Saturday at Riot Fest is Alternative Day with Brutus, The Dead Milkmen, The Hives, Manchester Orchestra, Spoon, Waxahatchee, St. Vincent, Pavement, Bright Eyes, and Beck. Of course NOFX World still brings the punk.
And more conflicts:
- Buzzcocks or The Dead Milkmen
- The Dickies or The Hives
- Manchester Orchestra or Sincere Engineer
- Spoon or Lagwagon
- St. Vincent or Descendents or L.S. Dunes
- Pavement or Bright Eyes
- Beck or NOFX or Taking Back Sunday
Brutus – 1235am Metro Stage
Belgian alternative, post-hardcore. Three piece. Female singer.
The Dead Milkmen – 140pm NOFX World
No explanation needed. No explanation provided.
Buzzcocks – 145pm Metro Stage
Along with Descendents and The Dickies, one of the early bands that put a melody into punk. Buzzcocks doing it in late 70’s UK and Descendents and The Dickies in 80’s SoCal. Created the blueprint for bands like Blink and Green Day.
Part of the most epic aftershow at the Cobra Lounge with Slaves (now Soft Play). Since then, lead singer Pete Shelley has died leaving guitarist Steve Diggle to carry on as lead singer. He is the only remaining original Buzzcock.
The Dickies – 230pm NOFX World
A huge influence on most punk bands after them. Formed in SoCal in the late 70’s. Johnny Ramone and Brett Gurewitz (Bad Religion/Epitaph) call The Dickies on the greatest punk bands. Like Buzzcocks, put melody into fast punk rock. They have a lot of interesting back stories. Of note, their guitarist, Stan Lee, was friends with Iggy Pop and Kevin Dubrow (Quiet Riot). Also, they replaced the Sex Pistols on A&M Records after the Pistols were sacked. A&M wanted a punk act that was “more manageable”.
The Hives – 255pm Metro Stage
Swedish “garage rock revival” band. Known for their live shows with Spin magazine ranking them #8 on their 2006 Best Live Band list. Formed in 1993 with only their bassist not being an original member.
Sincere Engineer – 410pm Rise Stage
The house band of “Familypalooza”, we saw them open the main stage at Bud Light stage at Lolla last year. Pop punk from Chicago. Really are just Deanna Belos with a band she puts around her. Had a famously creative circle pit at Riot Fest for Corn Dog Sonnet. Deanna designed the “Familypalooza” logo for us.
Manchester Orchestra – 425pm Metro Stage
We’ve seen them at Riot Fest before. Great show. Does the quiet loud quiet Pixies thing very well. The only knock, like Offspring, they are playing an album play. It’s a great album, but not all of it.
Spoon – 530pm AAA Stage
“Art rock” band from Austin. I know them because “The Underdog” was everywhere about 15 years ago. And it should have been as it’s a great song.
Lagwagon – 545pm NOFX World
Skate punk from Santa Barbara. On Fat Wreck Chords. Pretty typical of that sound and pretty good. Interesting that Chris Shifflet, Foo guitarist, once was a touring guitarist for Lagwagon.
St. Vincent – 635pm Metro Stage
Stage name for Annie Clark. She’s an amazing guitarist and puts on a very good “art rock” show. Has a lot of collaborators.
Descendents – 7pm NOFX World
Early SoCal punk band. Was one of the first to do the melodic punk thing. Blink call them out as a big influence. Really interesting story as their singer, Milo, has a PhD in biology and worked for Dupont. Between Milo and Dexter, from Offspring, they may be the smartest guys in all of rock. See All play on Friday to see what Descendents did while Milo was off at school. Descendents drummer Bill Stevenson played with Black Flag and now has a studio in Fort Collins.
LS Dunes – 705pm Rise Stage
Punk supergroup that has been at the last three Riot Fests. They have members from My Chem, Circa Survive, and Coheed. Kinda feel like we need to see them however them being up against Descendents probably leaves them missed again.
Pavement – 740pm AAA Stage
Alternative band that was everywhere in the 90s. Super fun sound.
Bright Eyes – 755pm Radical Stage
“Indie folk” or “emo-folk” from Omaha. Led by Conor Obest who is everywhere in the Indie Rock/Folk scene.
NOFX – 830pm NOFX World
Day 2 of their Chicago finale.
Beck – 845pm Metro Stage
You don’t need an explanation for Beck. I’ve seen him a couple of times and his shows are super cool. Two turntables and a microphone…
Taking Back Sunday – 9pm Rise Stage
Another one of those bands that play Riot Fest almost every year and we still haven’t seen them. Pop punk superstars. Maybe we seen them here. Maybe not.