Observations, Musings, and Lessons Learned mostly in the world of Punk, Ska, Alternative, Metal, and just plain Rock and Roll. Music with guitars…mostly
Here are some “interesting” acts I ran across in my research. They didn’t make my final previews but some of them will be worthy of seeing, whether it’s for the music or the spectacle (a la Corey Feldman). One is an actor’s band that played a serial killer. One is Fat Mike’s latest project. And there’s a Yeti and a goblin.
Basement
English “soft grunge”
Saxsquatch
Just watch…
Princess Goes
Dexter’s band. Really. The TV Series about a serial killer. The actor that played Dexter is the singer of Princess Goes.
Urethane
From NoCal
Codefendants
A new band formed by Fat Mike. Includes a rap tone. “Get ready for the best aural sex of your life,” Fat Mike said.
Lord of the Lost
German “dark rock” band
The Warning
Mexican female band
The Aces
Pop band of four women. Imagine the Linda Lindas doing pop, older, and Mormon.
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.
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.
Always a little anxiety when the schedule is released. Not knowing if there are conflicts, who may be playing too early, or too late, etc. This year’s schedule was just release and, while not perfect, there weren’t too many casualties. Especially considering we have a lot of moving parts both nights getting to Frank Turner and Too Much Joy.
The biggest conflict is one of Jimmy’s future favorites, the punk supergroup Fake Names. They are playing right before Foo Fighters on a different stage not allowing us to get from them to be close-ish for Foos. A few other lower priority conflicts are Head Automatica, Crass, 100 Gecs, Bayside, and Tegan and Sara.
Anyway, here’s my curation of Friday and Saturday:
Friday
1:50 George Clinton and Pfunk
2:30 The Wrecks
3:00 get drinks and set up for next act
3:55 The Interrupters
4:45 Quicksand
5:50 The Breeders
6:55 Turnstile (while camping out for a good spot for Foos)
How strong is Riot Fest 2023’s lineup? Spoiler alert. It’s very strong. Very. Should we make a return to Douglass Park? Stay tuned.
I know I’ve never seen a RiotFest lineup I didn’t like. Where I couldn’t find some reason. Last year’s lineup on the surface was the weakest we’ve seen, and I had a blast; maybe my favorite.
This one is top heavy. Three headliners that will be hard to pass up. Two of them are must sees. The Foos and The Cure. Can’t miss them.
The Cure? Saw them in early 90s at the Cap Centre and was disappointed. They were the happy Cure and I wanted the sad cure. Well they’ve been touring again and have been doing 3 hour shows with amazing set lists. This won’t be three hours but they are on top of their game right now and as sad and mopey as ever. I think I need to see them fresh.
And I don’t need to explain why Foos are a must see. I have to say I was late to their “live” fandom. And seeing them at Lolla in 21 was amazing. I think all of you have seen them before so this is redundant. But after the year they had last year they are a must see. And will need to be up close in case Dave calls me up to play guitar.
And Death Cab. They still owe Kyle and I from before the pandemic. Shoot, they caused the pandemic. Wuhan Lab? No it was Death Cab that unleashed COVID-19. Plus the Postal Service…which is just better Death Cab. It would take a Frank or Aimee aftershow to chase us out on Saturday.
That’s a challenge with this lineup. The aftershows may not happen. Because leaving early doesn’t look likely. Which also puts us in the throngs trying to get out at 10pm. Tough first world problem for sure. The headliners are so good we’d have to stay.
Another challenge is that it’s gonna bring in a different crowd for the Foos. Probably a bunch of people that look a lot like us. And for the Cure on Sunday? Another different crowd. Probably a lot of people our age, but just dressed a lot differently than us.
The rest of the lineup? Pretty stacked. I have never seen a better line on a festival poster than line four on this one….Interrupters, Flogging Molly, Frank, Pennywise. If you haven’t seen Flogging Molly, they will impress. They were Dropkick before Dropkick. Not as much punk, but a little more Ireland.
We have classic punk, a al our GBH show in 2017, with The Exploited and Gorilla Biscuits. We have nineties alternative with The Breeders and Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth).
There’re punk supergroups; LS Dunes (Circa Survive, My Chem, and Coheed and Cambia), Fake Names (Refused, Minor Threat, and Bad Religion), and Plosivs (Hot Snakes, Offspring, Social D). We’ve seen some great supergroups before. The Damned Things. Drakulas. You’re welcome.
And when will you ever be in a position to see George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic again?
“Classic” pop punk with AFI, Bowling for Soup, The Used, H2O, and the previously mentioned Pennywise.
Newer punk with PUP (remember we missed them in ‘21 since they were in the Catfish and the Bottlemen 12 noon slot on a Friday), The Bronx, Bayside, White Reaper, Nothing (remember they opened for Janes at our roofie show at the Metro).
While we’re missing GWAR*, they threw us Insane Clown Posse. So we have costumes and make up and wild stage shows. Shoot, it may be worth it just to see the Juggalos (the name of ICP’s fans who dress up). RiotFest always throws us the spectacles of bands. Plus Corey Feldman? Think he’ll bring Corey Haim? Or Corey Hart?
And there’s even some great girlie pop with Ani Difranco and Tegan and Sara. Where else will you ever see a lineup with Ani Difranco, Insane Clown Posse, and Pfunk.
And while I don’t like Queens of the Stoneage, rumors are that Dave Grohl will be playing drums for them. He was a brief member of the band and recorded one album with them plus was in Them Crooked Vultures with Josh Homme.
Speaking of Dave and drums and Joshes, latest rumors have Josh Freese taking over drums for Foo Fighters. We saw him play with Devo and he was recently in the Offspring. He’s amazing.
*And for rumors, word on the street is GWAR will be a late add to RF23. I guess they have an August show in Chicago and they don’t want to be announced until that show is over to not affect the August ticket sales. We’ll see. RiotFest has done the wave #2 thing before and added bands late. Though they are already at 90 bands which is about their capacity. Would love to see Propagandhi added too. They were a strong presence in the lineup teasers that Riot Fest dropped last week hint videos and were noticeably absent..
As this is the 10th year of our festival going, this feels like a celebration of many of those. We have two Surf City Blitz bands. We have Frank, Postal Service, and AFI from Coachella #2. We have Foos from Familypalooza ‘21. Death Cab paying Kyle and I back for Innings Festival March 2020. And Nothing is back to remind us why we couldn’t remember them from the roofie night at Lolla.
Anyway, I’m in if anyone else is an wants to go Deluxe.
