Sunday is Metal Day at Riot Fest with Slayer headlining and Mastodon, Lamb of God, and Rob Zombie coming along. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other nuggets to find. We start the day with the Packwood special; the certified album of the year. And we finally get Operation Ivy at Riot Fest, kinda.
Sprints – 120pm Metro Stage
The Packwood find. May be in the running for ”Future Favorite Discovered at RF24”. They fit the formula perfectly…raucous garage/punk with a female lead. The Irish Amyl and the Sniffers. Just formed in 2019. And I’m gonna plagiarize Wikipedia for this next line….” Journalist Ed Power wrote that “Sprints songs are breathless pile-drivers, powered by Chubb’s ear for cut-glass melody and by their producer Daniel Fox’s ability to make intimate music feel huge”. Listening to their music “feels like tiptoeing into a stranger’s room and reading their intimate diary entries”.
Fiddlehead – 210pm Rise Stage
Called a post hard-core Supergroup, but I hadn’t heard of the bands they were in before. From Boston. The guitarist will do double duty this weekend playing with Basement on Saturday. No fiddles in Fiddlehead, btw.
Swingin Utters – 230pm NOFX World
Street punk from Northern California. Been at it a long time. Played at the first Warped Tour.
Strung Out – 330pm NOFX World
So Cal punks on Fat Wreck. “Melodic Hardcore” of “Skate Punk”
Slaughter Beach, Dog – 415pm Radical Stage
Indie rock from Philly. Was a solo project from one of our Lolla bands, Modern Baseball. Jake Ewald formed Slaughter Beach, Dog while Modern Baseball was on hiatus. They has since broken up.
The Vandals – 430pm NOFX World
We’ve kinda seen them before. Pennywise brought the Vandals lead singer, Dave Quackenbush, on stage during Surf City Blitz to sing a song. SoCal punk of the likes of all of the others. Pretty fun.
GWAR – 455pm AAA Stage
No explanation needed. No explanation given. Except….is this the year we dress in white and get up front? Maybe not, but that time isn’t far off.
Laura Jane Grace with Catbite – 545pm NOFX World
This is a Big Deal. On a list of most influential punk bands, Operation Ivy has very few rivals. Without Op Ivy, there wouldn’t be a Rancid or Green Day. For years, there have been many calls for an Operation Ivy reunion at Riot Fest. Not many have been more vocal than Laura Jane Grace of Against Me!. Rather than wait, Laura Jane is taking the matter into her hands. While not Op Ivy, it will be awesome to see these songs played at RF.
Catbite is a Philly ska band akin to our friends The Interrupters.
Speaking of The Interrupters, note the rhythm section on the Op Ivy/Tim Armstrong/Jesse Michaels video.
Pennywise – 7pm NOFX World
There can never be too many Bro Hymn videos.
Rob Zombie – 705pm AAA Stage
Rob Zombie was a production assistant by day on Pee Wee’s Playhouse, and trying to start a band at night in NYC in the early nineties. You learn something new everyday. If the stage show, at 7pm, is as good as the videos this make take priority over Pennywise.
Slayer – 815pm Metro Stage
They have announced they are done. This is a one-off show. If I was ever gonna see them it has to be here.
NOFX – 830pm NOFX World
The last Chicago show ever for NOFX. Slayer or NOFX? NOFX or Slayer? Or Lou Malnati’s.
Sublime – 9pm Rise Stage
You know the story…singer dies of drug OD on the eve of the band making it big. The band carries on with a new singer and slightly appended name. The original lead singer’s son gets old enough to take over singing duties. The replacement singer is kicked out. And they are Sublime again. Not thinking there’s a chance I’ll see them against Slayer and NOFX but by Sunday night I may need a low adrenalin show.