Friday night was the third in the series of secret Riot Fest shows leading up to the rapidly approaching biggest Riot Fest ever. This time the show was to feature Chicago punk rock superstars, Pegboy! I thought this would be a pretty good followup to the last show which featured Naked Raygun.
Off With Their Heads
Off With Their Heads
Off With Their Heads
Off With Their Heads
Much like the last show, this one was just supposed to be only Pegboy playing but at the last minute, Minneapolis natives, Off With Their Heads were added to the bill. I’d never heard of them before but a friend in attendance that evening told me good things about them so I was quite curious since said friend has good taste in modern punk rock. They were melodic but crunchy and their songs were super catchy. I really enjoyed them and I’m going to have to pick up their records, which shouldn’t be too hard seeing as how they are on No Idea Records. That label has a really good track record and this band is no exception. They played about a half hour and there wasn’t a dull minute in the set.
Pegboy
Pegboy
Pegboy
After a quick change of equipment Pegboy took the stage. Larry was already looking a little worse for wear so I reckon he started his drinking and partying early this evening. He made some witty banter and then the band started playing their first song. The band sounded great and despite being a bit tipsy, Larry was doing a fine job on the vocals.
Pegboy
Pegboy
Pegboy
The band played good song after good song and as each one passed Larry seemed to get more and more tired. He would kneel down quite a bit and in between songs he would entertain the crowd and also comment on how he was trying not to puke and that he was tired. I’ve seen countless Pegboy shows where he would get too wasted, run out of breath and fuck up the songs, but somehow he wasn’t fucking up the songs like he used to, he managed to keep it together enough during each song to make them sound good.
Pegboy
Pegboy
Pegboy
The crowd was very laid back again and there was a lot of singing along and really no moshing or playing of the human bumper cars, which is something I greatly appreciated. The ones that did dance thankfully kept in in their confined area and didn’t try and turn the surrounding crowd into their bumpers.
Pegboy
Pegboy
Pegboy
I think the band played for close to an hour before they stopped to take a break for a few minutes and catch their breath. When they came back out they invited Daryl from the Bollweevils to come on stage and sing a couple songs with them. Well it was more like they demanded that he come sing! They did a pair of Bad Brains covers (“Pay to Cum” and “I Against I”) and in between them Daryl did his best mocking of Larry by laying down on stage and saying he was going to sing from down there. That got everyone in the crowd to laugh out loud.
Dr. Daryl from The Bollweevils
Daryl with Pegboy
Pegboy
After the pair of covers Larry came back out on stage and finished up the show with another song or two before they called it quits. It was another fun evening at the secret Riot Fest compound and I continue to look forward to the rest of them, whatever they may be!
Off With Their Heads is probably my favorite “active” band right now, had no idea they were playing this show. Made my night even more, good seeing you for all of 5 seconds MXV!
That’s a fantastic pic of Larry and my friend Mariam, great work per usual.
That’s pretty well sums it up!
I am so glad you got a picture of John smiling though! That is the first time I’ve ever seen him smile on stage.