Let’s be honest. Punk ideals and the mainstream don’t really mix. For all their rhetoric, The Clash are still best known for their occasional pop tunes rather than their meatier leftist commentary, a fact radio programmers are all too happy to reinforce. Bad Religion and Green Day have both taken noble shots at getting punk ideas into the airwaves – only to find out that listeners are tuning in more for their music’s energy and melodies than to raise their political and social awareness. And any 16-year-old can tell you that the pop-punk empire, which stretches from shopping centres to the Internet isn’t exactly what our punk forefathers envisioned when they began their musical insurrection.

With so many years of punk’s inability to communicate, let alone sway opinions, outside the underground, you might think that Chicago’s Rise Against would just throw in the towel. After all, the act, which released its fourth album on the American Holliday of July 4th, has already been working its activist mojo since 1999, with records that merge So-Cal skate-punk energy with grittier Windy City punk ethics. The foursome’s even had some notable successes in its battle to get attention. In 2003, the band graduated from Fat Wreck Chords to a major, DreamWorks. The next year, it released Siren Song of the Counter Culture, whose singles Life Less Frightening and Paper Wings broke into commercial radio play lists, helping the act find modest sales success.

For all those milestones, however, Rise Against (singer Tim McIlrath, guitarist Dan Precision, bassist Joe Principe and drummer Brandon Barnes) face the same uphill battle that all their compatriots in the activist punk scene face: mainstream audiences almost inevitably fail to consider a band’s message – and many, when they do, simply ignore it. Combine that with punk’s track record of failing to shake up mainstream views, and Rise Against still faces an incredibly tough battle to get its message out.

“I think it’s a slow process making people aware of what’s really around them,” Principe says. “We’ve got time.”

The band has more than time. The Sufferer and the Witness keeps McIlrath’s sense for optimistic yet defiant lyrics prominent, as the band brings its punk roots back to the fore. Although McIlrath’s lyrics and subjects run the gamut from the vague to the generic, their positivism and energy make one thing clear: Punk – even outside the shelter of the underground – hasn’t lost its social conscience, its fire or its bite.

We’re probably overdue for such a reminder. As headliners for this year’s Taste of Chaos tour, Rise Against join the most mainstream-appeasing manifestation of punk culture ever as most of its tour companions are more wrapped up in image, trends and keeping up with the bandwagon than preserving punk’s activist heritage.

“I definitely think activism’s kind of overshadowed right now by the mainstream punk thing that’s going on,” Principe says. “I think it’s kind of one of those passing things that’s going to be huge for a couple years and then it’ll be something else just around the corner. I think bands like us and bands like Anti-Flag and NOFX will be here for a long, long time.”

That’s a marked shift from the days when Rise Against’s last album, The Siren Song of the Counterculture dropped into the public’s lap. Released in September 2004, it came out amid a flurry of punk-world activism aimed at the November 2004 presidential elections. From Punk Voter tours and compilations to an unusually outspoken faction of bands ready to give John Kerry a push toward the White House.

Depending on ones political point of view, it could be said that the best-laid plans of the punk world often go awry, and swept George W Bush into office. Before the inauguration ceremony, it seemed, punks had lost interest in politics. Some were burned by the experience of backing a losing candidate, others felt as if their voice wasn’t heard and chose to remain quiet. Still others, however, saw the time for easy left-wing publicity fading into the past, and moved on to another trend. It’s left the punk world just as apolitical as it was before electoral politics proved a boon to punk’s atrophying social conscience.

“There were a lot of bands jumping on the bandwagon and using that for publicity for themselves,” Principe complains. “It was so wrong to do that. I’m glad that there are still bands out there doing it, even NOFX. I think a lot of people take them for granted for being an activist band. They’re out there on this tour. They’re definitely not letting up on their views. It’s good to hear.”

Don’t expect Rise Against to let their views fade into the background, as its roots stretch deep into the underground. Before its members joined forces to release a couple albums on Fat Wreck Chords, a mainstay of the punk underground, they cut their chops playing in various Chicago bands. Precision and Barnes formerly rocked with Fat’s 88 Fingers Louie, Principe and McIlrath honed their skills in little-known Chicago local acts.

After a couple platters for Fat, the band made the transition to a major, inking a deal with DreamWorks. The major-label debut scored the act a little recognition outside the punk community, charting in the Billboard 200 and earning the act a spot on some of Britain’s largest festival stages. Shortly after the release of Siren Song, however, Rise Against faced their first hiccup as a major-label act: Corporate politics and deals dismantled DreamWorks, shuffling all its artists onto the Geffen roster. For a band who was adamant about its independence, losing its record-company backers in a merger could be a disaster.

“We had to have full control,” Principe says of the band’s major-label contract. “We signed to DreamWorks, and it basically got sold to Geffen. Luckily, all those people at Geffen are on the same page. We definitely lucked out. It could have blown up in our face. We didn’t know.”

To say Rise Against was lucky with its transition between labels is an understatement. The world’s littered with tales of bands lost in the shuffle when record-company executives turn over; Rise Against didn’t just survive the transition. They flourished.

Riding on the success of Siren Song, Geffen turned the reigns over to Rise Against. Abandoning the high-ticket approach that spit-polished the band’s previous effort, Rise Against returned to its punk upbringing and headed back to the Blasting Room and producers Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore, where it recorded 2003’s Revolutions Per Minute (Fat). The move took Rise Against back into the world of gritty punk, placing the emphasis back on its underground roots, giving The Sufferer an edge and cohesion that eluded its predecessor.

“I think the way it was produced really captured us in our best state, which is more of how you’d catch us live, that energy behind it,” Principe says. “I think that has something to do with it. Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore, who produced it, they basically really understand us, I guess. The last producer, Gggarth, he’s great at what he does, but he didn’t quite get us. Sometimes it was a fight. Going to Bill and Jason, or back to them because they did our second album, they’re like the fifth and sixth members of our band.

“I think the label trusted us enough to do it,” he continues. “They may be a little apprehensive just because they never worked with Bill. They really believe in what we do. That’s definitely a rare thing to have with your label, especially a major label. They were like ‘Alright, we’ll trust you guys. Go ahead and do what you want to do.’ We’re very lucky that they let us do that.”

The band will return to Australia supporting the new album as a major draw card at this years Taste of Chaos tour – taking the stage alongside The Used, Aiden, Escape the Fate, The Bled and Gallows. While October is many months from now, the tour cannot approach fast enough for Chicago’s leading voice in punk; “We are friends with both The Used and Aiden, so It will be a really fun tour… But I guess we can be considered the most different act on the bill, we do our own thing”.

We’re still a long, long way from the point where the underground’s idealism infects the mainstream’s version of punk. Truth be told, that may never happen. That isn’t going to stop Rise Against from acting as if it’s entirely possible.

Rockstar Energy Drink 2007 Taste of Chaos Tour:

Friday October 19: Burswood Dome Perth
Sunday October 21: Entertainment Centre, Adelaide
Tuesday October 23: Vodafone Arena, Melbourne
Thursday October 25: Entertainment Centre, Sydney
Friday October 26: Brisbane Entertainment Centre
Sunday October 28: St James Theatre, Auckland

Rise Against’s latest offering The Sufferer and the Witness is out now through Geffen Records.