Riot Fest 2006 part one

First of all, I apologize for the lengthy delay in getting this up here. I had the most hectic week of the year last week between working overtime nearly every night and Saturday, and then going to Senor Citizen’s wedding on Sunday (congrats to him and Lady of 2 on tying the knot by the way!), it left me with very little time to work on the photos. Couple that with the fact I have over 600 photos to sort through from this event (which I am still working on!) and you can understand the hold up. Anyway, let’s get on with it.

After the great time that was the Pre-Bash, I was really looking forward to the big show on Sunday. I opted to sleep in and planned to show up around the time The Effigies would be playing since all the bands I really wanted to see (with the exception of I Attack who I sadly had to miss) started with them. I knew I was in for a long day as it was and the prospect of seeing an additional half-dozen bands was just too much.

Secret Agent Bill

Secret Agent Bill

I got there a littler earlier than planned thanks to good traffic and lucky parking, plus the show got off to a little bit of a late start. I collected my passes and made my way into the venue while Secret Agent Bill were in the middle of their set. I think I saw them once before a couple years ago but can’t recall for sure. Every song seemed to sound like a different band. Not a different band that they were copying per se, but it sounded like a different band playing each time. It was like the band is conflicted and can’t make up their minds as to what kind of band they want to be, so they just play some of everything. While you can’t fault them for their diversity, I think they could try and narrow their scope a little and focus on a few less styles. They had a rather large sized band including a few horn players. The band seemed to be really enjoying playing on stage and there was already a decent sized crowd for so early in the day.

Deals Gone Bad

Deals Gone Bad

Next up were Deals Gone Bad, a band I know for sure I’ve seen at least once before. I also recall them not really being my cup of tea. They are competent musicians for sure, but their brand of ska music just doesn’t appeal to me (and that style of music never has). They played about a half an hour and for what it was, they were just fine and I’m sure the people who are into that style of music enjoyed them quite a bit.

Flatfoot 56

Flatfoot 56

Flatfoot 56 were up next. I missed them playing this fest last year and the couple of songs I heard by them were pretty good. They were super energetic and played a fast street punk with bagpipes. The bagpipe gimmick was actually quite cool and I’m surprised by how well it fit in with their energetic sing along punk without coming across as annoying. I came to find out that the band are way into the Jesus however which kind of bummed me out. I apparently wasn’t paying attention when they started talking about that sort of thing, I may have already headed backstage to get some food by the time they did this based on the reports I got from friends in the crowd. They certainly had their share of fans in the crowd, there was a big pit going with guys standing in the center of it waving the Chicago flag as the people formed the circle pit around them.

The crowd during Flatfoot 56

After a sandwich, a beer and a handful of bread from backstage, I went back downstairs while The Effigies were playing. I missed the first two songs of their set but could hear some of it from backstage. I’ve seen The Effigies so many times since they reformed that I’ve actually lost count of how many times, but were they as good as the last few times they’ve played? Stay tuned for part two to find out…

More photos after the jump and larger sized versions (and some photos not shown here) will be up on my flickr page when this series is completed.


Secret Agent Bill

Flatfoot 56