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Music

Riot Fest Day Three: Small Bands Getting a Big Shot

Oh, and also Weezer.

Photos by Nick Karp

Yesterday, Riot Fest’s Chicago weekend wrapped up its tenth year in existence, but only its third at Humboldt Park. With a decade under its belt, the festival is a powerhouse when it comes to its ability to book a jaw-dropping lineup, but it’s still experiencing growing pains in its new-ish venue. It’s like seeing a really jacked toddler.

That combination netted the fest an overall successful weekend, but not one without its problems (not among them: the "ethnic cleansing" of the neighborhood as mentioned by the geniuses at the Chicago Monitor). For starters, getting from one place to another in the festival was a complete time-sucking clusterfuck. Your choice of paths was either walking through foot-deep mud in the middle of the park or crowding into the slow-moving, narrow concrete walkways around its perimeter, which were made even tighter by the lines for food and beverage vendors along its route. Not only did the layout make getting from Point A to Point B difficult, but trying to find a good spot to watch any of the bigger bands required the kind of next-level planning that people don’t feel like putting in just to see a few minutes of a band’s set.

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And they didn’t make finding the stages any easier. There were no signs or arrows pointing you towards anything in the labrynthian layout. You were left to fend for yourself to find the seven randomly placed stages named Revolt, Riot, Roots, Radical, Rebel, Rise, and Rock. Naming all of them R-words probably seemed like a clever idea at the time, but tell that to the person roaming the park’s 207 acres in the dark, trying to find which stage the Flaming Lips are playing on and remember which half of the Rancid song it’s named after (it was Roots, by the way).

The festival did provide maps but not until the second day. There was a helpful free app, but after 3 PM, the high-volumed park turned into a battery-draining Roam Monster, poised to feast on the batteries of people who dared to take their phones off airplane mode. Since this robbed people of the ability to text, it was damn-near impossible to meet up with anyone. If you were lucky enough to find your friends, your best bet was to use some sort of chain or bike lock to affix yourself to their body and not leave their side all day. To avoid getting sucked away into the sea of people, you’d have to tie a rope around your body and venture out like that guy in Poltergeist.

This poor guy was just trying to get to the bathroom.

OK, so problems aside, on the other hand, there are a lot of things Riot Fest is doing right and better than other music festivals. Top of the list being that their lineup sets the bar for bands that can be booked. Last year’s big get of a Replacements reunion took the summer festival game to a new level. And unlike a lot of other festivals, being at Riot Fest doesn’t feel like you’re being constantly bombarded with advertisements. There’s also a lot provided as far as non-music entertainment like carnival rides and a haunted house, although they seemed like the least popular element of the fest.

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One thing Riot Fest did notably well this year—Day Three in particular—was that alongside the heavyweights like Cheap Trick and Mastodon on the main stages, they gave chances to smaller acts that—in my dumb opinion—are some of the best up-and-coming bands around.

Here’s who we saw playing and hanging out yesterday, when the weather was beautiful and the corn dogs were delicious.

Weezer, playing The Blue Album.

The Front Bottoms being currrrrsed forever to sleep on a twiiiiiiin sized mattress…

The ever-talented Laura Stevenson.

Hey, it's the New Found Glory dudes. Lucero, which brought a fist fight AND women screaming for Ben Nichols. Always a mixed crowd. Toronto's PUP, doing the shit you can pull off at 25, but not 35. The Menzingers, who were louder than hell despite having an 11:45 AM start time. Maybe a ploy to get people there early? Social D, ready to rock/work on your transmission. Dropkick Murphys.

Hi, dude from Motion City Soundtrack. Cool shirt. That doc rules. Our beloved sons of Modern Baseball who looked genuinely amazed at the number of people there.

Brooklyn's Chumped opening up the Revolt Stage for the day.

Survay Says! bringing ska and misspellings back. Tiny Moving Parts playing to a not-so-tiny crowd.