by Janelle Engle
Riot Fest, for me, started with a six hour bus ride to Pittsburgh followed by an eight hour drive before finally getting to experience the music festival I had been anticipating for weeks. I had the expectation that an outdoor festival would be a lot like Warped Tour which I usually attend ever year.
Close- Riot Fest has been less about showcasing new music and more about bringing in rare live performances and reunions since its start in Chicago just five years ago. The festival brought together popular current bands who you may have heard of (Blink-182, perhaps?) with ones that may have influenced them or even that they may have grown up listening to, Rancid, Blondie, The Pixies, The Replacements, etc. This mixture of nostalgia provided a great crowd of all ages and it was an interesting timeline of bands that had something for everyone from ska to punk to alternative and even some hip hop. And of course, the festival also included the aspiring hopefuls who were still in the early stages of their career.
Riot Fest’s location was in Chicago, Illinois at Homboldlt Park. A beautiful outdoor location for the sunny 70 degree day that it was on Saturday. In fact, for the carnival meets music festival it was, the trees and winding grassy roads of the park provided the perfect backdrop to the ferris wheel and other carnival rides that were spread out in between the main stages.
But, I may have jinxed us when I said “this would be a nightmare if it rained.” Because then it did. Sunday was a rainy day and while yes, it was a nightmare and we were pretty miserable by the end of it, it did bring us all together. By no means would I hope for rain at your music festival but I see it as a bonding experience, while it’s pouring down rain outside, the entirety of people around you are cold and wet and the only thing keeping them together right now is the fact that they came all this way to hear their favorite musician. Well, it tells you something about the human psyche. Or how crazy we all are about music.
Many people did travel far for Riot Fest. In fact, I seemed to be running into more people on the East Coast than I did from Chicago itself. Planes, trains, buses and cars all brought us together to this one spot in the world to hear some kick ass tunes. The magic of music. I say in the world because my favorite people I met, Chris Hack and Chris Jenkins had traveled here from the UK, near London and were pretty much having the time of their life in the States. And while I was complaining about the $5 cheeseburger and expensive food choices at Riot Fest, (as expected from any no re-entry outdoor festival), Chris and Chris were both pleasantly surprised at the prices at the festival compared to their music festivals back home.
“Where we’re from, one of our favorite music festivals is the Reading and Leeds festival and that could be up to 200 quid which is about $320 a ticket. We’d much rather come to the States if the lineup is better,” says Hack. When I asked them who they were most excited to see, they quickly agreed Saturday’s headliner Blink was why they made the trip in the place.
Blink 182 (photo credit, Shane Powell)
Blink-182 did not dissapoint anyone who traveled however far to see them. They opened with “Feeling This” and played a well balanced mix of older and newer singles. And, of course, filled most of their air time with dick jokes and then closed the show with “Family Reunion”. Mark Hoppus did not leave though before getting the crowd extra antsy by saying “And now for the grand finale!” He then played a chord and promptly walking off the stage. I will not say how long I stayed there waiting for the said “grand finale” but I will say the security guard at one point had to tell a group of disappointed kids to leave because Blink is gone and they needed to go home now.
Public Enemy (photo credit, Shane Powell)
While Blink-182 was by far my most anticipated and favorite performance, Saturday also included hip-hop group from the 90s, Public Enemy with a surprise appearance by Flavor Flav and a way smaller clock than he usually sports. The energy they brought to the stage was probably one of the best I saw all weekend, you couldn’t help but dance along as he bounced all around stage. The band even provided this important message to the crowd about building more schools and less jails and ended the note with an inspiring speech. This performance was followed by Taking Back Sunday who entered onto the stage to The Lion King’s “Circle of Life” before launching into “You Know How I Do”. I also caught the Violent Femmes, Blondie and Glassjaw all in that one Saturday. After an incredible day like that, how could I not stay Sunday despite waking up to a massive downpour?
By the time we got to the festival the next day, the downpour had mostly slowed down to a slight drizzle for the pop punk band The Wonder Years. The Pennsylvania band mentioned that the song “Don’t Let Me Cave In” was written about Chicago and of course, all their Chicago fans cheered with pride. Although the line is “Chicago looked desperate/but maybe that was me”, Soupy, the lead singer, promises that it was him, not Chicago.
Afterwards, I headed over to see the much anticipated performance of Against Me!. Laura Jane Grace looked incredibly comfortable on stage as she sang out crowd favorites like, ” I Was a Teenage Anarchist” and “New Wave”. Shortly after the performance, I headed over to the other stage to see one of my favorites, Bad Books. This super group is made up of Andy Hull from Manchester Orchestra and Kevin Devine. The middle of that performance is when the rain increased from slight drizzle to torrential downpour in a matter of seconds. But we stayed and we sang along despite the awful conditions which the band were grateful for and made a point to say a genuine thank you before leaving the very soaked but happy crowd.
Unfortunately a massive downpour of rain and an eight hour drive was enough for us to lose our spirits and leave earlier than we planned. We missed the much anticipated AFI, The Pixies and The Replacements but we did have our battle wounds from the rest of the amazing weekend to remind us that there is always next year. Not to mention, we had spent three days of sleeping (unshowered) on buses, floors and backseats of cars only to then have been rained on Sunday afternoon. I finally might have the slightest idea of what a touring musician might go through on a daily basis. Yet the highs of the music definitely outweighed the lows of the shitty weather and given the opportunity, you’ll catch me at next year’s Riot Fest. Rain or shine.
