Riot Fest 2017

[Blue42]

Sept 18, 2017 7:45:17 GMT -6 claypoolfan said:

I think if they can still pull big names then the whole reunion thing isn't a dealbreaker. They didn't have any big reunions in 2014 or 2015 and those were some of the best lineups they've had.

I don't know if they're true reunions, but Samhain, No Doubt, SOAD and Ice Cube with Yella/Ren were all pretty unique bookings at the time.

Plus there was plenty of stuff like Thrice, Alexisonfire and Mineral on the undercard.

[irvred]

I think Rage and/or more attempts at Dead Kennedys would be logical next steps.

[andrewvb]

the oral history said he's put out offers to sex pistols, so that'll probably happen at some point.

[sleeping]

And the list of shit I want nothing to do with just expanded to include "Sex Pistols in the year 201X"

[teekoh]

yup

[nanatod]

slaves -> gbh on Saturday was great; upset -> cultural abuse -> that dog -> karen black -> versus on Sunday was even better. wasn't planning to see cultural abuse, but it was too hot right then to walk over to hot water music, so I stayed in the shade at the small stage, and cultural abuse turned out to be one of the best bands I've seen in the last couple of yrs. singer's charisma / band's pedal to the metal approach was infectious.

[Pale Hose]

Thoughts from day 3:

Yesterday was a clusterfuck with scheduling, but that wasn't exactly a surprise.

I ended up watching the first 20 minutes of Prophets of Rage, they were so bad. I have a lot of respect for Chuck D and B Real, but those guys do not do RATM songs justice. My buddy convinced me to go see Paramore with him after that, and I really regret not going to M.I.A. Paramore were fine, and I know they're actively touring the new album, but I felt like it was a bit of a missed opportunity to do a bit more off RIOT.

Jawbreaker sounded really good, I wonder if they do more shows now?

Another great Riot Fest, can't wait to do it again next year.

[irvred]

A Paramore Riot! set with all the original members could constitute a 'reunion' headliner. I was honestly shocked last year at how apeshit the fanbase went when Zac rejoined; besides Hayley, none of the members are particularly iconic or even good, but I think their presence would move tickets.

[alady]

I very much enjoyed this festival yesterday.

BtS were dreamy as usual and TVOTR were more fun than I remembered though I wish they played more songs I like. My boy Smoota was on point laying down those smooth bone grooves. Dino Jr was real pleasant and Prophets of Rage were laughable but amusing.

I did not know that's what Paramore sounded like.


MIA was fun and played all the hits. The dancing was great.


I was impressed with Jawbreaker, thought they did pretty well for a first show back after such a long hiatus. They ended on an especially strong note and I maybe embarrassingly turned to my friend and said "AND THAT'S HOW WE DID IT IN THE 90'S!"


Oh also I think they became my new "longest gap between shows" band at just shy of 24 years.


That corndog was also delicious and clutch good decision friends.

Many thanks to ten15 for making the dream a reality.

[alady]

Also I thought I saw irvred yesterday but this person looked pretty lit

[irvred]

I had a whole Megablock set of rosè through Best Coast in preparation for Paramore. Although I don't know how you would've seen me because I was pretty deep in the crowd.

[Deleted]

definitely a wonderful weekend.
almost no logistical issues this year at all. short lines for everything (despite pretty big crowds all weekend, i thought) security was reasonable at the vip entrance but i heard ga was kinda strict?
i didnt have almost any beefs with sound all weekend -- the soundbleed between tvotr and dino was kinda noticeable depending where you were during quiet parts. i only thought atdi and bad brains sounded "bad" and im 90% that it mostly wasn't the stage/sound booth's fault.

tobacco was great -- especially having a live band cause i was worried it'd be a dj set
invsn was surprising cause i knew nothing other than it was the refused dude and i really enjoyed seeing him sing in a more mellow band but keeping all the dance moves
liars was wild but it's also liars so i should've expected a dress
saul williams spoken word was actually really neat but i can see why people werent into it
action bronson kinda just did his thing
dfa was way better than they have any right to be, based on the latest 2 albums, but goddamn they sounded tight and the crowd was going off
ministry was good tho idk if i liked it more than open air last year
new order from the far side was nice. all then nin campers were crying along to all the joy division stuff because duh
fuck me, NIN was so goddamn good. i mightve liked the performance more than either lolla set, despite the whole 'stripped' visual thing. the NTAA and AV stuff sounded amazing live

glad we got in in time for slaves saturday. v dope
smith street band was like a mcs+frank turner crossover and im not mad about it
black pistol fire kicked ass. we got to interview them afterwards and they were humblest dudes. (im also a sucker for 2 piece blues bands that still sound garage-y and such)
peaches is queen...yep
shabazz was a nice come down after the danceathon
dead cross was mixed kinda bad (probably intentional) so it just sounded like mike screaming over lombardo drum solos, so im assuming mike is gonna fill in for tom once tom gets kicked out of slayer next
danzig wasnt too much of a drama queen and sounded good. band was tight. the encore after III was a great selection, minus the new song
nfg setlist was weird but i got what i needed and it sounded fine. huge crowd but that's to be expected
caught a bit of wu tang and they had a good crowd and it looked like the whole crew showed up? it was good
qotsa was a hoot with the whole board moshing together. real fun times from what i can remember 0=)

got in later than expected sunday but still caught hot water music who are just... <#
say anything opened with the one song i wanted to see them play before they cancelled riot 4 years ago, so that was some nice redemption
bosstones were what they were. crowd was fun
built to spill on the hill was lovely and sounded great
minus the bear was awesome and again, weird setlist but im not mad about it. i think there were a lot of paramore campers there already so they had a bigger crowd than normal but at least the campers played along and pretended to enjoy it?
tvotr was wonderful and we got a neat spot on the far east side looking west so we had the perfect view of the sunset behind the ferris wheel during their finale and it was pretty mindblowing tbh
second half of dino was good
prophets was totally fine for what they were. the band of course sounded great. chuck D is a fine replacement for zack. i do not need cypress hill guy in any band at this point tho. the ratm stuff was fine, maybe moreso cause the crowd was nuts. the original stuff is poop but i knew that going in. it probably didnt help that i was around boarders who actively hated it but that's okay. i liked what i heard.
i enjoyed paramore WAY more than i should have -- i mean im a fan, but i dont know any of the new stuff and they played a lot of it. still thought it was a great show though why the living fuck do they have 3 guitarist in a band that's mostly synthpop at this point?
i dont know jawbreaker well enough to speak to their old shows or how it compares on record much, but i thought they sounded good and loud and dirty and the crowd (though kinda sparse) was very into it. a good reunion choice and i'll probably regret not doing more research on them before that set
hot water music aftershow at cobra was fucking great. punk rock shows in tiny venues are just the best. so much moshing/crying/singing along.



so exhausted but glad i have today off to get my shit together before the new job tomorrow.

thanks to everyone who partied with me! (sorry i didnt see a lot of you as much as we wanted. you guys know how busy i am at this fest ) and big thanks to audiobully again for the hookup. the photo/interview shindig was a hoot

[alady]

I will also say I liked the layout and never had to wait for a Porto, AND the porto I found at the end of the night had TP.

[fivehole]

I think Riot Fest has the logistics down pretty well but they need some fine tuning on a few things. The garbage collection was none existent. Every can was overflowing by late afternoon. I think they a Rock N Recycle type thing like Lolla has would greatly help too since that seems to noticeably reduce cans/cups/etc on the ground. And I still think they need a 2nd entrance. Or at least a 2nd exit. Or at the very least don't allow the local vendors to camp out right at the end of the exit chute.

[claypoolfan]

They were definitely letting people exit in more than one place. I exited at the end of the row of food stalls both nights on the other side from the main entrance.

[alady]

It was definitely a pain getting home so uber pickup could have been organized a bit better but I kind of expected that.

[fivehole]

Sept 18, 2017 12:54:14 GMT -6 claypoolfan said:

They were definitely letting people exit in more than one place. I exited at the end of the row of food stalls both nights on the other side from the main entrance.

Why not announce that?

The two nights I left at the end of the night (after NIN and QOTSA) were a mess. Saturday there were security guards posted along the barricades that lined the street after the ticket "tent" threatening to arrest people trying to hop them because they thought they had already exited. And last night when I left at like 9:15 it was better but still a mess because there were people selling shit right at the end of the chute basically blocking the end of the exit.

[Deleted]

fwiw i saw a ton of rock n recycle sorta people out collecting trash for free 2018 tickets on sunday. but literally only on sunday.

and yeah since we stayed for all of nin and qotsa, exiting those nights sucked and we had to walk to roosevelt and kedzie to get a signal, let alone a ride, let alone something without an insane surge cost.

sunday was v easy but the park was much emptier by the and we didnt see all of jawbreaker.


i didnt think the entrance was bad but we also got in early enough that we might have beaten the lines. announcing extra exits would've been useful tho.

[k two b]

Sept 18, 2017 8:50:56 GMT -6 irvred said:

I think Rage and/or more attempts at Dead Kennedys would be logical next steps.

I'd also think My Chemical Romance would be possible.

At this point, Pavement would be a reunion gig, right? And I guess original Blink line up (potentially performing an album like Enema of the State in its entirety?). Outside of Fugazi and Dead Kennedys, I would also suspect that Riot Fest has tried (and may be continuing to try) to reunite Operation Ivy. Is there any chance of a Rollins fronted Black Flag set? Not sure how much those guys hate each other any more (and which other members from that time period are still around).

[k two b]

Sept 18, 2017 12:28:18 GMT -6 alady said:

I will also say I liked the layout and never had to wait for a Porto, AND the porto I found at the end of the night had TP.

I had two issues with the layout (granted this is my first year attending and may be a factor of the park's space). One was that all of the food was tucked into the same corner of the park and the only "path" to the food was right in front of one of the stages. This resulted in a sea of people between 4 and 7 PM each day interrupting those who were trying to watch the band on that stage. Unless you were in front of the sound stage, there was not really an enjoyable casual viewing area for that stage. It definitely took away from my TVOTR experience. The second issue relates to "paths". Given the stage layout, it would have benefited to have designated paths to get from point A to point B in the park. Instead, it was just hordes of people walking in every direction at all times.

[fivehole]

For those that might be interested, here is a link to some bootlegs of the NIN show.

[Pale Hose]

Re exiting the fest: I had no trouble getting on the Pink line at Kedzie each night. As previously mentioned, it's also a shorter walk from the main entrance/exit. Since the fest doesn't advertise that stop, and it picks up before California, there's a fairly light crowd over there.

[andrewvb]

Sept 18, 2017 13:29:51 GMT -6 k two b said:

Sept 18, 2017 8:50:56 GMT -6 irvred said:

I think Rage and/or more attempts at Dead Kennedys would be logical next steps.

I'd also think My Chemical Romance would be possible.

At this point, Pavement would be a reunion gig, right? And I guess original Blink line up (potentially performing an album like Enema of the State in its entirety?). Outside of Fugazi and Dead Kennedys, I would also suspect that Riot Fest has tried (and may be continuing to try) to reunite Operation Ivy. Is there any chance of a Rollins fronted Black Flag set? Not sure how much those guys hate each other any more (and which other members from that time period are still around).

after they got misfits back together, i think it's pretty much impossible to say any breakup due to bad blood has a 0% chance now.

[neader]

The Smiths

[fivehole]

Sept 18, 2017 13:11:11 GMT -6 @wretched said:

fwiw i saw a ton of rock n recycle sorta people out collecting trash for free 2018 tickets on sunday. but literally only on sunday.

I saw some of these too. Seemed very odd though. They were using gallon sized ziplock bags and were collecting very specific things. I saw one guy with a bag full of cigarette butts. Nobody seemed to be collecting cans, cups, or those goofy wine containers though.

[ten15]

Sept 18, 2017 13:55:21 GMT -6 andrewvb said:

Sept 18, 2017 13:29:51 GMT -6 k two b said:

I'd also think My Chemical Romance would be possible.

At this point, Pavement would be a reunion gig, right? And I guess original Blink line up (potentially performing an album like Enema of the State in its entirety?). Outside of Fugazi and Dead Kennedys, I would also suspect that Riot Fest has tried (and may be continuing to try) to reunite Operation Ivy. Is there any chance of a Rollins fronted Black Flag set? Not sure how much those guys hate each other any more (and which other members from that time period are still around).

after they got misfits back together, i think it's pretty much impossible to say any breakup due to bad blood has a 0% chance now.

Except New Order with Hooky. 

[mookie]

Sept 18, 2017 14:03:51 GMT -6 fivehole said:

Sept 18, 2017 13:11:11 GMT -6 @wretched said:

fwiw i saw a ton of rock n recycle sorta people out collecting trash for free 2018 tickets on sunday. but literally only on sunday.

I saw some of these too. Seemed very odd though. They were using gallon sized ziplock bags and were collecting very specific things. I saw one guy with a bag full of cigarette butts. Nobody seemed to be collecting cans, cups, or those goofy wine containers though.

Those damn wine cups were like land mines when trying to walk out of there when it was pitch black out

[Pale Hose]

Also the people trying to see how many they could stack were not helping. Eventually the tower would collapse and then there would just be huge mess of wine cups concentrated in one spot.

[Deleted]

Sorry I didn't get to talk to some of you much. It was a super busy weekend (and Monday seeing as how I'm just now checking the board out). Had a blast though and pretty much agree with everything Wretched said. And stop picking on Fidlar because they served Wretched beer once and BPF/Wretched and I all rocked out to their Sabotage cover.

[k two b]

In summary, I had a blast at my first Riot Fest. It was well worth the trip to Chicago.

Top acts:

1) New Order
2) At the Drive In
3) Andrew WK
4) Gogol Bordello
5) Built to Spill
6) INVSN
7) FIDLAR
8) NFG (aftershow)
9) DFA
10) Mighty Mighty Bosstones

I wish: I could have caught more of Paramore and Jawbreaker (really enjoyed the 30 minutes of each that I saw); I could have made it to the INVSN aftershow; I could have seen more of you. A few issues with layout and logistics but nothing much for a major festival (e.g., wish they offered cashless options)