On the weekend after my first exams here in the Netherlands, I was more than a little bit hungover when I got on my way to Amsterdam. I blame my tired brain for the fact that I first took the train in the wrong direction. But luckily it seems that, wherever you are here with the Dutchies, you can always find another train going to the capital. So after my detour and an additional 2,40€ for taking the fast train from Rotterdam, I met my Swedish friend in the rainy, cold city. After a quick bite (cause of my lateness we unfortunately could not try out the vegan junk food place) we went to the AFAS LIVE Arena. Weird thing was, that the tickets said the concert is gonna start at 8PM, Facebook however had the beginning time at 7. The pre-pre-band actually started at 7 on the dot. But in my opinion you would not have missed anything if you ended up being there at 8.

The first band was called „Pears“ and their main agenda was to scream „heeeeey“ and have the audience answer the same. Other than that they were kind of behaving like little children in a ball bath. A ball bath with beer – according to the singer alcohol is the most important meal of the day! The following band was „Sleeping with Sirens“ and they had a huge girl fan club right behind us which was really entertaining. To be honest at first I thought their front singer was a woman. They were not too bad but just a bit too poppy and too much of show-offs for my current mood.

The complete opposite was Rise Against. You could feel that those guys have spent a lot of time on stages. Tim McIlrath is one of the most charismatic musicians I have ever seen. He could actually connect to the audience. He told stories the people actually wanted to hear, stories about the times they have played in Amsterdam in the past, times a huge part of the crowd was part of. The other members of the band were the perfect background. Each of them had their time to shine with a solo but apart from that they just focused on performing this awesome set for us.

Before the entering of the band and a bunch of times in between there were parts of a video shown on two huge screens. It was a movie of a city under attack. Only children survived and they tried to prepare for a takeover by tanks. To be honest I am not so sure anymore how it ended (something with a white flag) but it clearly showed the band’s usual statement against violence and war.

After one of those video sections only the front singer, Tim McIlrath, entered the stage with an acoustic guitar. Like this he performed Swing Life Away, People Live Here and was joined by his band again in Hero of War. The atmosphere was amazing, I got goosebumps over and over again. Overall they took us on a tour through time, from Survive to Wolves, Satellite to Audience of One all ending in the crescendo of my favourite: Savior. After the concert my friend asked me how I felt and I just could not stop smiling. Nothing was left of my hangover, or my tiredness, nothing to be found of the frustration about the exams and life in general. I was just perfectly satisfied.  This was a performance I will never forget. Thank you Rise Against for being such a moodlifter. I very much needed that. And if I ever have the opportunity to see those guys again, I will definitely go!