“Growing up here in Chicago, the Chicago Theatre is the type of place that’s reserved for more refined events.

(Left to right) Joshua Bows (violin), Samantha Sidwell (cello) and John Grigsby (bass) on stage with. “The guys we were twenty years ago, I don’t think ever anticipated that the song we were writing was going to ever be played at the Chicago Theatre on a ukelele.

We’ve always kind of been resistant of being a nostalgia act playing an old record or doing a themed record,” said McIlrath. Ghost Note Symphonies functioned as a way to begin a bit of a look back while still pushing the music forward. Last spring, Rise Against rejoined longtime producers Bill Stevenson (Descendents, Black Flag) and Jason Livermore, who helmed five Rise Against albums, in the studio in Colorado in an effort to rework tracks from their back catalog acoustically and with alternate instrumentation. I think this was a unique way to look back without trying to just kind of go over those well worn roads but instead add a new approach,” McIlrath said of the group’s latest release The Ghost Note Symphonies, Volume 1. “When you don’t look back, you kind of fail to grasp how long your band has been around. “I think I’m only grappling with how long we’ve been a band very recently in my life,” said Rise Against singer, songwriter and rhythm guitarist Tim McIlrath. While the desire to push things forward has been a constant for the group, staring down twenty years was reason for a rare moment of reflection.

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