Saturday was another sunny and hot day, unseasonably so, but that’s a much better way to endure a full day festival than during a rainstorm and a massive crowd piled into Douglass Park for the second day of Riot Fest. This day had a really amazing lineup of bands on the five stages spread around the park and there really was something for everyone, and then some!
If you weren’t there in the earliest days of the Chicago punk scene, then you likely aren’t familiar with Verböten. This short lived band were young kids when they formed and played shows in the tiny scene we had back then, and they never stuck around long enough to make a record. For all the research I did about the history of our scene when I got into it a few years later, I never even heard the band name before until they were featured briefly in the wonderful Chicago punk documentary film, You Weren’t There! More than 40 years later, Verböten reunited to open Riot Fest on Saturday! Most notable for being the first band that beloved musician Jason Narducy was in, the band played a really fun half hour set full of all the songs they had that you never heard before. They were all smiles on stage and their set was a lot of fun and a special treat. It’s a shame they never made a record when they were together back then, but man was it great to witness their reunion! This was more than worth getting up early for to come see!
Pixel Grip was up next and they were another band well worth the effort to see early. This electronic music duo owned that stage, especially the vocalist Rita who is a striking and captivating frontwoman. The band got the people dancing and the blood pumping and it’s a safe bet they walked away with a lot of new fans. They are a fantastic live act and their music is well worth going out of your way to check out, so do so immediately! This may also have been the first time the band played in daylight as their style of music caters more to the late night vampire crowd, but they did a great job of transforming their time on that stage into a nightclub with their visuals.
Codefendents, a band who Fat Mike was a part of and who is signed to Fat Wreck Chords, appropriately played the NOFX stage. This band, which is hard to pigeonhole into one genre, played sans Fat Mike for this set. The band has a really unique sound, and no two songs sounded like they were the same band. They drew a pretty good sized crowd and if you sat through the whole thing you’d likely have found at least some of their material enjoyable.
Next up we had quirky punk/alternative veterans, The Dead Milkmen. These guys are always a lot of fun and were a breath of fresh air at a time that most band took themselves and their subject matter very seriously, which also probably alienated them with the more stringent hardcore punks back in the day. They busted out a bunch of their beloved favorites from the past and threw in a more recent tune or two and their performance was a really good time. Did anyone drive to the fest in a Bitchin’ Camaro on Saturday?
The Buzzcocks made their return to Riot Fest after losing lead singer Pete Shelley fairly recently. It’s a hard thing to carry on your band when your lead singer leaves, especially one who was so identifiable as a main part of the band’s sound. It’s easy to say, “why would they continue, it’s not really the band anymore” but it’s hard to fault someone like Steve Diggle from trying to continue to make a living doing the one thing he’s been doing for nearly 50 years. Most bands can’t pull this feat off very well and sound good but I have to say that Diggle was able to pull it off. It certainly helps that the Buzzcocks have so many amazing songs, but his voice actually sounded good singing these songs and he did them justice. They were very enjoyable and while it certainly isn’t the same without Pete Shelley, it was still a very good way to spend your time and was worth it.
The Dickies have the distinction of being first wave punk pioneers, having started in the mid 1970s, they also have the distinction of being one of the bands that played the very first Riot Fest 20 years ago! To say it was great to have them back for this 19th Riot Fest (which should’ve been the 20th had it not been for losing a year to Covid), would be a massive understatement! Easily the oldest band on the Riot Fest Roster this year, age matters not when it comes to The Dickies delivering a fantastic performance of most of their beloved punk rock classics. They checked all the boxes for songs you’d want to hear and they did it with style. It’s great that five decades later, Stan and Leonard are still out there making us smile playing their great songs that we old punks grew up on.
A fantastically unique band, Health, made their third appearance at Riot Fest on Saturday. The band is a mix of electronic based music with metal and post-punk, heavy on rhythms and noise, and heavy on percussion and guitars. The band was plagued by technical issues at the beginning of their set (which plagued them on their very first Riot Fest appearance as well), but luckily they were able to work past them to deliver an amazing set of their self-professed “Sad Music For Horny People”. Their songs are dark and mix the beautiful with the aggressive, melodic and haunting one minute and pummeling you in the heart the next, all with some great beats that make you want to move. They truly are one the best bands around these days and man were they good once they hit the second song and got the issues worked out! Hopefully they’ll be back again in two years (sans the technical problems).
Sincere Engineer has been on fire the past couple of years. Deanna Belos and company have put out three amazing records, each one topping the previous, and have been winning over new fans everywhere with their regular touring. They’ve been playing bigger and bigger shows and are certainly on the path to stardom, and it is well deserved! This band stands out from the masses in the very crowded pop-punk genre and is on a whole different level. Their songs are beyond catchy, but still can punch you in the gut while they get the hooks stuck in your head for days. They drew a massive audience, it was incredible to see such a huge crowd show up so excited to see them play. They played the beloved “Corndog Sonnet No. 7” (will they ever release the first six?!) which once again had the crowd form a Corn Dog circle pit! If you have fans willing to shell out 15 bucks for a corndog just to wave it around in the air while playing human bumper cars during your show then you’re really doing something right! Words really can’t do justice to how fun and enjoyable Sincere Engineer’s set was. They truly deserve all the success in the world. Go see them play immediately!
Dillinger Four were another welcomed return to the fest. They played the NOFX stage and played their energetic mid to fast tempo punk rock beautifully. Their songs are powerful and super energetic, and you can even sing along to them. It’s really a shocker that they aren’t more popular than they already are, and they are certainly a popular band, but they are even better than a lot of their peers who get more attention.
Despite being a band for thirty years now, I can not tell you the names of three Spoon songs. What I can tell you though is they were certainly a popular attraction Saturday afternoon as a ton of people crowded the AAA stage to see them play their style of indie/alternative rock. They were pretty enjoyable and the fans were really into them. It certainly has inspired me to want to check out more of their music so hopefully if they return to Riot Fest, I will be able to name three songs!
The Descendents are one of the greatest punk rock bands of all time. They also were pioneers of the genre of music that is now known as pop-punk. Pretty much every band ever to play that style of music the last three decades owes everything they have to Descendents. This band is responsible for a who slew of amazing punk records, each one of them a classic. Any time this band plays it is a massive treat to get to see them again, and thankfully they’ve been a part of many Riot Fests over the years. If they played every year, no one would ever grow tired of them and it seems that the older these four guys get, the better they play! Their live shows are unbelievable, they are flawless every time! This night was no different, the band busted out plenty of classics and weaved them together with a good amount of their newer songs to create a perfect hour of music. That hour went by way too fast, next time please let them have 90 minutes and I guarantee you that no one will complain and everyone will love it. The stage was packed all the way back to the fence! I don’t think you could’ve squeezed one more person in that space. Next time they need to put them on one of the two biggest main stages, trust me they’ll fill that space too!
NOFX came out to a different song on night two and played a completely different setlist than the night before. Fat Mike proclaimed that tonight’s show would be different, not better but different, and said that tomorrow would be the better night, tonight will just be different. They powered through over 30 songs this evening and it was different than the night before, and Fat Mike was right, it wasn’t better, but it was different, and it was just as good as the night before!
The second day of Riot Fest was sweaty and exhausting in the best ways. There were so many great bands playing that it was impossible to see them all and there wasn’t a dull moment. It wasn’t just all these great bands playing, but the fest was so much more than that, it was seeing so many great people walking around, catching up with friends, checking out some of the other attractions, and eating all kinds of great carny food! It was the best Saturday of the year for sure!
