Rise Against

[LongLife]

Audience Of One

Audience Of One

I can still remember
The words and what they meant
As we etched them with our fingers
In years of wet cement
The days blurred into each other
Though everything seemed clear
We cruised along at half speed
But then we shifted gears

We ran like vampires from a thousand burning suns
But even then we should have stayed
But we ran away
Now all my friends are gone
Maybe we've outgrown all the things that we once loved
Runaway
But what are we running from?
A show of hands from those in this audience of one
Where have they gone?

Identities assume us
As nine and five add up
Synchronizing watches
To the seconds that we lost
I looked up and saw you
I know that you saw me
We froze but for a moment
In empathy

I brought down the sky for you but all you did was shrug
You gave my emptiness a name
But you ran away
Now all my friends are gone
Maybe we've outgrown all the things that we once loved
Runaway
But what are we running from?
A show of hands from those in this audience of one
Where have they gone?

We're all ok, until the day we're not
The surface shines, while the inside rots
We raced the sunset and we almost won
We slammed the brakes, but the wheels went on

We ran away
Now all my friends are gone
Maybe we've outgrown all the things that we once loved
Runaway
But what are we running from?
A show of hands from those in this audience of one
Where have they gone?

 

[LongLife]

Entertainment

Entertainment

All we are is entertainment
Caught up in our own derangement
Tell us what to say and what to do
All we are are pretty faces
Picture perfect bottled rage
Packaged synthesized versions of you

We've all made petty fortunes but we can't afford a life
Confined to pull-out quotes and hotel rooms
They all scream California and its toppling empire
But can't you see the end is coming soon

Come one come all the new sensation
Guarantees then obligations
Spotlights follow every single move
Basking here on ten foot stages
Pouty lips and oh so jaded
All as if we have something to prove

Despite these petty fortunes we still can't afford a life
Confined to pull-out quotes and hotel rooms
They all scream California and its toppling empire
But can't you see the end is here

And if we cared at all
about this unknown plight
then we'd do something more
to finally make this right

Is this only entertainment
Pull the curtains, places please
We've learned to sing and dance and cry on cue
But this is more than entertainment
In a world so sick with pain
This is the only thing that's real or true

We've all made petty fortunes but we can't afford a life
Confined to pull-out quotes and hotel rooms
They all scream bloody murder over graves already dug
But can't you see the end

 

[LongLife]

Hero Of War

Hero Of War

He said "Son, have you seen the world?
Well, what would you say if I said that you could?
Just carry this gun and you'll even get paid."
I said "That sounds pretty good."

Black leather boots
Spit-shined so bright
They cut off my hair but it looked alright
We marched and we sang
We all became friends
As we learned how to fight

A hero of war
Yeah that's what I'll be
And when I come home
They'll be damn proud of me
I'll carry this flag
To the grave if I must
Because it's a flag that I love
And a flag that I trust

I kicked in the door
I yelled my commands
The children, they cried
But I got my man
We took him away
A bag over his face
From his family and his friends

They took off his clothes
They pissed in his hands
I told them to stop
But then I joined in
We beat him with guns
And batons not just once
But again and again

A hero of war
Yeah that's what I'll be
And when I come home
They'll be damn proud of me
I'll carry this flag
To the grave if I must
Because it's a flag that I love
And a flag that I trust

She walked through bullets and haze
I asked her to stop
I begged her to stay
But she pressed on
So I lifted my gun
And I fired away

The shells jumped through the smoke
And into the sand
That the blood now had soaked
She collapsed with a flag in her hand
A flag white as snow

A hero of war
Is that what they see
Just medals and scars
So damn proud of me
And I brought home that flag
Now it gathers dust
But it's a flag that I love
It's the only flag I trust

He said, "Son, have you seen the world?
Well what would you say, if I said that you could?"

 

[LongLife]

Savior

Savior

It kills me not to know this but I've all but just forgotten
What the color of her eyes were and her scars or how she got them
As the telling signs of age rain down a single tear is dropping
Through the valleys of an aging face that this world has forgotten
There is no reconciliation that will put me in my place
And there is no time like the present to drink these draining seconds
But seldom do these words ring true when I'm constantly failing you
Like walls that we just can't break through until we disappear

So tell me now
If this ain't love then how do we get out?
Because I don't know
That's when she said I don't hate you boy
I just want to save you while there's still something left to save
That's when I told her I love you girl
But I'm not the answer for the questions that you still have

But the day pressed on like crushing weights
For no man does it ever wait
Like memories of dying days
That deafen us like hurricanes
Bathed in flames we held the brand
Uncurled the fingers in your hand
Pressed into the flesh like sand
Now do you understand?

So tell me now
If this ain't love then how do we get out?
Because I don't know
That's when she said I don't hate you boy
I just want to save you while there's still something left to save
That's when I told her I love you girl
But I'm not the answer for the questions that you still have

1000 miles away
There's nothing left to say
But so much left that I don't know
We never had a choice
This world is too much noise
It takes me under
It takes me under once again
I don't hate you
I don't hate you

So tell me now
If this ain't love then how do we get out?
Because I don't know
That's when she said I don't hate you boy
I just want to save you while there's still something left to save
That's when I told her I love you girl
But I'm not the answer for the questions that you still have

I don't hate you
I don't hate you, no

 

[LongLife]

Hairline Fracture

Hairline Fracture

A sinking ship, an awkward kiss
A chance to set things straight
The kind of hurt that burns and burns
Like fires we can't contain

We hole up in a shelter made of bones and ice and there we'll wait
So start again with steady hands
This time nothing gets in our way
But as we peer a little closer what do we see ?

A crack in the surface
A flaw in the plan
(Plans we made together, almost buried in the sand)
A cadence imperfect
Like a building condemned
(Can we indemnify ourselves if we don't face what we're against)

A promise kept
The dirt unswept
A poorly worn disguise
A child unloved that then grows up
To love what we despise

We're broken but still breathing
We are wounded but we are healing
We pick up right where we left off
Breathe on the ashes that remain

So that these coals may become fire
To guide our way

A crack in the surface
A flaw in the plan
(Plans we made together, almost buried in the sand)
A cadence imperfect
Like a building condemned
(Can we indemnify ourselves if we don't face what we're against)

I walk on wounds
That seldom prove to slow me down
I laugh this constant pain away
So you can't tell
But there it lies under the smiles
It drains me mile after mile
But seldom proves to slow me down
Here I go

Should we just hold on
To what remains of
What we thought was lost

But it's just a crack in the surface
A flaw in the plan
(Plans we made together, almost buried in the sand)
A cadence imperfect
Like a building condemned
(Can we indemnify ourselves if we don't face what we're against)

 

[LongLife]

Whereabouts Unknown

Whereabouts Unknown

To the ends of this lost world
You have marched and you have sworn
To a tainted crown of thorns

As the hungry sails unfurl
We are thrusted from the shore
And it's you that we search for

The blackest night
The midnight sun
The covered tracks and days spent on the run
The strangers we've become

These whereabouts unknown
Please know you can come home
It's alright
I long for the moment
Our silence is broken
It's alright [x3]

Another place, another time
We toed the same side of the line
Yeah we saw eye to eye

Even then the saddest sounds,
Were nothing laughter could not drown
But we are not laughing now

I see your face
In my sights
I hesitate
And then look for a sign
Somewhere in the sky

These whereabouts unknown
Please know you can come home
It's alright
I long for the moment
Our silence is broken
It's alright [x3]

Even together, we stand apart
Swallow the sun, erase the sky
An invitation that's been declined
Where did you go? Where did you go?

No whereabouts unknown
Please know you can come home
It's alright
I long for the moment
Our silence is broken
It's alright [x3]
It's alright now

It's alright now
Cause all is forgiven
If you could just listen
It's alright

 

[LongLife]

Elective Amnesia

Elective Amnesia

We don't sleep very much
These triggers ache for the touch
Where's the strength we relied on?
Fear alone, like a crutch,
maybe that's what keeps us up
all night with the light on

All these screams emulate
Lives that no longer take place
Can this be what we've become?
Paper thin, overweight,
pills to arouse or sedate
Still we don't know what we want

We can't let go
Can't you see?
To lose control
is to be...

Finally free!
First a spark
Then a flame
Now a fire
We explode
into the darkest of nights
disconnect
cut the cord
lines are dead
Now they'll know
with everything comes a price

And each day we are torn
between the right and the wrong
between life and convenience
Why do we sleep? Why complain?
There's always channels to change
It's like elective amnesia
As we grow older in this place
Let's just start over
Let's erase
What they've made!

First a spark
Then a flame
Now a fire
We explode
into the darkest of nights
disconnect
cut the cord
lines are dead
Now they'll know
with everything comes a price

It could be minutes away
It could be hours or days
Before the bottom falls out
Before the ground gives way
Into this debt we are born
A debt we try to repay
And yet we blacken the sky
Smoke rising out of the flames
Now they'll know...

First a spark
Then a flame
Now a fire
We explode
into the darkest of nights
disconnect
cut the cord
lines are dead
Now they'll know
with everything comes a price
(First a spark)
(Then a flame)
(Now a fire)
We explode
We explode
With everything comes a price
(disconnect)
(cut the cord)
(lines are dead)
We explode
We explode

 

[LongLife]

Historia Calamitatum

Historia Calamitatum

Even though we know, yeah,
We know,
Our time has almost come,
We're all overdue.
Can there be a place to call our own?
Can there be a road that takes us home?

We toe the line (toe the line).
We go along (we go along).
We toe the line
To you now.

When it rains it pours
Like summer storms, the skies as grey as leaves.
The rivers flood the banks and spill into the streets.
But the people laughed and swore that they'd restore
The city piece by piece.
And then the clouds gave way as if to agree;
When it rains it pours.

The mystery unknown now unfolds,
The life that we once owned, first bought, then sold.
Like messengers of war, we've no control.
To oceans unexplored,
This ship sails through.

We toe the line (toe the line).
We go along (we go along).
We toe the line
To you now.

When it rains it pours
Like summer storms, the skies as grey as leaves.
The rivers flood the banks and spill into the streets.
But the people laughed and swore that they'd restore
The city piece by piece.
And then the clouds gave way as if to agree;
When it rains it pours.
It pours.
(It pours).

When it rains it pours,
When they die we mourn,
When it hit, we swore,
Now we want not more.
Like a saint re-born,
Like a rose in a storm,
Like a child un-born,
A child un-born...

It's the coin we're tossing into the well,
It's misfortune that we could not foretell,
It's the dry spell.

When it rains it pours
Like summer storms, the skies as grey as leaves.
The rivers flood the banks and spill into the streets.
But the people laughed and swore that they'd restore
The city piece by piece.
And then the clouds gave way as if to agree;
When it rains it pours.
It pours,
When it rains it pours.

 

[LongLife]

Boy's No Good

Boy's No Good

Tune the electric bass to the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th string.
The boy's no good.
Yeah, he's a fuckin' hood.
He won't treat you like he should.
I heard he's making time with this friend of mine.
I heard he's talking trash.
I saw that kid last night.
He's starting fights.
He's got that nervous twitching.
He's just not the kid for you.
He's all dressed up.
He's got nothing to do, but he's got something.
He's cool as anything, but he's not good.
That boy's a fucking creep.

The boy's no good.
Yeah, he's a hood.
He won't treat you like he should.
I said the boy's no good.
He's a hood.
He won't treat you like I would.
I said the boy's no good.
Listen to what I say.
The boy's no good.
He'll fuck you anyway.
The boy's no good.
I'm gonna have a talk... the boy's no good.
The boy's no fuckin' good.

 

[LongLife]

Fix Me

Fix Me

Someday I'll feel no pain
Someday I won't have a brain
They'll take away the part that hurts
and let the rest remain

Fix me
Fix my head
Fix me please,
I don't wanna be dead

Someday we'll all be rich
Someday I won't listen to you bitch
I'll turn up the volume and you
Can hear all the shit we play just for you

Fix me
Fix my head
Fix me please,
I don't wanna be dead

Someday I'll feel no pain
Someday I won't have a brain
They'll take away the part that hurts
and let the rest remain

Fix me
Fix my head
Fix me please,
I don't wanna be dead
Fix it!