Riot Fest 2021 (September 17-19, Chicago IL) Tour • Page 43

My two cents is picking sets instead of doing a bunch of partials. I really would rather see all of one band than see a little bit of everyone

 

i'm gonna try my best not to go to any aftershows. i was BEAT last year with just one aftershow.

 

Aftershows are worth it if you really care, but going just casually is not it. I usually am either fully hyped (MCS """Final""" show, Against Me! last year) or so tired I literally nap at the venue (TBS in 2017, Sum 41 in 2018)

 

agreed, an aftershow has to be god tier band for me. Went to Bouncing Souls 2 years ago and was amazing but i bought 2 different shows last year and ended up selling as it got closer as i realized it just seemed to long of a day.. ended up gambling last minute on the pop punk pizza party as i was intrigued by the "4 mystery bands" gimmick, but only stayed for a band and 1/2, got my pizza and bounced.

edit as i forgot that i also did the announced-day-of after show for INVSN back in 2017. that was really special, only like 40 people there, tiny room, the stage was only 6 inches off the ground and i was right up front so me and Dennis were like eye to eye the whole show. I hope they tour the US again

 

I'm not a night owl and staying up that late really wipes me out for the next day or two, so I have a pretty high bar for what will get me to an aftershow. I've only done two: Mineral and Thursday, both at Double Door and both totally worth it. I even skipped Aaron West at Sleeping Village.

 

I did Friday last year and that wiped me out so much I accidentally fell asleep on Saturday evening and woke up an hour before doors for the AM after show lol

 

The best after show was that menzingers acoustic set that I didn’t have to pay for at a bar that served labatt.

 

An hour before """doors""" lol

 

Just scooped up 3days for the wife and I!

 

So the last two years I've tried to squeeze in as much as possible, and it's been super exhausting, where this year, no matter how good the lineup is, I'm only planning on watching full sets of bands I really want to see instead of saying, "I'll watch 10 minutes of Senses Fail, then 15 minutes of Hot Mulligan, 30 minutes of Angel Dust, 10 minutes of the Get Up Kids, etc." if that makes sense haha.

 

Def makes sense. I did that splitting sets thing too & retrospectively, every time I did that I would've been better off just watching a full set.

 

That stresses me out so bad just thinking about it lol

I'm also weird about counting times I've seen a band and stuff and struggle to decide if seeing someone play like 2 song is enough to say I "saw them" but that's a personal issue

 

I have zero concerns about Lolla. But I think 350 could gank a few bands that I'm particularly interested in... They certainly did last year.

This is a good point. It's also the reason I stopped going to Fest. The stress of jumping from venue to venue in an effort to catch all of the bands I was interested in seeing was too much.

I'm comfortable with feeling like I really really want to see 40-50% of the line-up, having 30% that I'm pretty neutral about ("would be cool to see, but if not no biggie") and 10-20% shit I could really care less about.

It depends on the bad for me. If I'm only slightly int a band or just want to see "the hit," I'm not above looking at set lists on their current tour and trying to time it out for the song or two I want to see. But if it's a band I'm completely gun-ho about, I usually try to see most of the set if not all of it.

God, I forgot about the "pop-punk pizza party." Will probably be dragging my old ass out to that one finally (probably). Does anybody have a list of who has played the last few years so I can sell it to my partner when the time comes?

"Oh, it's free pizza and lots of beer and probably band X on the line-up."

This is totally me most years and I fucking love it. The exhaustion is worth it.

 

I’ve also been trying to do less partial sets in the past couple years, unless it’s a block of an hour or two where I don’t love any of the bands and want to wander around, or meet up with friends at whatever stage they’re at.

 

Aftershows can be really worth it, but I agree it depends on the artist. Seeing Death Cab play last year until about 2 in the morning for a Lolla aftershow was cool.

 

What time are the aftershows then?

 

Unless it's an aftershow before the festival starts, they start at 11PM and usually go until 1-2:30AM.

 

last year was Bike Tuff, The Eradicator, Ramona, & Kali Masi
2018 was the flatliners + openers
2017 was Pkew pkew pkew + openers
then there were 2 years prior, but unsure of those

 

Flatliners + Pkew at the pizza party in 2018 will never be topped

 

Favorite aftershows have been Menzingers acoustic at Gman 2017 and Aaron West at Sleeping Village 2018.

EDIT: Also despite getting there late and being wedged in the back, Against Me! New Wave / Eternal Cowboy was very cool too.

 

I agree. We went to the Bayside/NFG one a few years ago and we thankfully stayed for all of Bayside's set but could not even imagine staying for any of NFG. I would have been asleep. Also had tickets to the Aaron West one on Sunday night at Sleeping Village and we skipped that one entirely because we were exhausted. Aftershows are ROUUUUGH

 

honestly mcr was enough to make me buy 3 days but just announce the whole line up already!!

 

My favorite aftershow has been Cap'n Jazz at Bottom Lounge in 2017.

I try to go to atleast 2 aftershows each year and if I remember correctly in 2018 I went to an after show the 3 days and still managed to wake up early to arrive to the fest when doors open, but I dont know if this year I will be able to do it.

 

its unlikely the lineup comes before May just as a heads up

 

Was Pkew X3 on 2 consecutive years then? i found the facebook event page for 2017 and they are all over it, including specialty made hot sauce for them called Asshole Pandemic, haha