Month: August 2021

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Who are your Top 10 (or 30) acts to see at Riot Fest?

As we near the schedule announcement I get nervous a couple of my MUST SEE acts will conflict with each other.  Yes, 2019’s Descendents up against Rancid remains unforgivable.  So I ranked all of the acts in order of my preference.  And it’s fluid.  Some may move based on what I’m listening to.  Some may move as I discover new music.  Some may move based on time and stage – seeing a lower ranked band up close (except for our friends GWAR) is better than a top band far away (remember Blink?). 

Below is my top 30.  My top three are bands I’ve never seen before (NOFX kinda).  And the next three are just killer live. Why top 30?  It feels like we see about 15 bands over three days.  So any of the top 30 are a great weekend.  Plus with the cancelations, my top 30 is already down to a top 27.  What’s missing?  A few top line acts didn’t make it – Run The Jewels, Machine Gun Kelly, Slipknot, Coheed and Cambia, Lupe Fiasco.  Also a whole slew of pop punk.  And a few favorites that just got pushed down the list: Sublime and Dirty Heads.   But they’re all good (except MGK).  Seriously we could go 50 to 60 deep on this list and have an amazing weekend.

Who are your Top Ten?

My top 30:

1 Devo
2 NOFX
3 Circle Jerks
4 Dropkick Murphys
5 Pixies
6 The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
7 Rancid
8 Nine Inch Nails
9 The Smashing Pumpkins
10 The Lawrence Arms
11 Body Count
12 Living Colour
13 Faith No More
14 Les Savy Fav
15 K.Flay
16 Anti-Flag
17 Thrice
18 Dinosaur Jr.
19 Knuckle Puck
20 Meg Myers
21 Circa Survive
22 The Clockworks
23 GWAR
24 Radkey
25 Skating Polly
26 Fever 333
27 Motion City Soundtrack
28 Fishbone
29 Gogol Bordello
30 Hepcat

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Riot Fest 2021 Preview – The Clockworks, Meet Me At The Drive-In, Best Coast

Lost in the stir of losing Nine Inch Nails, Riot Fest also lost a Canadian band, White Lung.  Which sucks because they were likely one of those unknowns to turn into favorites.  But by losing them we gained The Clockworks, which slide right into that possible future favorites.  Too bad we couldn’t get both.

EDIT: Pixies and Skating Polly just dropped. This was written before this news. Since The Clockworks were touring with Pixies it’s very likely they will drop back off. More changes to the lineup are expected included some new adds. Stay posted.

The Clockworks – Sunday

As mentioned, a last minute replacement.  They’re Irish punks.  Remind me of a mix of old school Gang of Four meets The Idles with a bit of Slaves thrown in.  A great sound.  Super new. So new they don’t even have a Wikipedia page.   So new they don’t even have a proper album; just a run of singles.  And they are really good singles.  Oh, and they’re opening for Pixies on their latest tour so they have street cred. I hope they slot right into the small stage mid afternoon.

Meet Me @ the Altar – Friday

A pop punkish band created entirely over Youtube with it’s members living in different states.  Our generation created bands in garages.  Today they are created on the computer.   Possibly one of those lower poster line bands that are great to discover on the small stage.

Best Coast – Saturday

Indie duo from LA (singer and guitar and have a touring bassist and drummer).  Originally inspired by the Beatles and Beach Boys, but aren’t all bands?  I like their sound, a lot.

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Riot Fest 2021 Preview – GWAR

Only one preview this week. Mostly because it’s almost impossible to pair them with anyone. They stand alone in style and music for sure.

GWAR – Saturday

The story of GWAR is carved across the history of this barren and hopeless planet, but GWAR themselves are not of this world… their story begins in the deepest reaches of outer space. Long ago, the beings who would become the rock band GWAR were part of an elite fighting force, the Scumdogs of the Universe. For eons, they served as thralls to a supreme being known only as the Master. But one by one, each future member of the band earned a glaring reputation for being an intergalactic fuck-up. And so, they were banished, sent away on a fool’s errand to conquer an insignificant shitball floating in a dark corner of the universe; the planet Earth. Once here, GWAR shaped the face of the globe, destroying and rebuilding the natural world, and giving rise to all of human history. Aliens to some, gods and demons to others, our erstwhile Scumdogs fucked apes to create the human race, and this fateful unplanned pregnancy would prove to be truly disastrous!

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Riot Fest 2021 Preview – Dinosaur Jr., Skating Polly, Joywave

Dinosaur Jr. – Friday and Saturday Aftershow

They were at one of our Coachellas but we didn’t get them enough attention.  Really a pioneer of alternative music and on a heavy play rotation on HFS in the early 90s.  You may hear some grunge but they are way more than that.  An early signee of SST Records that included Black Flag, the Minutemen, Sonic Youth, Bad Brains, and Husker Du.  Great company to keep.  They deserve our attention just to pay homage.  Plus their lead J Mascis is just cool.  And their drummer gets drunk with KJ.

Skating Polly – Sunday

Riot Grrrl or Punk.  Dunno.  But they freaking rock.  Step sisters from Oklahoma have never been so punk (plus little bro on drums).  Their big break happened when the met Exene Cervenka from X and she became a fan and produced their second album.  They fit that loud quiet loud (and then louder) sound that many of us like.  And again, they freaking rock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US0uJI2GfZE

Joywave – Saturday

Alternate Electro Pop?  That’s what it sounds like.  An outlier at RiotFest but could be a great break from some of the harder acts.  From upstate New York.  They collaborate with a lot of others in typical electro fashion.  You may be familiar with Big Data’s song Dangerous (a Coachella act of ours).  They were on that.