We have a schedule for Riot Fest 2019. For me it’s exciting when the schedule is released. Probably sounds weird, but kinda like seeing the NCAA Bracket…who’s playing who and when and where. And there’s anxiety. Will you be able to see everyone you want? When can you sneak out to get a refreshment? Who are you gonna cut out on for some ice cream late on a Friday? With such a full lineup there is bound to be conflicts. And there are.
First off, on first lineup release I was excited for sure but for some odd reason now that I see times and places I’m crazy excited. Even the perceived slower days are full. And Friday….crazy…it’s almost as if Surf City Blitz died (it did, btw) and was resurrected into one day. Legacy punk, So Cal punk, and more punk. For this Surf City Blitz resurrection, we’ll call Friday “Good Friday”. We just don’t have the beach cruisers.
Conflicts? One HUGE one for me a few lesser ones. Descendents could very well be a casualty. While they were one of my top fives, I’m not sure I can see myself cutting away from Pennywise to see Descendents and miss Rancid. Damn, if there’s a bar and shitter near the Radicals stage I could post up there all day until Blink with Anti-Flag, Senses Fail, Cock Sparrer, Pennywise, and Rancid all on that one stage. (Correction, after listening to Senses Fail again they probably won’t make the cut over seeing Angel Du$t on the Karen Black side stage). That’s a good run, but I would miss Descendents. The rest of the other conflicts are meaningless compared to this one.
And while it would have been nice to see the B-52s off into the sunset (because of their first albums, Red and Yellow, not that Love Shack junk), they will be skipped for the #1 act of the weekend, Bob Mould. And Saturday night brings up some decision making with Manchester Orchestra against Rise Against and Bloc Party up against Slayer. Less Than Jake up against Ride is another conflict. I kinda feel Ride is a need to see, but Less Than Jake is fun. But who knows my mindset by Sunday afternoon.
The early shows are also a tough call. The dreaded “Wombats” slot to open a festival day went to a couple of great bands, PkewX3 and Masked Intruder. I don’t think we made it to Riot Fest 2017 day one until around 5pm (the KJ disappearing act day) and neither of the other days until 130pm or 2pm. I knew the lineup was bottom heavy with a lot of great bands in small print, but it will be difficult to catch them. The Garden, The HU (top five must sees), and Save Ferris are also in jeopardy early. There is faint hope that one will get slotted to open for the Femmes aftershow as a late add. It happened with Buzzcocks’ opening act when they added Slaves the week of. And that turned out quite dandy.
Speaking of aftershows, one of the multitudes of reasons to do aftershows is because of conflicts. You can skip them during the day opening up slots for others. We went 2 for 3 in our aftershow choices in avoiding conflicts. Skipping Femmes allow Cock Sparrer and Pennywise and skipping Teenage Bottlerocket allows Bob Mould. If only we chose Descendents instead of Hot Snakes we could have batted 1000%. But Hot Snakes at the Cobra? Fuhgetabouit. They’ll be awesome.
And there’s some decisions to make:
Friday
Hot Water Music vs I DON’T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME
The Flaming Lips vs Rancid (just kidding)
Saturday
Manchester Orchestra vs Rise Against
Slayer vs Bloc Party
Leaving early to see Hot Snakes’ opener Des Demonas or seeing Slayer play Raining Blood and Angel of Death
Sunday
For those with other priorities: NFL football vs Skating Polly, Save Ferris, White Reaper, and Frank Iero
Against Me vs Streetlight Manifesto
Raconteurs vs Ween (kidding again)
Bikini Kill’s encore vs getting Lou Malnatis before the Cobra Lounge
