Tag: Cock Sparrer

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Schedule release musings – conflicts, early shows, and Good Friday

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

Skating Polly vs Save Ferris

White Reaper vs Frank Iero

For those with other priorities: NFL football vs Skating Polly, Save Ferris, White Reaper, and Frank Iero

Ride vs Less Than Jake

Against Me vs Streetlight Manifesto

Raconteurs vs Ween (kidding again)

Bikini Kill’s encore vs getting Lou Malnatis before the Cobra Lounge

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Riot Fest 2019 Countdown 13 Weeks

We’ve got about 13 weeks until Riot Fest, and there’s a lot of music to catch up on.  We’re kicking it off with our bread and butter, punk.  Here’re three punk bands, one old school, one not quite as old but super influential, and one carrying the banner now.

The Descendents deserve to be in the shotgun spot for the countdown.  They perfectly segue from Surf City Blitz to Riot Fest (and would be a shoe-in for the next SCB).  We saw them at Coachella 2013 and they were excellent.  They’re from SoCal and formed in the late 70s/early 80s akin to Bad Religion and Social D and The Offspring.  And they have a freaking genius with a PHD for a lead singer…like The Offspring and Bad Relgion.  The Descendents have followed an interesting path going on hiatus numerous times, usually because Milo, their singer, wants to be a scientist (he even worked for DuPont at one point).  Their drummer even played with Henry Rollins in Black Flag for a while.  And the band absent Milo formed the band “All”.  These guys are called out as one of the firsts that brought melody to punk.  As usual with Riot Fest, there are a number of bands that influenced the rest of the lineup.  You’d be hard pressed to find a band that influenced more of the rest of the lineup than the Decendents (Patti Smith indirectly as an exception).  Gotta be super stoked to see them.  One of my top 5 must sees at Riot Fest.  If you can, check out the documentary “Filmage” about them (streaming free on Tubitv.com).  Good stuff.

Cock Sparrer are old school punk.  They’ve been around since the seventies.  And most of their lineup are originals, which is super impressive considering their age.  Widely considered “Oi Punk” (with chants of “Oi, Oi, Oi!!) along with our friends from UK Subs.  I’m really looking forward to seeing one of the acts that helped kick start a lot of music we’ll see at Riot Fest.  One of my top 5 must sees at Riot Fest.  Hoping for an aftershow.

While they’ve been around for 20+ years, it seems like Anti-Flag is carrying the mantle for the politically charged hardcore punk acts of today.  Kinda like Bad Religion with an even harder edge.  I’m a little embarrassed to say that I am late to the Anti-Flag party. They are the next generation’s Dead Kennedys (without the shock factor). From Pittsburgh and they definitely feel like an East Coast hardcore band contrasting the West Coast punk of our Surf City Blitz friends. One of my top 5 must see acts at Riot Fest.

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Riot Fest 2019 Preview…the playlist

It begins.  At first glance this lineup looked weak.  The top line headliners really only showed one (maybe) that I would consider headliner worthy.  Sure Bikini Kill had reunited, and Slayer was calling it a day, and any time Jack White is on stage is exciting…but at a glance it didn’t get me excited.  But we know that headliners don’t drive a great festival.  Think of your great experience at festivals and I’d bet more came from the small print on the poster.  And the small print, lines four and below, deliver at Riot Fest 2019.  Deliver big time. (By the way, for my taste, line three is stacked.)  The lower lines on festival poster are the lines you discover new acts or get a favorite on a small stage with only a few people.  At RF19, you’ve got old school English punk (Oi! Oi! Oi!).  The frontman for one of the most influential American punk bands ever.  2Tone ska legends.  More pop punk than should be allowed.  Metal.  Speed Metal.  Metal supergroups.  Mongolian Metal.  Ski masks.  And so much more.  This is the point where I start to dig in and figure out what deserves a deeper cut.  Even the most active can likely see only five or six acts a day.  Which ones?  Here’s a playlist to prep by.  Not much logic to it.  Just took a few songs from many of the bands and am playing it on shuffle and repeat before whittling it down.