Spencer Patterson covers music for the Sun. His music notes column appears Fridays. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-2309.
The first time Rise Against came to Las Vegas, the hardcore punk outfit played the Huntridge Theatre.
That's hardly unusual for an up-and-coming band. But the Chicago natives didn't even make it onto the venue's main stage.
"They actually set us up in the lobby," frontman Tim McIllrath said. "We headlined the lobby at the Huntridge Theatre, and with good reason. There weren't more than 25 kids there."
A lot has changed for Rise Against in the four years since that initial Vegas visit. The group kept returning to Southern Nevada and, in February, headlined the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay -- main room, this time -- and packed the venue with local fans.
That perseverance has made Las Vegas a favorite stopover for McIllrath.
"It's definitely a rewarding place to go, because we know that a lot of work has turned the ears of the people of Las Vegas," he said. "It's a classic case of just playing over and over and not giving up and going out there even though the show before wasn't very promising. It's really panned out."
On Saturday, Rise Against headlines Stage 1 at the 12-band "Extreme Thing" festival at Desert Breeze Skate Park (8275 Spring Mountain Road).
Southern California skate punks Unwritten Law headline Stage 2 at the annual event sponsored by local rock station KXTE 107.5-FM ("Xtreme Radio").
Also on the bill: Lit, Tsunami Bomb, Goldfinger, Mad Caddies, El Pus, Terror, the Matches, Plain White T's, Ignite and Brown Eyed Deception.
The festival will also feature amateur BMX, skateboard and inline skating competitions, among other attractions.
Gates open at 10 a.m. and close at 10 p.m. Music is slated to begin at noon.
Tickets are $15.75 through Ticketmaster in advance and $20 at the door.
After releasing two albums on Fat Wreck Chords -- an independent label owned and operated by NOFX bassist Fat Mike -- Rise Against put out its latest disc, last year's "Siren Song of the Counter Culture," on Geffen Records.
Longtime fans initially questioned the move.
"It's an age-old dilemma in music in general," McIllrath said. "You have a band that you discovered first and you went to their shows before anybody else did, and then they sign with a major label and everybody else starts liking them. And you're mad at the band because they sold out and blah, blah, blah."
McIllrath empathized with his listeners' skepticism.
"I was that kid in high school who called Bad Religion sellouts when I saw they signed with a major label," he said. "But you grow up and you realize what selling out is. And it's not necessarily what the name of the label on the back of your CD is. It's more in the decisions that you make as a band and how you present yourself."
According to the 26-year-old vocalist/guitarist, Geffen allows Rise Against to make its own choices, even if those moves include passing on offers most acts would jump at.
"Selfishly, you want to go on some late-night talk show and call your friends and say, 'Hey man, I'm on 'Jimmy Kimmel (Live)'," McIllrath said. "But you look at the big picture and you realize that we have a community of people that are dedicated to this band, and we need to respect that.
"We're a punk-rock band, and we just didn't see the benefit of doing something like that. So we turned that down."
Despite its major-label status, Rise Against also retains a do-it-yourself philosophy, an outlook reflected by its modest means of transportation.
"Buses are so expensive. I think bands take them as a sort of status symbol," McIllrath said. "We're real people. We need to pay our rent, pay our bills. We're not U2. We're Rise Against. So we still roll in a van."
Music notes
Wiped out: Two area radio stations -- KJUL 104.3 and KCNV 89.7-FM -- were knocked off the air Tuesday night, presumably due to a thunderstorm that briefly pelted the Valley.
KJUL, which features an adult standards format, resumed broadcasting on Wednesday, using a backup transmitter in Boulder City.
KCNV, Southern Nevada's classical music station, has no backup transmitter at present and remained off the air at press time.
Both stations maintain broadcast transmitters on Mount Potosi, which a spokesman for KJUL hypothesized was hit by lightning during the storm.
"There were several lightning strikes at that time last night," said Harry Williams, market manager for Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc. "That's probably what did it."
Warren Brown, chief engineer for KCNV, said he wasn't sure lightning was the culprit.
"Our transmitter is still on. We're just not getting any audio," Brown said. "I'm guessing something has locked up in the audio processor."
Engineers for both stations were unable to reach their transmitters on Wednesday, due to snow blockages on the road up the mountain. Brown and Williams also said dangerous wind conditions made helicopter access impossible.
Chart assault: Las Vegas band the Killers has held fast at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 for the second straight week, with debut album "Hot Fuss" remaining a hot seller 39 weeks after its release.
The Killers' peak position puts them inside a Top 10 that also includes such heavyweights as 50 Cent's "Massacre" (No. 1), Green Day's "American Idiot" (No. 4) and Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway" (No. 6).
According to a Billboard news story, "Hot Fuss" sold 58,000 units last week, an 8 percent increase over the previous seven-day span.
That total put them just 2,000 copies behind Jennifer Lopez's "Rebirth," the nation's No. 7 seller.
On sale
Reba McEntire, Brad Paisley and Terri Clark team for a June 17 show at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Tickets are $45, $65 and $85 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Mandalay Bay box office, at Ticketmaster outlets, by phone at 474-4000 and at www.ticketmaster.com.
Motley Crue returns to The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel on Oct. 9. Tickets are $100 and go on sale at noon Saturday at the Hard Rock box office and through Ticketmaster.
Keane plays the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay on May 3. Tickets are $25 and $30 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday at the House of Blues box office and through Ticketmaster.
And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead rock the House of Blues on May 27. Tickets are $15 and go on sale at 10 a.m. next Friday through the House of Blues box office and Ticketmaster.
Frankie J., Baby Basjh and Natalie share a May 12 bill at the House of Blues. Tickets are $23 to $35 and go on sale at 10 a.m. next Friday through the House of Blues box office and Ticketmaster.
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