Sage Francis

Contributed by BigSnuff. Posted by aubin on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 11:30 AM (EDT)

After the wrap up their upcoming tour with Alkaline Trio (which includes one Toronto date), Rise Against will be returning to Canada for a more shows. The band will be joined by Thursday and Sage Francis for the run.

November 30, 2008	Saskatoon Prairieland Exhibition	Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
December 1, 2008	Convention Hall	Regina, Saskatchewan
December 2, 2008	The Round Up Centre	Calgary, Alberta
December 3, 2008	Shaw Conference Center	Edmonton, Alberta
December 5, 2008	MTS Centre	Winnipeg, Manitoba
December 8, 2008	John Labatt Centre	London, Ontario
December 9, 2008	Wentworth Room @ Hamilton	Hamilton, Ontario
December 10, 2008	Ottawa Civic Centre	Ottawa, Ontario
December 11, 2008	CEPAUM- University Of Montreal	Montreal, Quebec

Bands in this story

Rise Against

Thursday

Sage Francis

Universal Music Group (81 comments)

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

mikexdude (October 1, 2008)

I used to love Rise Against but between their new music and their constant stupid coverage, I give up.

mikeinflames (October 1, 2008)

i'm in the same boat. i've also found that tim has gotten way too preachy for my likings. it's cool that you're straight edge and into all that peta shit. but i find it strange that they only started bringing it up during their shows after they got signed to a major.
their live show also sucks now too. i won't go see them anymore because it will ruin the days when you could see them for $15 in a 500 person venue. paying $50 to see them in a 3,000 person venue just doesn't seem right.

wolfshirt (October 1, 2008)

Wow, are they really that popular now? On a scale from Uranium 9-Volt to U2, how big are they?

mikeinflames (October 1, 2008)

i don't know about elsewhere. but in toronto they're playing 2 sold out nights at a venue that holds about 3,000.

LookingForCorpses (October 1, 2008)

I really haven't noticed a change in the live show.

the_other_scott (October 1, 2008)

why would you hate a band because of their coverage?

Banal242 (October 1, 2008)

Because he's 16 and stupid.

mikexdude (October 1, 2008)

:-(

mikexdude (October 1, 2008)

You're implying that I hate them, when in fact, I never said that. When I say "give up", I mean I'm done trying to support/llike what they're doing now, not what they have done. I still love their older music.

And as for coverage, the more a band gets shoved down my throat, the less attractive their music is to me. But I am not solely basing it on that, more their new music has been disappointing hence the "between".

Babrook (October 1, 2008)

Tommorow in Cleveland w/ Alkaline Trio and Gaslight.

Stoked.

Whats_Wrong_With_The_Kids (October 1, 2008)

I don't get to see Gaslight till the end of the month.

IanIsSuperRad (October 1, 2008)

I was going to go to that but the combination of the expensive price, the shitty venue, and having seen 3/4 of the bands already in the past few months is keeping me away from it.

Babrook (October 1, 2008)

If talking about Cleveland, then yes, shittiest venue in a city of shitty venues.

LinoleumMagazine (October 1, 2008)

When is PN gonna post my submission about the upcoming Gwar tour?

cheesehead4 (October 1, 2008)

I wanna fucking see gwar, that shit would be sweet!

badbrain (October 1, 2008)

Things to do before I die

baldsteve (October 1, 2008)

It's so damn good. Just don't wear clothes you ever want to wear again.

LinoleumMagazine (October 1, 2008)

seriously. I have an old Quincy Punx shirt that is ruined because I wore it to a Gwar show, and you can't replace a QP shirt.

DreeeamWeaver (October 1, 2008)

GWAR in Chicago on Halloween.

Should I go?

Would I live to tell the tale?

ASVLN12 (October 1, 2008)

thursday should stop touring with rise against. Rise against sucks ass. Thursday is pure genius.

mikeinflames (October 1, 2008)

thursday will end up cancelling on this tour. they haven't actually managed to play a canadian tour in something like 6 years. they always end up bailing.

mill83 (October 1, 2008)

Never has a statement been so wrong.

Regardless - I'd dig one band, hate one band, and laugh at a fat white guy.

Cheesetits (October 1, 2008)

Thursday and Rise Against are attached at the hip, aren't they? I think this is like the 4th tour I've seen them on, at least.

Thus_Spoke_Sean (October 1, 2008)

tell me about it, i've seen Rise Against sooo many times. mainly because i'm waiting for thursday to go.

enough already.

Cheesetits (October 1, 2008)

I'd go, but, you know....

So I need new shoes, what kind should I get?

edgelife (October 1, 2008)

support emerica.

baldsteve (October 1, 2008)

SIMPLE makes shoes out of recycled parts if that's your thing. I think they look ok.

scientistrock (October 1, 2008)

This raises a question: where can I find shoes that I can be fairly sure weren't made by 10-16 year olds paid a couple of bucks a day?

kidgotham (October 1, 2008)

http://nosweatapparel.com/
All of this stuff is fairly good quality and you may be able to find it in local stores.

kidgotham (October 1, 2008)

I should clarify. This site is great if you want chucks but hate Nike. They have union made, non-cons available.

Cheesetits (October 1, 2008)

That's pretty cool and all, but yeah, it looks like cheap knockoffs and there is basically no variety in shoes. Cool idea though.

scientistrock (October 1, 2008)

they've been sold out forever

Holy_Balls (October 1, 2008)

Wal-Mart

CCSummers (October 1, 2008)

As much as I love Sage Francis, his life show is shit. Which is actually really disappointing cause I consider him one of the best rappers out there. Just wish he would stop butchering his songs live.

14theroad (October 1, 2008)

You're nuts man. Last time I saw him was one of the best shows by anyone I'd ever seen. Completely blew Against Me! out of the water that night.

CCSummers (October 1, 2008)

Really? I saw him with against me and the crowd just seemed to hate him, which I thought was understandable because his performance was kinda weak in my opinion. Made me sad cause I had the feeling if the same kids listened to his CD they'd dig it.
I suppose he has on and off nights.

badbrain (October 1, 2008)

I didn't mind him live I just didn't like the setlist that much. I really only like Personal Journals, and The Known Unsoldier. I like a few songs off Healthy Distrust and Death Dance but I just can't get into them as much on the whole.

Since94 (October 1, 2008)

Actually there are two Toronto dates. (Friday and Saturday)
I imagine they will add a Toronto date to the Thursday Tour. They are probably just waiting until the A3 shows have passed so they don't lose any ticket sales....

Chuckfart (October 1, 2008)

Already sold out both dates in Toronto

Lucky me, I got my tix !

fallingupwards84 (October 1, 2008)

Sage Francis is one of the worst rappers out there.. after hearing some hype about it on here (you never hear about him on any hip hop websites - even underground hip hop sites), i downloaded A Healthy Distrust, and its just... bad. there are only a handful of good white rappers out there (Edan, Eminem, a couple others) and Sage is simply not one of them

Banal242 (October 1, 2008)

What?

You're not impressed by Jimmy Spits?

deadXlast (October 1, 2008)

Lawl!

14theroad (October 1, 2008)

flame bait for sure.

fallingupwards84 (October 1, 2008)

i hate to say this, but the way he raps reminds me of the guys from Linkin Park or Papa Roach... the white voice (especially on "Gunz Yo")

i've never met a serious fan of hip-hop who thinks he's anything special

edgelife (October 1, 2008)

I'm sorry, you're just not right.

BarleyPat (October 1, 2008)

I'm glad I not the only one on this site who's not riding his nuts. Granted, I"ve never heard any of his recorded material, but his live show SUCKED a fat one. I saw him on the Against Me! tour and he in no way "blew them out of the water". Quite the opposite, based on the crowd response and my personal opinion.

badbrain (October 1, 2008)

Personal Journals is probably one of the best albums of the genre. I didn't like Distrust or Death Dance as much. In fact other than Personal Journals and The Known Unsoldier I only like a small handful of his stuff. I'd get Personal Journals though at least.

And there are plenty of good rappers out there, Slug, Eyedea, El-P, Blueprint, Immortal Technique, Dose One, Aesop, Illogic, Buck 65, etc...

wolfshirt (October 1, 2008)

I do not understand all the love for Immortal Technique. I appreciate his politics, but the man cannot rap. He's always trying to shoehorn too many words into one line. He's like the Jeff Ott of rap.

CCSummers (October 1, 2008)

wwhhhaaaatttt

RRK (October 1, 2008)

I second that. Immortal Technique is just terrible.

fallingupwards84 (October 1, 2008)

his uber aggressive/angry style of rap is cool now and then but i can only take it in doses

LookingForCorpses (October 1, 2008)

He's killer.

CCSummers (October 1, 2008)

download personal journals

fallingupwards84 (October 1, 2008)

someday i might, if its truly better... but i was not impressed with Distrust at all, and i tried really hard to like it

Big_Guy (October 1, 2008)

I don't know if you're serious, but wrong.

dude is good. not the best, but good.

all of his full lengths are great, but I'd probably rank them as follows:

A Healthy Distrust
Personal Journals
Human Death Dance

lostandclowned (October 1, 2008)

Diabolic is the best white rapper ever.

MattRamone (October 1, 2008)

I respectfully disagree.

usversusthem (October 1, 2008)

i simply cannot get down with anyone who dislikes sage. even if you dislike his lyrics (which would blow my mind) or his voice (which seems unlikely... i dunno, it doesn't seem potentially abrasive or whatever) he has pretty sweet beats. when i bought human the death dance, it came with an instrumental version, and a lot of those are worth listening to in and of themselves.

that said, his lyrics are in my opinion, just killer. i find new little bits of cleverness every time i go back to them, it feels like. the way he plays on the typical rap bravado by alternating faux-machismo and honest, even self-deprecating introspection is great to see. the differences between his albums prove he's not a one-note johnny, and i find his sense of humour pretty hilarious. he's refreshing. i'm not really familiar enough with underground rap to judge him against other rappers that get less press than they deserve, but i fail to see how his existence and body of work could be viewed as a negative.

fallingupwards84 (October 1, 2008)

i'm not saying he should be viewed as a "negative" but i have found that the majority of his fans don't listen to much hip hop in the first place, so their exposure to it is limited and so they think he's better than he really is.

i dont know what you listen to, so i can't say for sure how familiar you are with the genre, but there are sooo many amazing underground hip hop artists/groups that are just better, hands down

usversusthem (October 2, 2008)

To be honest, I'm not as versed in hip-hop as I should be. Basically I listen to Jay-Z, Kanye, Lil Wayne (sporadically), Public Enemy, Mos Def (& Black Star), MF DOOM in all his incarnations, the Beastie Boys, the Cool Kids, Brother Ali, M.I.A., Zack de la Rocha's stuff, Warsawpack, and Sage and his stuff as Non-Prophets with Joe Beats. Is there anything you'd recommend based on those? Because I have made a few forays into supposedly underground hip-hop that have not really flown (hated Busdriver and Saul Williams, for instance).

sXenester (October 1, 2008)

I was so stoked for a second.

deadXlast (October 1, 2008)

I love Thursday, I love Rise Against, and I love Sage Francis.

However, this tour will probably suck because;

1. Rise Against's new material is boring.

2. Sage Francis' live act is boring too.

edgelife (October 1, 2008)

Can we swap Thrice for Sage?

robalobadob (October 1, 2008)

I'd sign up for that.

HeyBarmold (October 1, 2008)

I remember this tour when it hit CA. Rise Against played first to a sold out Warfield, and we're pretty sweet. Thursday came on and realized that only about half of Rise Against fans liked them enough to stick around.

And the lead guitar was mixed out. Weak.

Big_Guy (October 1, 2008)

I would go to this if the tickets were cheap enough for it to be worth skipping Rise Against

robalobadob (October 1, 2008)

Why are they starting in the middle of the country, going west and then doubling back east? And skipping BC altogether? I'm pretty certain BC has a much larger market/fanbase than Saskatchewan.

legendarydoughnut (October 1, 2008)

I won't be attending any more Rise Against shows. Rise Against is dead to me after hearing their new cd.

JayTee (October 1, 2008)

The second song they posted was fast and decent. How much fast and decent is on the rest of the album?

chrisss (October 1, 2008)

There's one other fast song, "Kotov Syndrome," but it's so bland it's not even worth it. "Savior" has a bit of the classic galloping drum beat going on but it's similarly unmemorable. The rest is mid-tempo hard rock, basically, with a terrible acoustic song thrown in for good measure. The Nickelback vibe I got from the first single bubbles up throughout.

Where are the tracks they previewed in those studio diary videos?? I knew I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. I even found stuff to like in "Siren Songs," but this is just completely disappointing.

JayTee (October 1, 2008)

Sonovabitch, the instant Siren Song came out I knew they'd be destined for this course, but I was sidetracked and pleasantly surprised with Sufferer. Looks like it just took a tiny bit longer than I expected for this band to all out suck.

legendarydoughnut (October 1, 2008)

In all honesty the two tracks they have given us are the two best tracks on the album, which shows how terrible it really is. Any song that I thought had potential from the opening beat was demolished by Tim's terrible vocals. He has lost all roughness/anger in his voice and now he sounds like hes trying to emulate a pop punk band like NFG. The acoustic song is utterly horrendous. It's like the label came to them and said "We don't like this whole 'anger' vibe you have on some of your songs, try and make your stuff more kid friendly!" I think it is a bigger fuck you to the fans than New Wave was, at least New Wave had SOME redeeming qualities, this is all out terrible, like bad religion techno terrible.

dev (October 1, 2008)

It couldn't be the same lineup as the States. Noooooo. That would be way too awesome. At this rate, I'm NEVER gonna get to see Flashlight Batman.

kidgotham (October 1, 2008)

They are playing with Flashlight Batman in toronto this weekend. It is long sold out. I don't know if they are doing other Canadian shows though. I do wish this current tour played smaller cities.

blair (October 1, 2008)

Heaven forbid the Rise Against/Budlight Kegstand tour comes through Winnipeg, instead Thursday and Sage Francis... Guess i'll be saving my money this time around

DreeeamWeaver (October 1, 2008)

i too will never get to see Jake and the Fat Man.

JayTee (October 1, 2008)

OMGSageFrancisEpitaphRecordsIAppreciateHiHopNow!

DreeeamWeaver (October 1, 2008)

dude, FUCK rise against. no talent retread hacks.

only reason why these guys matter is cos they're from the chi, aka the mistake by the gay ass emo lake. i hate the suburbs.

usversusthem (October 1, 2008)

Oh sweet mother of God sage francis in montreal HOLY JESUS yes

i still like thursday... i'll stick around for them. rise against, not so much. but still, this is awesome.

Seanith (October 1, 2008)

I would have gone to the Calgary show if they weren't playing the Stampede Corral. Worst fucking venue ever.

DrewXFishy (October 1, 2008)

holy shit what a badass tour