As we near the schedule announcement I get nervous a couple of my MUST SEE acts will conflict with each other. Yes, 2019’s Descendents up against Rancid remains unforgivable. So I ranked all of the acts in order of my preference. And it’s fluid. Some may move based on what I’m listening to. Some may move as I discover new music. Some may move based on time and stage – seeing a lower ranked band up close (except for our friends GWAR) is better than a top band far away (remember Blink?).
Below is my top 30. My top three are bands I’ve never seen before (NOFX kinda). And the next three are just killer live. Why top 30? It feels like we see about 15 bands over three days. So any of the top 30 are a great weekend. Plus with the cancelations, my top 30 is already down to a top 27. What’s missing? A few top line acts didn’t make it – Run The Jewels, Machine Gun Kelly, Slipknot, Coheed and Cambia, Lupe Fiasco. Also a whole slew of pop punk. And a few favorites that just got pushed down the list: Sublime and Dirty Heads. But they’re all good (except MGK). Seriously we could go 50 to 60 deep on this list and have an amazing weekend.
Who are your Top Ten?
My top 30:
1 Devo
2 NOFX
3 Circle Jerks
4 Dropkick Murphys
5 Pixies
6 The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
7 Rancid
8 Nine Inch Nails
9 The Smashing Pumpkins
10 The Lawrence Arms
11 Body Count
12 Living Colour
13 Faith No More
14 Les Savy Fav
15 K.Flay
16 Anti-Flag
17 Thrice
18 Dinosaur Jr.
19 Knuckle Puck
20 Meg Myers
21 Circa Survive
22 The Clockworks
23 GWAR
24 Radkey
25 Skating Polly
26 Fever 333
27 Motion City Soundtrack
28 Fishbone
29 Gogol Bordello
30 Hepcat