Riot Fest continued on Saturday bright an early with another completely full day of great bands and great fun. We got a little bit of rain but nothing that slowed things down at all and was just more of a brief nuisance than anything.
Ferat Tact got things started on a good foot and played the Rebel Stage for their Riot Fest debut. This band features Max Mcquaid on drums, who is the son of Brian Mcquaid of Sludgeworth. This kid is an absolute powerhouse of a drummer and could go on to becoming one of the drum greats over the years. This two piece band was very enjoyable and they brought the rock in a big way. They have a pretty unique blend of punk, rock and blues styles to their music, and the singer/guitar player has a voice that would also work well as a blues singer. Energetic, rockin’ stuff that was well worth showing up early for. Check them out if you ever have the chance, they’re worth it.
Punk rock legends, Agent Orange, who played the very first Riot Fest, returned to the fest once again and were advertised to play their classic first album, Living In Darkness in its entirety. They didn’t start off playing it, and in fact never played it in order. Mike Palm said after the first song that they were asked to do it, and they were never really asked before to do such a thing and seemed taken aback by it, but said not to worry that they will play all those songs and then just played their normal touring set. While this whole thing reeked of bullshit, they do in fact always play all the songs from that album (and why wouldn’t they), so the fans didn’t get cheated out of them, they just got cheated out of the advertised album set where the band would do the whole album in order. That aside, the band sounded great, had quite a bit of energy and always put on a good show. Those album songs were the highlight of the set of course, it’s just a shame we didn’t get them in the proper order and all together.
Indie rock darlings for more than three decades, Superchunk, returned to the fest once again and I doubt you’d find anyone out there unhappy about it. They have been putting on great shows for more than three decades and still make really good records today. They always have a ton of energy when they play and they delivered a flawless 30 minute set. They are welcome back anytime!
British indie rock band, Panchinko played the Roots stage. They were around in the late 90s and recently reunited in the past few years. They did a pretty entertaining half hour set and gathered a pretty good sized crowd for it.
Bouncing Souls also have Riot Fest history dating back to the earliest years and are always a standout when they play. They played a great 45 minute set to a huge crowd that never stood still for a minute. There was a big pit and lots of crowd surfing and everyone had a really good time, well except probably the security who had their hands full, literally, with all the flying kids. They did an album set and for this show it was How I Spent My Summer Vacation. It was excellent.
Marky Ramone was next and a you’d expect, he did a set of all Ramones songs. The lone surviving member of the golden age of Ramones, Marky assembled a good band to pay tribute to the punk founding fathers he was once a part of. The singer could’ve been Joey’s son, he was tall and lanky and even had all of Joey’s moves down pat. He sounded good too. They played about 1100 of the best Ramones hits and the crowd loved it. If you are going to be a Ramones tribute band, you get the last Ramone to be in it!
In what was 12 years in the making, Riot Mike got his wish and John Stamos came to Riot Fest! He has been an active member of The Beach Boys for a number of years so it makes sense that to get him to the fest, you book the band a prominent spot on the festival! They crowd was massive, we’re talking damn near every person in that park was packed in front of those main stages to witness this historic event. Stamos was front and center playing guitar for the first couple of songs before later playing drums, and the band had a lot of musicians on stage with them. They played all the hits and were super fun, even if Mike Love’s seemed worse for wear. It was dual nostalgia for anyone who grew up listening to this band, or who watched Full House! This was worth the 12 year wait for something so fun and light hearted. I’d bet good money that Riot Mike felt it was well worth getting that Butter Stamos tattoo!
Buzzcocks have played Riot Fest three times now, every time great and this was no exception. Steve Diggle and crew many of the Buzzcock hits you’d hope for except for “Love Battery”! Why would you skip your best song?! That aside, they sounded great, had lots of energy, and were a whole lot of fun. It’s hard to keep a band going when you lose your lead singer but Diggle fills the role nicely and they are still absolutely worth seeing. Most bands coulnd’t pull that off after such a loss but these guys did.
Another legendary first wave punk band, and one of the greatest bands of all time, The Damned, closed out the night on the Rebel Stage for those who chose them over Weezer. Whatever caused them to be a little off a few nights earlier at The Vic was gone as they played a perfect set! Heavy on the hits, and featuring zero newer material, we got a lot of stuff from The Black Album and Machine Gun Ettiquette, plus a little Strawberries and Phantasmagoria for good measure. And let’s not forget “New Rose” and “Neat Neat Neat” They were spot on, in great spirits, and proved once again why they are one of the greatest punk rock bands of all time. Legendary!
What a great day that Riot Fest Saturday was, even in spite of a little rain. The only complaint was not being able to be in two places at once to see even more bands that day.
