Riotfest Countdown 19
We’ve got less than four weeks before Riotfest and I thought we’d need some prep. I’ll try to get these out each day or so and put the videos in a Youtube playlist. If you don’t want them hit UNSUBSCRIBE below.
It’s an impressive lineup with old school punk/skate punk, new school emo/pop-punk, ska punk, metal, new wave, rap meets punk, undefinable (TVOTR), etc. and so forth. And not one EDM act wth the ony DJ being a Beastie. Good stuff
We’ll start out with Kyle in mind. The first one might be Kyle’s favorite band wthout a pachyderm in its name or a female in the band. FIDLAR (F@ck It Dog Life’s A Risk) is a SoCal Punk band. The guitarist and drummer’s dad was in TSOL, so their punk inspiration is in the right place. They sing about drugs and cheap beer and cover the Beastie’s Sabotage. Super fun. Is it just coincidence that Mike D will be DJ-ing just an hour after their set ends? Might we see a special appearance for Sabotage?
FIDLAR – Saturday 415pm
The next band is Kyle’s next favorite, Best Coast. They’re from LA and claim to be influenced by Blink and Weezer. They’re in the middle of a Sunday afternoon of conflicts with TV on the Radio, Dinosaur Jr, and GWAR but are probably worth a look.
Best Coast – Sunday 645pm
Riotfest Countdown 18
Today, here’s a couple of punk bands straight from the skate scene of First Colonial and Cox mid 80s like.
GBH (grevious bodily harm) is out of late 70s London and have kept the same lineup except for the drummer. Expect loud and fast punk. They are a classic punk band that probably inspired 90% of the Riotfest lineup.
What do you get when you mix hardcore punk with a couple of rastas in the late 70s DC? That’s Bad Brains. Though I hear a lot more punk than reggae. If GBH inspired 90% of Riotfest, Bad Brains inspired 95%.
Riotfest Countdown 17
Today, we have a couple of two piece bands with drummers that sing and guitarists that play about everything else. But they’re not quite White Stripes or even Twenty One Pilots. We’ll see how they do with only a two-some, or if they have the Green Day-like extra musicians hiding in the side stage shadows. Death From Above are from Ohio and played our first Lolla, though we only saw them briefly from very afar. Slaves are from England. Mike D produced their album…is this another spot for a guest appearance?
Death From Above
Slaves
Riotfest Countdown 16
Today we have a couple of ska bands celebrating iconic albums by playing them in their entirity. One ska/punk and one ska/metal.
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Let’s Face It that includes Royal Oil, The Rascal King, The Impression That I Get, and Another Drinking Song. The Bosstones are the only band I know that dress in matching suits, usually plaid, and have one band member that does nothing but dance. And their lead singer, Dicky Barrett, is Jimmy Kimmel’s band leader. They have a horn section too. They’re real fun.
Fishbone is celebrating the 29th anniversary (they’re not as good at math) of Truth & Soul. It included a cover of Curtis Mayfield’s Freddie’s Dead plus Ma And Pa and Bonin’ In The Boneyard. They were a high energy ska/funk/metal/punk band from LA. And they have horns also. We’ll see if they’re still high energy. Keep your fingers crossed for a few songs off their first EP like Lyin Ass Bitch or Party At Ground Zero.
Riotfest Countdown 15
I’m grouping three bands I saw last year together with Moose Blood and The Wonder Years. They were all good, Knuckle Puck was my favorite but I can’t remember Seaway from Real Friends. They are all emo/pop-punk with guitar driven songs of teen angst. Knuckle Puck is local to Chicago so this might be a special show for them. Plus their name is a hockey term used in Mighty Ducks, so I like that. Seaway is Canadian so their teen angst comes with an odd politeness.
Knuckle Puck – Saturday 230pm
Seaway – 2pm Friday (our kick off band??)
Real Friends – 145pm Sunday
Riotfest Countdown 14
Just one band today, but they deserve the attention as it’s actually three groups in one. For those of us that never saw Rage Against the Machine or those of you that haven’t seen Public Enemy or Cypress Hill, Prophets of Rage might be the closest we get. Take the musicians of Rage, add Chuck D from Public Enemy and then add B Real from Cypress Hill and get Prophets of Rage. They do all the Rage songs you want to see, plus Cypress Hill and Public Enemy. And sometimes some Audioslave in honor of Chris Cornell, and a Beastie’s song (is this another spot for a Mike D appearance…he’s everywhere). For me this is the can’t miss show of the weekend.
Prophets of Rage – Sunday 740pm
Riotfest Countdown 13
These two bands are firmly rooted in the history of punk music. X featuring Exene Cervanka (female lead singer…) and John Doe, were founded in LA in the late seventies, the same time the Ramones, Blondie, and Talking Heads were making it in New York, and the same time The Clash, Pistols, and Elvis Costello were going in London. They are doing something that not many of their contemporaries are doing; they’re touring with their entire original lineup.
While X was getting established in LA, Buzzcocks were getting started in London while being inspired by the Sex Pistols. Not many bands can say they shared a stage with the Clash and Sex Pistols, but both The Clash and Buzzcocks opened for the Pistols on the Anarchy in the UK tour in 1976. Maybe one day we can time travel.
X – Friday 3pm
Buzzcocks – Friday 355pm and Saturday Aftershow
Riotfest Countdown 12
These are two outliers from the festival (in addition to The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, but I won’t preview them…google them if you must but know it’s not safe for work). They don’t really fit in with any others. And Gogol Bordello could be considered an outlier from any festival. They have a large crowd on stage, including an accordion player, and have a lead singer with a Russian accent. They could be crazy. We saw them from a distance at Lolla #1 and it didn’t do them justice. They’d be perfect in a small venue but are on the main stage here.
Dirty Heads are akin to Sublime or Pepper (“…. All Night …”) or other white reggae-ish bands singing about smoking pot. I’d bet they’re pretty fun. They are on a small stage opposite Ministry on Friday, and they probably couldn’t sound any less like Ministry.
Gogol Bordello – Saturday 635pm
Dirty Heads – Friday 545pm
Riotfest Countdown 11
Pennywise is deserving of their own prep. I’ve seen them many times, mostly with Charlie, Rich, and Stauffer mid-90s Warped Tour. They’re a California punk band that came out of the same scene/era as Bad Religion, Green Day, Offspring, NOFX, Rancid, Blink, etc. They have a little bit more surf guitar in their sound than the others, I believe. They have the largest lead guitarist I think I’ve ever seen. I remember super fun high energy shows (but weren’t they all back in the 90s?) with an occasional cover of the Ramones (an easy way for a band to get me to pay attention). When they play Bro Hymn, it will mean a little bit more to me this time.
Pennywise – Sunday at 530
Riotfest Countdown 10
Not an outlier like Gogol Bordello or Dirty Heads or , but TV On The Radio is really tough to characterize. Are they funk or rap or rock or punk? Yes. And really good at it. They’re so good they even have a stage named after them at Lollapalooza. They’re in the middle of quite a conflict run of shows on Sunday afternoon (Pennywise to TVOTR to Best Coast to GWAR to Prophets of Rage) but they will leave you a Happy Idiot.
TV On The Radio – Sunday 6pm
Riotfest Countdown 9
Here are two of the more “popular” radio-wise bands. One real old school which I’m dying to see, and one new school which I can’t wait to skip (but they have a female lead so they get included).
New Order is exactly that band that you remember that was super popular in the mid 80s with what I thought was a synth driven dance sound. I saw them at a Coachella and expected to see a bunch of keyboards and no guitars and I was wrong. They rocked and were excellent (the all keyboard band was OMD, by the way). They formed out of the ashes of Joy Division and usually do a couple of their songs. Super influential in the world of post-punk 80s. I’m really looking forward to them again.
I had higher hopes for Paramore. They really are just Hayley Williams, their lead singer. I expected them to rock more. But they remind me a lot of Walk The Moon or other fake manufactured pop punk bands which I dislike. I could be wrong. Plus they conflict with Rage. Too bad so sad.
Come to think about it, if you want a rocking band with girls, Potty Mouth might be that band. We saw them twice at Lolla last year, including one of my favorite live shows ever with Wolf Alice at Lincoln Hall. They conflict with a lot of acts here, but they’re better than Paramore, by a lot.
New Order – 710pm Friday immediately before NIN
Paramore – 8pm Sunday
Riotfest Countdown 8
Beach Slang are a punkish band from Philly, home of one of our Lolla favorites, Modern Baseball. They look fun live. I think Jimmy saw them at Forecastle. They look really fun live. They once got in a fight on stage and broke up right there. So they are volatile, which could make for a fun live show.
The Hotelier are another emo band but they sound a little different to me than the others. I first heard of them when Rolling Stone named their last album one of the best albums of 2016. I’m not sure I agree but they might be good to checkout. They’re opposite Buzzcocks on a small stage on Friday. May be a good checkout since we’re seeing the Buzzcocks at an aftershow. Maybe.
If you remember the Breeders or Belly from the 90’s, That Dog. will sound familiar. I missed them the first time around but they reunited a few years ago. They check most of the boxes of Kyle’s favorite bands, if you dig.
Beach Slang – Sunday 1240pm
The Hotelier – Friday 4pm
That Dog. – Sunday 215pm
| Riotfest Countdown 7 |
Riotfest is full of pop-punk/emo bands. Seaway, Real Friends, and Knuckle Puck are a few we already covered. I like bands with guitars and I like their sound. But none of them distinguish themselves from the others, at least in a recording (Built To Spill may be an exception). Maybe it’s different live. I hope so. Some of these have conflicts but they are probably at least a walk by. Here are a gaggle of them:
A Day To Remember – 830pm Friday
New Found Glory – 7pm Saturday
At The Drive In – 740pm Saturday
Taking Back Sunday – 845pm Saturday
Built To Spill – 420 Sunday
Riotfest Countdown 6
Welcome to Charlie for joining the crew.
For this update I’ve compiled all of the previously emailed videos, and others, in this youtube playlist. There are 72 videos in there. If I find more I’ll continue to add. Check them out.
Riotfest Countdown 5
In just a week and a handful of hours we’ll all be together enjoying some loud music and drinks (Scott and Todd in spirit). It wasn’t but just four weeks ago tonight that the hope of Riotfest was fading before I mentioned to Rich (while at Rancid and Dropkick Murphys) that GBH was playing and he said without hesitation “I’m in”. We then began an assault on Charlie’s plans to go to KAABOO instead. It was pretty simple…Pink vs Pennywise…Kesha vs Rage…DJ Shaq ONeal vs DJ Mike D…Fishbone vs Fishbone. Then Jimmy texted he was in and the dominoes began to fall. Kyle was always in. And Tom was an easy get. Looking forward to it.
A different act for the weekend. I can’t explain these guys. You just have to watch a GWAR video yourself. It’s metal meets Game of Thrones meets Gallagher’s sledge-o-matic (they spray bodily fluid into the audience). I don’t know who is more outrageous between and them and the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black (anybody had the guts to google them yet…NSFW!). I was pleasantly surprised by a masked metal band last year. I don’t think there is anything “pleasant” with GWAR. I do not want to be anywhere close to the front of the crowd for them, but I do want to see them to check them off some convoluted bucket list I have. If I behave myself, I probably won’t ever be in a position to see them ever again.
GWAR – Sunday 715pm