Three hours before hitting the stage at New York's Roseland Ballroom, Tim McIlrath and Joe Principe of the Chicago punk crew Rise Against get some good news: Their fifth record, Appeal to Reason, will debut the next day at Number Three, selling 65,000 copies — their biggest week ever. Bassist Principe is stoked: "That's amazing!" he says. But McIlrath, the group's quiet frontman, seems less surprised. "That a band like us can crack the Top 10 speaks volumes about how frustrated people are with the world," he says. "People are looking for bands that reflect the questions they have about what's going on."

Appeal to Reason is one of the best political rock records you'll hear all year, packed with raucous hardcore anthems that tackle the destruction of the environment ("Collapse [Post Amerika]") and the war in Iraq ("Hero of War"). It also features their sharpest songwriting yet: "The Dirt Whispered," with tight, serrated guitar riffs and vocal oohing, might be one of the most tuneful songs they've written. "You get better as you get older," McIlrath says. "But it's not like we took a sabbatical, listened to a lot of Radiohead and recorded in a cabin in South America." Still, the band is reluctant to play these new tracks live. "We don't want to bum people out with too many new songs," says McIlrath.

The New York crowd, however, is anything but bummed out. When Rise Against unleash the new "Collapse," shirtless jocks, scrawny punks and a few brave girls whip themselves into a moshing frenzy. And when the group tears into "Re-Education (Through Labor)," fans respond by shouting along: "We crawl on our knees for you. . . . We wait to reap what we are due!"

Backstage feels like a miniature Warped Tour. As California punk group Thrice wrap up their set, members of Sick of It All and Bouncing Souls wander around while McIlrath checks in with local openers the Gaslight Anthem to see how their set went. "The rock show was good!" shouts psyched Gaslight frontman Brian Fallon. Upstairs in Rise Against's dressing room, the guys from NOFX stop by to say hello.

Rise Against's tour rider is far from lavish: The group members, all strict vegetarians, request only platters of raw vegetables, Gatorade and some Diet Dr. Pepper for guitarist Zach Blair, which fails to arrive. "I love that stuff so much," he says. "But there are weird commie areas of the country where you can't get it. They're pinkos, man!"

After midnight, the band boards the bus for a late-night trip to Philadelphia to play two nights at Electric Factory. "It's such a cool club," McIlrath says. "The best shows happen in seedy neighborhoods built out of old warehouses." For this tour, they brought a fleet of scooters, which they use to track down some pre-show vegan cheese steaks. "Now, instead of being cooped up in a venue all day, we can just cruise around town," says McIlrath. "It keeps us sane."

[From Issue 1065 — November 13, 2008]

Related Stories:

• More from Issue 1065
• Fall Album Preview: Rise Against
• Review: Appeal to Reason