My friends and I got to House of Blues just before the first opening band, From First To Last, began playing. From what I'd heard I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like these guys, however it was good to see that plenty of people there knew the words to their songs and were totally into them. I don't know any of their songs so I couldn't tell you what they played, but I know they played about seven or eight songs, clocking in at about 30 minutes. That was 30 minutes of 5 dudes squeezed into girl's blue-jeans playing slower paced "screamo" (I guess you would call it.) To give you a mental picture, the band was very energetic, with the guitarists jumping from here to there on the stage and the lead singer prancing around with weird little steps, very interactive with the crowd. Oh yeah, and the lead singer made some comment about him being only 16, but I think he was joking, I don't know. For fans of this type of music, I guess you would really enjoy one of their sets.

Next up was Rise Against and, as always, they put on a hell of an energetic show. I don't really listen to them as much as i had, but I always enjoy their set. Of course, I can argue that as many times as I have seen them play, they've always stuck to a similar setlist as the previous times. This night was no exception, but a good set none the less. They had a huge banner draped behind them that was the cover of their new album and when they came on stage they wasted no time at all, tearing right into the opener "Dead Ringer" to which everyone went ape-shit and threw their fists in the air. The entire set was without filler, but one thing I did notice was that Tim's screaming was more intense than usual. The adrenaline of the Rise Against fans certainly didn't die down, even after their 45 minute set was over. I don't know the names of all the new songs, but here's their set list from what I can remember (From oldest to newest):

Six Ways Til Sunday
1000 Good Intentions
Black Masks And Gasoline
Heaven Knows
Dead Ringer
Like The Angel
Voices Off Camera
Blood Red, White, and Blue
State of the Union
Life Less Frightening
Anywhere But Here ( I think)
Give It All
and one more new song
.
After waiting the usual 20-30 minutes, the reason I was here finally graced the stage. With the venue tensely packed and everyone screaming and cheering, Hetson, Jay, Brian, and Brooks started the suttle creeping intro to their set (Overture) and after about 3 minutes, the lights came up, Greg Graffin grabbed the mic and gave a shout to the crowd, and off they went, blaring into "Sinister Rouge". They immediately followed up with "All There Is" and after that, played a great even mix of old and new songs, 28 in all. In between songs, Greg (Graffin) and Jay did most of the banter with the crowd shouting about everything from politics to making fun of Hootie and the Blowfish (who are from SC), and Greg demonstrated the things he could not do with a regular cord mic as he tripped, running to one side of the stage, explaining that he just likes it old school. The guys did not fail to amuse us at all and gave as much if not definately more energy than any young band today could put out. The in between song talk did not take up much space however, as they were able to accomplish an extremely satisfying and smoothly transitioned setlist. They also carried out without a single noticable mistake. It was a flawless performance from a flawless band, and was without a doubt one of the best shows I have ever seen.

Bad Religion's setlist (from oldest to newest):

We're Only Gonna Die From Our Own Arrogance
Fuck Armaggedon...
Suffer
Do What You Want
Change Of Ideas
No Control
I Want To Conquer The World
Sanity
You
Modern Man
21st Century Digital Boy
Generator (to which they played a slow, prolonged intro)
American Jesus
Man With A Mission
Struck A Nerve
Infected
Come Join Us
Supersonic
Kyoto Now
Sorrow
Overture
Sinister Rouge
Social Suicide
Athiest Peace
All There Is
Los Angeles Is Burning
Let Them Eat War (Tim from Rise Against did the rap breakdown)
God's Love