We thought it almost wouldn’t happen, but Riot Fest 2024 pulled itself together to deliver a weekend of noise, carnival chaos, a crowd-surf wedding during Something Corporate, three consecutive nights of NoFX nobody asked for and some mud for posterity (Chicago’s weather gods had been too kind earlier this festival season, I guess).
After announcing in June that the festival would be relocating to suburban Bridgeview’s SeatGeek Stadium, the return (and, according to founder “Riot Mike” Petryshyn, passionate recommitment) to the North Lawndale neighborhood was met with fanfare and ire as some in the surrounding community continue to voice their displeasure with using the park for mega festivals.
Nevertheless, Riot Fest persisted—complete with its brand new “Choose Your Own Adventure” RiotLand experience (a bit overhyped, but hey if you like drinking games post-college, sponsored swag, photo ops and memorabilia, get in line. No seriously, stand and wait in those lines).
While there was plenty to do outside of checking out the tunes at Riot Fest these days, here are some of the best sets we caught—because live music should still be the reason you go.
Friday
It’s obvious why the Villarreal sisters behind hard rock act The Warning have riddled off influences like Evanescence, My Chemical Romance, Guns N Roses, Halestorm and Metallica in interviews—their arena-sized riffs would make even Kirk Hammett’s jaw drop. They wasted no time getting right down to business, with fists in the air and big harmonies on songs like “Dust to Dust” and “S!CK” soaring over the crowd. Hailing from Monterrey, Mexico, the trio’s fourth LP Keep Me Fed (released in June) was much of their set’s focus and an in-your-face introduction to new audiences (despite touring and releasing music for the better part of a decade) in the early afternoon of day one.
San Francisco punks Spiritual Cramp are so fun and so good. That’s it. That’s the review.
The back-to-back scheduling of New Found Glory and Sum 41 had me feeling like it was 2001 again. Simpler times.
Both NFG frontman Jordan Pundik and Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley sound studio-recording certified, and can still muster enough snotty braggadocio to make you feel like you’re an adolescent raising hell in the mall parking lot again. Particularly Pundik, whose hybrid nasal-meets-helium vocal is instantly transportive. I will never be able to hear “Let It Go” from the Disney film “Frozen” in the same way again.
As for Sum 41, “Fat Lip” and “In Too Deep” will never not satisfy. Thank you for your service, gentlemen.
Cypress Hill + Public Enemy aren’t strangers to Riot Fest, but hip hop’s pioneering acts deserved larger crowds this year, respectfully. Despite this egregiousness, both groups were potent as ever, providing a solid two hours of history-defining rap as the night fell.
Fall Out Boy understood the assignment. You want the hits? YOU GOT ‘EM. Opening with just a snippet of “Disloyal Order of the Water Buffalo” before chucking it for “Chicago is So Two Years Ago,” and rounding out their first three songs with “Where Is Your Boy/Grand Theft Autumn”!? The boys knew what they were doing–and continued to do so for the better part of 90 minutes and nearly 30 songs. With a visit from Rise Against’s Tim McIlrath during “Sugar We’re Goin’ Down,” and beloved deep-cuts including “Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying (Do Your Part to Save the Scene and Stop Going to Shows)” and “I Slept With Someone in Fall Out Boy and All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me,” they reminded us all why we let them say they’re from Chicago even though they’re all from the ‘burbs.
The Marley Brothers, who’ve appeared separately at Riot Fest over the years, stood together in righteous power on the Rise stage to celebrate their father’s legacy in a way that movie (you know the one) could never do. Jah definitely feel.
Saturday
Pixel Grip—it was fitting to have local electro trio Pixel Grip open Saturday’s programming. Pulsating, synth-laden, industrialized, horny pop songs like “Stamina” and “Alphapussy” are perfect for sizzling under the late summer sun if there’s not an underground rave or gym nearby. Vocalist Rita Lukea is a gun, a musical dominatrix demanding complete submission to co-conspirators Tyler Ommen and Jonathon Freund’s auditory explorations; the pleasure and the pain.
HEALTH, the darkwave trio comprising Benjamin Jared Miller, Jake Duzsik and John Famiglietti delivered an enthralling set that was a serious surprise of the weekend. It was beautiful and intense; at-times feeling improvisational—a perfect start to spooky season. With a gloomy, hypnotic sonic landscape befitting a sci-fi film, the collective vibe took center stage over any type of grand vocal or lyrical moment. Though they did throw in a brief cover of Deftones’ “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)” for good measure, which will always win this writer over.
As far as locals are considered, the stacking of Sincere Engineer and Beach Bunny on the neighboring Rise and Radicals stages was a perfect punch of power-pop to the face in the late afternoon. The last five years have been good to Sincere Engineer, whose middle-finger-in-the-air, spit-in-your-eye approach to pop-punk echoes the likes of Chicago’s own Alkaline Trio and The Lawrence Arms, except those bands won’t ever be able to say they had their own Corn Dog Circle Pit. Lili Trifilio’s Beach Bunny, however, plays with a bit more bubblegum—but be careful! There are still some sharp shards of glass in one-liners on songs like “Good Girls (Don’t Get Used),” “Prom Queen” and “Painkiller.”
Spoon always reminds me I like them despite not being able to recall the proper title of a single track except “Wild” (because it’s great). At this stage in their career, the quintet is steadfast and true to their early, groovy-heavy formula—and their crowd applauded them for it. Densely packed in front of the AAA stage, no one seemed to mind that a chunk of the set felt like one continuous song until “My Babe” forced a more noticeable tempo shift. Still, Britt Daniel—with a more seasoned grit in his vocal—and company sounded exactly as you’d want them to.
St. Vincent could’ve filled Beck’s Saturday night headlining spot easily, and by all accounts should have. The project of guitar queen Annie Clark, St. Vincent’s Riot Fest set was a no-frills, wildly entertaining ride through a catalog of songs that redefined a decade of rock music for a new generation and further digitized era. Bolstered by her tight backing band, Clark teased with the slow-burning “Reckless” from her latest album All Born Screaming before hypnotizing the crowd for the rest of her set with full-throated performances of “Fear the Future” into “Los Ageless,” “Dilettante,” “Marrow,” “Sugarboy,” “Cheerleader,” “Pain Your Way in Pain,” “Birth in Reverse,” “Sweetest Fruit” and an indelible rendition of “Flea,” among others. Embodying a much more visceral performance style when putting the guitar down, Clark held her crowd in her palm with fiery determination and screaming commitment to using every second of her hourlong time slot to devastate and thrill.
Sunday
Tierra Whack put on a stellar, early evening show that showed her talent and approach to storytelling is truly one-of-one; rekindling the energy of her NPR Tiny Desk set, with a full band that felt like family. One of hip hop’s most clever and dexterous, she breezed through a dozen or so songs (including a brief cover of Lil Yachty’s “T.D.”), such as “Ms. Behave,” “Imaginary Friends,” “Snake Eyes” and fan favorites “Pretty Ugly,” “Clones” and “Hungry Hippo.” The 40-minute set was befitting of a Whack album itself—short and to the point; always leaving you wanting more.
Thirty-five minutes is the exact right amount of time to see Rob Zombie. I preferred the end of the set over the beginning, when he dedicated “Living Dead Girl” to the ladies—who got down to the story of the “irresistible creature with an insatiable love for the dead” like they were at the club. White Zombie’s still-killer “More Human than Human” and “Thunder Kiss ‘65” also got their dues, as did “Dragula,” of course. The Zombie horror-metal shtick is what it is and everyone still had a good time. For the majority of attendees under 45, Zombie is probably the closest we’ll get to seeing Alice Cooper in his heyday; presiding over a rockin’, somewhat silly, macabre circus.
Sublime is back—spark up white people with dreads! Now led by late frontman Bradley Nowell’s son Jakob, the SoCal skaters, who rose to prominence with their infectious pop melodies and (at-times) absurdist lyrics against a backdrop of ska, reggae and surf-inspired alternative, are more or less existing as a tribute act to themselves and Nowell’s memory, and honestly it works. Yes, Jakob sounds like his father—down to the vocal fry and exaggerations—without the wily performance instincts, but at least he’s in on it. He knows what he represents to fans who arguably have more memories of his father to share than he does (as the elder Nowell died before his son’s first birthday) and he, surrounded by his “uncles”—original members Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh—appear to have successfully recaptured the sunny, anything goes spirit of the nineties.