knew what they were doing.

After soundcheck, we walked around the place a little more, and we actually did some frisbeeing in the hall, plenty of space! This was also the first time we had to outsource merch sales to the venue. Not sure if that was because of Rise Against’s orders or the way this venue or promoter worked, but we had to hand over our merch for the local crew to sell it, of course, for a “service fee”. We sold a shit load that night, our biggest merch sale till then.

The show itself was just as ridiculous. Since we played second, the hall was already almost sold out, and the people had been warmed up for some loud live music. Most of them obviously didn’t know us, but you could tell they were paying attention; people were moving their heads and hips, dancing and clapping along. We were not used to playing audiences of that size (and still aren’t, really) and it probably showed. With a stage that size and an audience so enthusiastic, we would have made it into a bigger party had we played this show these days. Seeing Rise Against handle a stage and venue of that size shows why that band is as big as it is. They know how to get a crowd of that size going on and on.

We knew this show was going to be special, so we asked our friend and photographer, Tom Roelofs, to join us. If only we had also asked a videographer to join us, the only video we have of this show is a YouTube clip, which still shows how impressive it was, with an arena audience clapping along to one of our songs they had probably never heard before.

After the show, we chatted with the Rise Against folks, whom we’d briefly spoken with when we played with them in Groningen. They remembered who we were and actually told us they recently visited a Sea Shepherd ship in Australia and were surprised to see one of their stickers there. To this day, I have no clue how that sticker got there, but I’m glad it did, as it apparently caught the right eyes!

All in all, I think we left a great impression. In the years that followed, we had people wearing Rise Against shirts at our shows in the broader Düsseldorf area, coming up to us saying they had seen us at the Rise Against show and wanted to see us again. This is the very reason why bands love doing support shows. I think some of them were quite surprised when they visited our own shows, given the size and setup of the venues after seeing us at the Philips Hall. Welcome to the DIY punk scene!

Looking back at that show is amazing, and we’re extremely thankful they asked us to play. At the same time, it also fills me with a little sadness. We never played with Rise Against again, and we never got the chance to play a place that big. It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity we’re grateful we got, but we’re too ambitious not to regret never getting it again.