Saturday started off a little wet, but when the second day of Riot Fest opened the weather was humid but nice. Sadly that would change later in the day, but we’ll get to that in a bit. The second day of the 21st Riot Fest had a stellar lineup of bands on deck to please the gigantic crowd that turned up for it.
Nobro started the day off bright and early and had a really good sized crowd turn up for them, far greater than usually show up at noon! These ladies opened for Descendents back in the early spring at Salt Shed and won over the entire audience. The word about how good they are clearly has been spreading based on how many early risers turned up at this stage. The band played an incredibly entertaining, high energy 30 minute set. The more the word spreads about how good this band is, the bigger they are going to get, and I predict that will happen rather quickly for them. They are a must-see act and these ladies rock!
Show Me The Body made their Riot Fest debut next. This trio is really unique in that they blend post-hardcore, noise rock, and even hip-hop music into their songs and no two really sound alike. They have a really great, hard edge to them, and the music is rather aggressive, but the diversity is what keeps you coming back for more. They had a good size crowd of rabid fans show up for them and they really delivered the goods. Hopefully they’ll be brought back again for another one of these, they deserve to be seen by as many people as possible!
Japanese noise rock duo, Melt Banana, were up next. For being a two piece, they make the sound of a five piece powerhouse! Fast and powerful noise rock with high pitched vocals, and a variety of effects. They were a sight to behold and a lot of fun!
I had no idea that Burning Airlines were back together until I saw them on the list of bands playing the fest this year!. For those who don’t know, the band was started around the time that Jawbox disbanded by J. Robbins. Not only that, but Pete Moffett is also in the band which means you have 50 percent of the best lineup of Government Issue on stage! Having never seen Burning Airlines before, I can tell you how much I appreciated them playing together again and it was worth the wait! If you are a fan of anything J. Robbins has done, and you should be a fan of all of it, you need to hear this band if you haven’t yet. Hopefully they stick around long enough to put out some new material as their older material is fantastic.
The Chats came all the way from Australia to entertain the Riot Fest audience, and that they did. These guys played fast paced garage punk and did it with style. Their songs were high energy and the crowd went nuts for them. What is it about Australia that produces so many great bands? Add The Chats to the list as they were fantastic!
This is where things at Riot Fest took an unexpected turn. There was a threat of a huge storm that was scheduled to hit the area by 8pm so the festival made the difficult but necessary decision to cut the fest short and adjust the band’s schedules to accommodate as many performances as they could with two and a half less hours of available time. They ended up cutting most sets in half until the last few bands of the day, who had shorter, but still close to full sets. The intent was to end the festival at 7:30pm so people can get out safely before the storm came. People may complain about this, especially because the storm ended up not coming until much later that night, but the fest did the right thing based on the information they had in conjunction with the city. This meant bands like PiL and Sugar, among others, only got to play 20-30 minute sets, but it sure beat not playing at all.
Public Image Ltd was the first band that had their set time cut in half, so instead of 40 minutes, they were only allowed 20. John Lydon spent nearly half that time complaining about it, and rubbing it into the audience that it may suck for them to only get a partial set, but that he’d still be paid the same so it was good for him. While this certainly tracks with his current heel personality, it was bad form to be doing this mere minutes after the news started getting around the festival about the set times changing and the fest having to close early. When the band finally started playing, they delivered exactly three songs: “Public Image”, “Death Disco”, and “Rise”. Had Lydon not wasted so much time they could’ve played one more song. What they played sounded fine and it was a bummer that there wasn’t more, but Lydon’s attitude about the whole thing was a pretty big disappointment.
In what was one of the big highlights of the day, the recently reunited Sugar played next. No one had Sugar reuniting on their bingo card, so when the band announced they were reuniting and touring, the excitement for it was off the charts. The band lived up to the expectations and played a tight set that sounded like they never stopped playing all these years. It was a little bit of a bummer they had a shortened set, but man did they deliver the goods for the time they were allotted! Hopefully the great response they’ve been getting on this tour leads to them exploring making a new record someday.
The changing of the schedules meant that Descendents and Sugar didn’t conflict at the exact same time, so I was able to go see them play next. They played the entire Everything Sucks album, but not in order as they sprinkled in a few songs in the middle of that part of the set. No one minded about this as the band plays so flawlessly every time and have so many great songs that they really are just a massive hit factory at this point. They played a lot of older favorites too after the Everything Sucks part of the set and the crowd went absolutely insane for all of it. The security guards had their hands full the entire set as it was a nonstop sea of crowd surfers that never slowed down. It was quite the spectacle! I don’t know how it is that the older the Descendents get, the better they play. They have always been an amazing live band but they just keep getting better every year they play! I can’t think of many bands that have gone on for over four decades and keep getting better. These guys have always been something really special.
Chat Pile also played Riot Fest for the first time and their set got pushed back later than they were originally scheduled. These guys are a noise rock band that have been gaining quite a buzz lately with the release of their excellent new album. They weren’t much for talking, they just pummeled the audience with some really great, thick, noisy rock. They deserve all the buzz they are getting. If you like noise rock, this is the band for you. As a big fan of noise rock, I found these guys to be most excellent!
Bad Religion had the misfortune to be playing at the same time as Tool, but that didn’t stop a huge crowd from coming to see them play. Bad Religion is one of the most consistent bands in punk rock as for over forty years, with one exception, you know exactly when you are getting with them, and they will never let you down. They are like the AC/DC of punk rock. For as solid as their records are, the band really shines the brightest as a live band. They are all energy all the time, and the crowd feeds off of it and goes nuts for them. This night was no different, the band played a solid set that showcased a lot of their discography, and the kids went crazy. This band is one of those special bands that transcended multiple generations of people and have fans both old and young.
When Tool (Saturday’s headliner) finished their set, the storm was said to have officially passed by, missing the fest completely (but it would come back with a vengeance overnight), so that led to Nas playing last and past the 7:30pm end time. Some people complained, while others were happy to get home earlier than anticipated so they can prepare for what was to come the next day, and that turned out to be quite the challenge for everyone!
