Teenage Bottlerocket. These guys make the cut because they’re from Fort Collins. They also claim Laramie, but we’re going with Fort Collins (home also to the Descendents’ Bill Stevenson). Enjoy a Fat Tire or 90 Schilling while you’re watching them. We’ll classify them as “skate punk” for two reasons…they’re on NOFX’s Fat Wreck Records label, and they have a song called “Skate or Die”. Might be a little on the pop punk side but look fun. The Ramones cover isn’t their entire band, but it is too cool to leave off.
Riot Fest 2019 Countdown 9 – Manchester Orchestra
This week we go to four posts a week. Tuesday through Friday. So much stuff to listen to, so little time. For our Riot Fest previews this week, we’ve got a mix…pop punk that matured, skate punk, newer Canadian Punk.
Manchester Orchestra. Closer to emo than punk, but not really either. I’d say they are straight up alternative. Trying to find a comparison, I’m having a hard time (which is a good thing). Cold War Kids come to mind, but not perfectly. But I look at them both the same way….what if a pop punk/emo band grew up and started doing deeper musical arrangements and lyrics. That’s this band. Probably too popular for an aftershow, but it would be nice to see them on a smaller stage. But I’ll take any stage. A top 5 must see.
Riot Fest Countdown – Bonus part 2
We’re continuing our bonus coverage of acts that don’t need any preview for Riot Fest. Bands we’ve seen before. And video from those same shows where we’ve seen them. This week we’ve got Rancid and Pennywise and Blink. Pennywise from Riot Fest 2017. And some video or Pennywise and Rancid from Surf City Blitz, an all time amazing fest. And even some early Blink from a Warped Tour a few of us went to. And yes, “Bro Hymn” deserves a double shout out.
Riot Fest 2019 Countdown 10 – H2O
I saw H20 at the Bash with our Surf City friends Rancid and S.T. (plus Bosstones and L7). They’re great punk. They’re from New York but they could be from the West Coast as they’ve worked with Epitaph before. I think I remember them on one of those Epitaph “Punk-A-Rama” samplers. They’ve had the same lineup since practically the beginning 20+ years ago. Just old school fun skate punk. The stuff we loved at the first Warped Tours before it got all emo and pop punky. Put on the short list if they have an aftershow.
Riot Fest 2019 Countdown 10 – Streetlight Manifesto
Streetlight Manifesto played at Riot Fest 2017. We saw them on the side treed stage (Riot Fest’s version of the Elle King stage at Lolla). They entered to Van Halen and had about a thousand horns. At least seemed like it. One guitar, one drum, five or six horns? Were real fun. A great ska side show to hardcore punk. We left early to catch the opener for the Buzzcocks aftershow. And had to figure out how to get CK a ticket. Nothing against Streetlight, but thank god. That was Slaves and amazing. Maybe we can see more Streetlight this time. Maybe we leave early and catch another amazing aftershow. Either.