With their 10th studio album Ricochet set to drop in just six weeks, Chicago rockers Rise Against closed out the first night of All Your Friends Fest with a blistering headlining set at Burl’s Creek, Ontario, on Saturday, June 28, 2025.
Frontman Tim McIlrath paused mid-show to thank the thousands of fans who filled the field “in the middle of nowhere” to catch their set. “You’re the electricity that makes all of this work,” he told the crowd, drawing cheers that echoed across the grounds.
With a nod to Canada Day around the corner, McIlrath pointed out the festival’s three poutine vendors near the back of the field. “We know we’re not in Kansas anymore,” he grinned.
Over their 25-year career, Rise Against has built a reputation for high-octane live shows and Saturday night was no exception. Their setlist spanned fan favourites from across their catalogue — plus a taste of what’s to come with two new tracks off Ricochet: “Nod” and “I Want It All.”
Before hitting the stage, the band sat down with SWOMP for an exclusive interview at Universal Music’s Liberty Village office in Toronto. Guitarist Zach Blair and drummer Brandon Barnes gave us the lowdown on the new record and 2025 tour dates.
Listen to the full interview below.
Here are SWOMP’s photos from their All Your Friends Fest performance:
Out August 15th on Loma Vista Recordings, Ricochet marks the rock band’s first album in four years, arriving in a world of constant stimuli, where the algorithm wants us all to be angry: like a pile of marbles hit hard and bouncing uncontrollably, continuing to spread further and further.
But across these twelve songs, produced by GRAMMY®-winner Catherine Marks (Boygenius, Foals, Manchester Orchestra, St. Vincent) and mixed by Alan Moulder (Nine Inch Nails, Paramore, Queens of the Stone Age, The Killers), Rise Against ask listeners to consider who ultimately benefits from this collective division and displeasure – to look before we leap, to think about the consequences our actions have on each other, as the power structures that prod us remain preserved and protected.
Rooted in unification, Ricochet is a record massive in sound, but centred around the small parts of the psyche that lead to the biggest positive change. It all starts with oneself, and on the searing lead single, ‘I Want It All,’ Rise Against rev the engine and jump-start a mission of self-determinism that is ardent, ambitious and unapologetic.
“The algorithm wants our attention so it is designed to make us laugh or cry, but mostly, it wants us to be angry, because that is how it spreads the furthest. Like a pile of marbles, hit hard. Who benefits from our anger? Questions we don’t ask, as we fire away,” stated lead singer Tim McIlrath.
‘I Want It All’ follows recent singles ‘Nod’ – hailed as a “particularly potent rallying cry for the moment” (Rolling Stone), and “the anthem we need right now” (VICE) – as well as ‘Prizefighter,’ illustrating the internal battle between making art, maintaining autonomy and meeting the demands of our rapidly-shifting attention span.
Throughout the rest of Ricochet, Rise Against dive deeper into the solace we find in community and the chain reaction of our words and actions – how hurt is not something that can be reversed, and that the fight for a better existence begins not with blind allegiance, but through an unpopular opinion from a minority of voices.
While so much of the world is designed to feel like we are in a constant state of emergency, Rise Against urge us to come together to not simply survive, but to save it now.
In the four years since 2021’s Nowhere Generation, the Chicago band’s outspoken messages, bulletproof melodies and deep body of multi-Gold and Platinum hits have reached more fans than ever, uniting millions in a necessary embrace of vital, progressive issues.
Whether they are singing about injustice, instability, environmentalism, animal rights or the way the social and economic decks have been stacked against the youth, Rise Against continue to fill arenas, top charts, break records and earn billions of streams.
This summer, they are back bigger than ever.
Having already performed at LA’s Kia Forum and toured across three continents this year, Rise Against return to the road hot on the heels of the album announcement, for an impressive EU/UK tour and festival headliner run in June, followed by Vans Warped Tour, and dozens of arena and amphitheatre shows in the US.
All of the details can be found at riseagainst.com.