Friday started the last and best weekend of the summer when the 21st Riot Fest kicked off. It was a beautiful day for the first day of the fest, but unfortunately it ended up being the only dry and nice day of the entire weekend. Like every year, the first bands go on at noon and the last bands will end by 10pm. There was a healthy amount of people that arrived early to get to see the maximum number of bands that day, and also partake of the other festival offerings like carnival rides, merch, and food. There is never a shortage of fun stuff to do at Riot Fest, the only shortage may be in your wallet by the end of the day as a lot of cool things are competing for your spending dollars. Let’s get to the bands, which required no additional spending.
First up was Teen Mortgage. This two piece hails from Washington DC and played some enjoyable punk rock. Sadly they stooped to the bush league level of asking the crowd to not only form a pit, but to crowd surf. I’ll never understand why bands beg the crowd to move, not everyone enjoys music the same way and not everyone needs to make it a contact sport. Obviously they like you if they showed up at noon to see you open a festival, and they might prefer watching over playing tackle football. That aside, they played well and were pretty good overall.
Soul Glo were up next. On their records they have a bit more diversity to their sound but for this performance they opted to play their harder, more aggressive songs with the screaming vocals. They sounded great, but it would have been nice if they showed off more than one side of their repertoire. You can’t fault them for tailoring their set to what likely will pop the crowd the most. They are well worth checking out live any time they come through town.
Violet Grohl made her Riot Fest debut on one of the main stages. For those who may not know, she’s the daughter of Dave Grohl, and she certainly inherited the gene for writing 90’s style music. She has a great singing voice, and she and her band played a really enjoyable set of songs that totally would fit in 90s alternative rock radio. This is meant as a compliment, it sounded refreshing to hear a young female artist play this style of music instead of the autotune manufactured mainstream stuff being churned out of AI farms these days. This lady likely has a bright future ahead of her and she was a perfect fit for Riot Fest.
Trip Hop legend, Tricky, made his Riot Fest debut as well. Tricky was center stage and was surrounded by a full live band, including a pair of singers who took turns singing various songs, including the fan favorite, “Black Steel”. It all sounded great, and it was a real treat to have this musical pioneer play the fest. It was definitely one of the day’s highlights and it drew a huge crowd.
Next up we had Stephen Egerton of Descendents doing a solo set. He wasn’t alone, as he had a full band backing him up, including guitarist Johnny Two Bags (who previously did time in Social Distortion). Stephen just put out a really good solo album and he played many of the songs from it during this set. If you like the Descendents, and who doesn’t, then you’re bound to find a lot to like in Stephen’s solo work, as it is in the same ballpark, but even more musically diverse. The man is a punk rock legend, and it’s great to see him branching out to create even more great music.
Guttermouth were up next. These former Dr. Strange Records alum played a sloppy but fun set of their blend of pop punk/melodic hardcore. They had some issues with the vocal mic not working quite right for part of the set, and it’s a safe bet that the singer was at least a little tipsy, but they were energetic and a lot of fun.
Motion City Soundtrack, hailing from Minneapolis, has been a crowd favorite for many years. They put on an emo pop clinic to a huge sea of excited fans. Their keyboard player is a show unto himself as he was jumping all over the place and basically was also their hype man as his energy got the crowd even more excited for them. They’re a rock solid live act, and the audience, who skewed younger, were super into it.
Rap icon, Slick Rick, was up next. It’s always a treat when the fest gets a rap artist on the bill, but even better when it is one of the 80’s legends! Rick’s DJ spent a good ten or more minutes warming up the crowd before the Slick one came out on stage to perform. Rick put on a classic rap clinic and played many of his most popular songs, and even did a Doug E. Fresh cover. I would love it if Riot Fest made this an annual thing where they get at least old school rap act to play every year. Or better yet, make one stage dedicated to it and make a whole day of it! Rename it the Yo MTV Raps stage for one year!
Beloved weatherman, Tom Skilling, made a return to the fest this year and told some stories to the crowd after Alkaline Trio played. Tom has to be the most adored weatherman in the history of the business. He was around much of the weekend talking to fans too and posing for pictures with them.
Punk icons, The Sex Pistols, made their long awaited Riot Fest appearance after having to cancel their set last year. This lineup of the Pistols features 3/4 of the original band with Frank Carter handling vocal duties. While normally I would frown on such things, especially when your original lead singer is still alive and performing, but having seen the Pistols with Lydon in 2003, anyone is going to do a better job than him. The problem with the post-reunion Sex Pistols with Lydon is that he no longer sings those songs using his Sex Pistols, he instead sings them in his modern PiL voice While that voice works great for PiL, it absolutely does not fit the Sex Pistols and that reunion was a huge disppointment.
Frank Carter earned his punk vocalist stripes as the first singer for Gallows, who were an excellent band. The man knows how to sing a punk tune, and his voice is a really good fit for singing Sex Pistols songs. He’s as good of a replacement as you could hope for. The band opened with “Holiday In The Sun” and everything sounded great as the massive crowd jumped around, sang along, and formed a big most pit. Carter’s vocal delivery was great, and the band sounded as good as ever, proving that old men can still play amazing punk rock songs live.
The band played most of their one and only studio album, along with “No Fun” and “I’m Not You’re Stepping Stone”. During “No Fun” and “Anarchy In The UK” they dragged out the songs to do sing along spots with the crowd. This was a real head scratcher as this kind of arena rock behavior is exactly what the Sex Pistols was rebelling against 50 years ago, yet here they were doing the same tired gimmick that every big rock band does at every show. It was kind of a bummer, and the only blemish on an otherwise fantastic and fun set. Oh, and props to Carter for organizing an all-female mosh pit during one of the songs! That should become a thing so the ladies can have the spotlight on them for a change.
The first day of Riot Fest was a great one from start to finish, it featured a great and diverse selection of bands, and the park was full of lots of smiling faces all day and evening.
