Riot Fest 2021 Preview – Sublime with Rome, Dirty Heads, and Gogol Bordello

Sublime with Rome – Friday

You probably know the story.  Sublime, one of the most popular of the nineties third wave of ska and punk disband after their singer, Brad Nowell, dies.  They form Long Beach Dub Allstars.  Then they reform Sublime with a new singer and get sued by the estate of Brad Nowell and rename themselves.  The drummer leaves and they are left with just the original bassist.  But they are good.  And in some ways a totally different band than Sublime.  But they still pay homage to the Sublime catalog.  So get ready for Santeria and What I Got.  Oh, and they’re tight with Dirty Heads.

Dirty Heads – Saturday

Could be the antidote after getting aggro in the pit.  They came up in Orange County about the same time as many of our punk friends, like Offspring.  But they took the reggae/ska route. 

Gogol Bordello – Saturday

Not sure how to describe them; they really have to be experienced.  Claim to be from NYC but they are international.  Their lead singer is Eastern European with a heavy accent.  And they are huge; there must be a dozen people on stage.  And very frenetic.  Plus have an accordion; how cool is that.  We’ve seen them before at Lolla on the bandshell stage but were far away.  This is a show that needs to be intimate.  They’ve done aftershows before and would be a great late night destination.

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