This past weekend marked the annual return of the greatest American punk rock festival as Riot Fest rolled through Chicago with headliners ranging from Slayer to Fall Out Boy (and the penultimate stop of NOFX’s multi-year farewell tour every night).
Despite a last-minute change of location (back to Douglass Park, after initially planning to move to a new location) and two days of sweltering heat followed by a rainy Sunday, the weekend brought forth the past, present, and future of punk, alternative, hardcore, emo, indie, and other subgenres.
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From the first moments on Friday afternoon to the end of Slayer’s Sunday night spectacular, we were there to see it all.
Riot Fest (Credit: Craig Cummins)
The Best
Afternoon Hardcore
The word “hardcore” is a bit of a catch-all here, but it’s probably the best descriptor for the scene that was frequently represented on the Rise and Radical stages throughout each of the afternoons. With bands ranging from Fiddlehead and the Armed to Spiritual Cramp and Drug Church, it was a serious show of force and a great modern change of pace from some of the more veteran punk bands (the Dickies, Dead Milkmen, Vandals, Buzzcocks, etc) often playing during daylight hours on the other stages. Plus, even a stripped-down version of the Armed might still be the most interesting band in the world right now, and it’s hard to argue against the Alex Henery doubleheader of Fiddlehead and Basement.
Musical (and Crowd) Diversity
It’s hard enough to find a festival where you could walk from a classic Cursive show to the alien metal performance art known as GWAR. Still, it’s virtually impossible to go to one with the Marley brothers, Slayer, and a handful of rap performances. No other festival books are as strong of a variety of big names and interesting up-and-comers, and that mixture of high-quality acts from all genres and sizes carries over to the crowd. Everyone from emo kids to aging metalheads, selfie-taking hypebeasts to disgruntled crustpunks finds a way to get along at Riot Fest — and pretty much everyone there is helpful and supportive (even the security and staff) of each other.
The crowd at Riot Fest (Credit: Craig Cummins)
Chicago
Even for those who aren’t big fans of the Midwest, the City of Chicago brings a lot to Riot Fest — and it’s not just the Reggies bus or late-night trips to Pequod’s. Maybe it’s the fact that their weather sucks for most of the year or that their sports teams have rarely been good this century, but the local staff and attendees always seem much more welcoming and eager to show off their city, culture, and bands. This is particularly true when major Chicago bands play. Fall Out Boy’s headlining set on Friday night might have not been “punk” enough for some punk rock festivals, but it was probably the second-biggest crowd at Riot Fest in recent memory despite going against NOFX and a Bob Marley tribute. Hell, Tim McIlrath from Rise Against even came out and joined them briefly. Ultimately, Chicago always simultaneously supports their own and serves as an excellent host for visitors at Riot Fest, and it comes with a seemingly endless amount of Italian beef.
The Mess
Rideshares
Getting an Uber or Lyft from any festival is tricky, but there’s arguably none worse than Riot Fest. Between the traffic of hosting 40,000 people in the middle of the city and the general unreliability of late-night drivers, trying to use an app to leave Riot Fest is a good reminder that rideshare companies are a drain on society and that exploiting underemployed people in need of money is still a major issue of the gig economy. It just shouldn’t cost $40 and take an hour to find someone to drive a couple of miles, and there’s nothing more frustrating at the end of the night than having your ride home canceled on you four times.
Sound Bleed and Issues
Riot Fest is always surprisingly well run (particularly considering that it’s an independent festival with like 11 full-time employees or something like that instead of a monstrous corporate production), but sound issues plagued a few of the stages this year. From mics not being on to monitors and sound levels being all over the place, a few sets (like the completely inaudible first song of Basement’s performance) were hindered by issues. Speaking of sound issues, maybe the main stage was just louder this year than in years past, but unless you were directly in front of one of the other two acts playing at the same time as the headliner, you were pretty much only going to hear the main stage. There were even times during quiet songs in NOFX’s Friday night set that Fall Out Boy (and their full fireworks display) could be heard over the retiring punk vets.
Weather Casualties
With two days of smothering heat and humidity (particularly Friday), the medical tent was staying busy with people dealing with overheating and dehydration. Then just when everyone was tired of the sunshine, Sunday brought fairly heavy rain for much of the day with showers throughout the evening, creating muddy pits and slick grass before leaving everyone damp and cold for the first cooler night. None of this can be helped, but it just would’ve been nice if the weather had cooperated in one direction or the other.
Fat Mike of NOFX (Credit: Craig Cummins)
NOFX (in a Good Way)
If you watched NOFX’s set on Friday night, the good news is that you saw the birth of the “Slayer Snacks” story and joke that would last the rest of the weekend (including a sign in one of their trailers). The bad news is that it was a completely off-the-rails performance that often felt like a drunken improv stand-up routine featuring the occasional song mixed in. Saturday and Sunday were better, but no one was going to see NOFX for their musicianship in the first place. Typically, including something in the “Mess” section means it was bad, but not necessarily in this case. The mess that is the tail end of the NOFX retirement tour is more or less exactly what many fans wanted to see.
The Rest
Seltzers
There were no fewer than three brands of alcoholic seltzer and a THC seltzer available at Riot Fest. While there was no shortage of beer or other booze either, it felt like seltzers were suddenly the official drink of Riot Fest (particularly when it was hot and sunny out). Also, their house-branded seltzer, Riot Pop, tastes like melted Otter Pops in both a good and bad way.
Missing Band Members
Perhaps the real issue with bands getting older is not them retiring or looking their age, but when certain members of the group drop out before others. It’s unavoidable in some cases, and a few bands pull it off just fine (like New Found Glory with Four Year Strong’s Dan O’Connor filling in for Chad Gilbert), but sometimes the vibes just aren’t the same and it kind of feels like a weird tribute/cover band situation.
Fall Out Boy’s Eras Tour
With a fairly elaborate stage production, a massive amount of pyrotechnics, and a career full of hits, Fall Out Boy seemed to take a page out of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour as they played a few hits from each of their albums in chronological order (with matching settings) before circling back to a few leftovers at the end. It was an interesting choice — and some of the crowd definitely shuffled off to other stages between Infinity on High and Folie à Deux — but largely worked for their massive hometown audience. Plus, they still hoisted a balloon-holding Pete Wentz into the air before shooting off confetti cannons when they closed with “Saturday” and a Disneyland-worthy fireworks display, so it felt like a natural evolution of every other Fall Out Boy set from the last 20+ years.
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