A new observational era in gravitational wave astronomy is poised to begin in this decade, with the upcoming start of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo.  These instruments will be capable of the direct detection of gravitational wave transients, which will yield new insights into the engines powering some of the most energetic astrophysical events: the coalescence of neutron star and/or black hole binary systems, core-collapse supernovae, and isolated neutron star instabilities. I will present the path towards this detection using the second generation of gravitational wave interferometers, and summarize the open analysis challenges, prospects for astrophysical inference and the potential for multi-messenger astronomy with combined information from the electromagnetic and neutrino sectors.