While the COVID lockdown was extremely tough on music festivals, they’ve since come roaring back. One of the best to come back has been Chicago’s Riot Fest. As opposed to the big mainstream corporate fests or government-supported highbrow ones, Riot Fest is independent, and focused on a style of music not always appreciated by either the mainstream or governments: punk rock. Now yes, Riot Fest does range, because it’s not some sneering purist, but rather about having a great time with some great music. It returned to Douglass Park, Friday-to-Sunday, September 15th-17th.
Under beautiful clear skies, Riot Fest ’23 had an interesting start. While the daytime undercard at the festival had lots of acts ranging the punk rock spectrum such as The Wrecks, Oso Oso, and Code Orange, it’s also a chance for alternative acts you’ve always meant to check out, such as Portland’s Quasi, who came to Chicago behind this year’s Breaking the Balls of History (QRO review).
But of real note are the outliers, the acts you’re surprised are playing Riot Fest at all, let alone playing so early in the day. Such was the case with Parliament Funkadelic, led by the iconic living legend George Clinton. The father of funk music had a deservedly big crowd at the Rise Stage, even if he started the side stage just before 2:00 PM – perhaps to give him & his mothership more time to get funked up? Yes, he sits in a chair for good stretches of time, but he’s past 80 at this point. Indeed, he had said he was gonna do his final tour ever – in 2020, and while that tour never happened, he’s since returned to the stage with his Parliament, who can carry him from classics with their own long jams.
The Rise Stage followed with another living legend, Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon. She’s way better than her old bandmate who has fewer guitars than Lee Ranaldo (not talking about Steve Shelley…), but admittedly do you know any songs of hers? Meanwhile on the main Riot Stage, The Interrupters brought their fun latest wave of ska-punk, which included stories about playing Riot Fest as their first festival a decade ago (one member chipped a tooth that day), to joking after a snare drum broke, “Anything to do with Foo Fighters’ [drummer] Josh Freese watching from the side of the stage?…”
Just before 5:00 PM, there was one of Riot Fest’s perennial issues: multiple acts you want to see playing at the same time. Of course, this is just a sign that the festival has booked the artists you want to see, but still meant having to decide between the emo Bayside on the Radical Stage, strong post-hardcore punk rock of Quicksand at Roots (how many times did Walter Schreifels play at Riot ’23?), even go full-on feminist folk with Ani DiFranco on the Rise Stage.
But there were much clearer calls as the sun began to set. The Breeders brought their seminal album Last Splash to the Riot Stage for its 30th anniversary, with the original line-up. Indeed, everything about the performance was pure vintage, from drummer Jim Macpherson wearing a t-shirt that said “ALOHA” but slashed out to him and bassist Josephine Wiggs switching instruments like they did on the record when playing “No Aloha”. Guitarist Kelley Deal even got to take the mike from her sister/frontwoman Kim for “I Just Wanna Get Along”. This was part of their anniversary tour of Last Splash – next year they’re going to be opening for Olivia Rodrigo, and will be playing to a much, much younger crowd…
While the likes of Clinton and DiFranco were the outliers on Friday of Riot Fest, Tegan & Sara weren’t far behind also on the Rise Stage. Yes, they’ve played the festival before, way back in ‘14 (QRO photos), but they’ve since evolved from alt-singers to bona fide stars (including a hit memoir High School that spawned its own TV series), getting more electro along the way. So, maybe the crowd didn’t know the music of the sisters Quin quite well enough (not as much as your correspondent…), and the sonic bleed from the Roots Stage with wild punks Turnstile messed with hearing the pair’s A+ banter, but Tegan & Sara still gave it their all.
Always giving it their all is Foo Fighters. Maybe you think they’re too mainstream, maybe you still primarily think of Dave Grohl as Nirvana’s drummer, but they undoubtedly rock. Indeed, they invoked the rock gods, along with invoking bassist Nate Mendel’s old/other band Sunny Day Real Estate (who played Riot Fest last year). And their return to their big stages this year after last year’s tragic too-young death of drummer Taylor Hawkins has been life-affirming. They did exactly what you wanted Foo Fighters to do as a headliner of a punk rock festival.
While Day Two faced a drizzly afternoon, the skies did clear up, and in that Saturday afternoon Riot Fest showcased its diversity. Yes, it’s first-and-foremost a punk rock festival, but its reach is wide, from the more indie Warpaint to the ska of Bowling For Soup to the electronic art-rock of Savages’ Jehnny Beth. But for real diversity, it was a huge early afternoon crowd at the smallest of the stages, Rebel, for Corey Feldman. The eighties teen heartthrob is now pursuing a musical career (along with other things), and if you were at Riot Fest ’23, you just kind of had to check it out. Indeed, it might have been the biggest audience ever at the Rebel Stage (which usually just hosts young local acts and past-their-never-that-big-prime punks), even if it was a lot of rubbernecking onlookers who before this didn’t even know that Feldman made music. Dressed like Michael Jackson (later seen in the press tent dipped in gold), he was active up there, from a song about his first marriage (“It’s not a pretty song – maybe it is…” – it wasn’t, and only days earlier he’d announced his separation from his latest wife) to yelling at his keyboardist.
In the later afternoon, Riot Fest headed more into the punk, if different strains. While White Reaper weren’t that remarkable on the Riot Stage, Rebel’s High Vis and particularly Roots Stage’s Viagra Boys were spitting fire, the latter giving a bit of Future Islands-meets-Sleaford Mods in stage presence & attitude, though with a heavy dose of sarcasm like in their crowd-loved “Sports”. While Head Automatica played the Riot Stage, Steve Ignorant of the iconic O.G. punks Crass still had his fury on the Rebel Stage. Admittedly, Death Grips ended early, but at least the band played and you could see them (issues in the past, like the latter at Riot Fest ‘16 – QRO photos). Meanwhile, comedian Hannibal Buress (the one who took down Bill Cosby) showcased his musical side as Eshu Tune on the Rebel Stage. Buress is no stranger to punk rock (QRO photos performing at a music party), and still brought his humor in his songs, such as “I’m the Tallest Person at the Mexican Party”.
When Benjamin Gibbard announced that his 2003 became-famous-after-the-fact side-project Postal Service was reuniting again, now to tour with his ‘other’ band, alt-mainstays Death Cab for Cutie, it was a match made in aughts indie heaven. But it was still a surprise that the bands included Riot Fest in the tour, though perhaps it shouldn’t have been, as both were performing their twentieth anniversary records in full, and ‘playing an album in full’ is a Riot Fest specialty. Death Cab was at the Riot Stage for Transatlanticism, and it was a perfect album to be played in full at Riot Fest, from opener “New Year” on (ironically, Day One also had a band playing the anniversary of an album that starts with “New Year”, The Breeders’ 1993 Last Splash…). Death Cab is more Gibbard-focused these days, but the once mopey frontman is now really enjoying the love from the crowd (including agreement on the inaccurate naming of the glove compartment…). Every song was as good as you remember from the days of Seth Cohen on The O.C. (QRO’s Music of The O.C.), “The Sound of Settling” & more.
“It feels weird having Queens of the Stone Age between Death Cab and Postal Service. It’s like having a rock band sandwiched between two of the wimpiest bands… but we’re here for it!” Gibbard joked about the next act up on the next door Roots Stage, and while it might have been more fitting to have had Josh Homme’s outfit play the day before with the Foo Fighters (Dave Grohl played on Queens’ Songs for the Deaf), it was still great that they played the same festival. And yes, they rocked, indeed giving some oomph to Night Two.
But the wild action was in the smaller stages. 100 gecs brought their insane hyper-pop to Radical Stage, and there was a big overlap between their fans and those of Insane Clown Posse at the Rebel Stage (maybe a full circle – though there was also the named-after-an-insane-clown punks Pennywise at Rise Stage). It was funny to randomly see people in full Juggalo make-up during the day at Riot Fest – at least when the bloody GWAR would play (missing Riot for the first time in ages), you could only recognize their front row fans after the fact. Not that ICP didn’t bring out the Faygo to spray at their set, which started late, but what do you expect? Meanwhile, nineties weird metal supergroup Mr. Bungle finally came to Riot Fest, singer Mike Patton (Faith No More – QRO photos at Riot ‘15) declaring, “Speak Spanish or die!”
Give Up by The Postal Service didn’t make many waves when it came out in 2003, just a one-off from Gibbard and Dntel’s Jimmy Tamborello, plus Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis, but in the years since it has become iconic indietronica. They already did one reunion tour ten years ago (QRO photos), saying that it would be the only one, but not even Louis DeJoy can stop The Postal Service. Dressed all in white (while Death Cab had been dressed all in black), their Riot Stage performance was a celebration of an album that you probably know all the words to all the songs, and probably never thought that you’d see live. Gibbard was once again frontman (even when he got on a drum set), but Lewis was thankfully not overlooked, particularly in the huge cheers before her part in “Nothing Better” (Gibbard gracefully ceding the stage in their duet), while Death Cab’s Dave Depper passed The Postal Service auditions. And props to Tamborello for expertly playing back fiddle (including some mock-vocoder vocals).
Like with many a festival these days, rain pushed back doors two hours for the final day of Riot Fest, but it let up by the 2:00 PM time of the delayed start. This meant some very early acts got canned, but the sun was shining for the shiny Cults on the Riot Stage, even if it was still a little early in the day for the psych-rock of Roots Stage’s Black Angels. On the other hand, it was just the right time of day for the shoegaze of Ride on the Riot Stage, with the sun out, but windy chilly. And they’re just great musicians.
“It’s our one-year anniversary as a band – as a ‘real band’. It sucks when you have to say, ‘real band.’ ‘Bunch of industry plants…’” So joked singer Anthony Green (also of Circa Survive & more) of post-hardcore super-group L.S. Dunes, who also include Frank Iero of My Chemical Romance, Travis Steer of Coheed and Cambria, and Tucker Rule of Thursday. Returning to Riot Fest for the second year in a row, Green also noted a fan dressed as a dinosaur, had a pizza crowd-surfed to him, and generally had a great time on the Radical Stage.
Other returning acts at Riot ’23 included AFI on the Roots Stage, emo rock to a big crowd (and at least mom finally let him get that mohawk), and the uproarious good time of Flogging Molly at the Rise Stage. While Finch rocked the Radical Stage, The Dresden Dolls brought their baroque punk to the Riot Stage. While a day late with their own white face make-up, but they’re a different kind of Insane, Amanda Palmer & Brian Viglione mixed songs of their own such as “Coin Operated Boy” with left field hard rock covers of “War Pigs” & “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)” – admitting that they were too scared to play the new songs that they’d been working on. And yes, Palmer had a story about seeing headliner The Cure as a teen, because you know she had (and so probably have you).
That big-name headliner had no acts playing at its time (save for a tiny Rebel Stage artist who was bumped into the unenviable slot by the rain delay), so there was serious competition for who to see in the slot before them. There was the post-rock of Godspeed You! Black Emperor at the Rebel Stage, math-rock of The Mars Volta at the Roots Stage, but it was the Jersey boys The Gaslight Anthem who rocked the Rise Stage. Of course, frontman Brian Fallon joke-insulted Chicago deep dish, “the casserole pizza,” and late in the set noted that afterwards, “You can fuck off and watch The Cure. I’m gonna get DoorDash, because I don’t get cocaine…” After doing some solo work, Fallon’s gotten his New Brunswick act back together, out in late October with new record History Books (which includes the single/title track, which itself includes none other than fellow Garden Stater Bruce Springsteen – QRO review).
But you ended your day at the Riot Stage, came to Riot Fest this day, came to Riot Fest ’23, for The Cure. Coming off their first tour in many years, which actually included Chicago, The Cure returned again to the Windy City. Yes, they played the classics (despite it not being Friday, the day you’re in love with), but also deeper cuts. They were everything you wanted out of The Cure headlining Riot Fest; just so great to see a huge alternative music band still doing big shows, tours, and festivals.
It’s been tricky for festivals to return since COVID, and of those that have, some have failed to prosper. But Riot Fest was possibly at its biggest & best ever for 2023.
-words: Ted Chase
-photos: Amelia Baird
