Riot Fest 2023 Tour • Page 165

Saw my all-time favorite band from the barricade again (AFI). Never gets old. ❤️

 

Definitely going to write a sappy post about it once we're home, but I love this festival so much.

 

I had such a great time this weekend. One of the better riots I've been to I would say. Loved that the schedule wasn't too stressful (for me) with conflicts. Happy it wasn't hot, I'd take this chilly Sunday over last year's boiling Sunday any time (obviously a bummer things got cancelled in the morning though). Headliners were great, there were bands I wanted to see all day, each day. No issues with the crowd or anything like that. And I saw the Cure! Who were insanely good and completely lived up to the hype. Already can't wait for next year.

 

Crowd looked tame I had thought ppl actually rushed the stage and caused chaos

 

i really dont think i was disappointed with any set i saw this weekend, but if i had to rank them:

top tier, the ones ive found myself thinking about the most: viagra boys after show, the postal service, turnstile, finch

really great: screaming females, drain, sleep token, head automatica, thursday (regular & aftershow), dresden dolls, gaslight anthem, foo's, C-dogg, viagra boys regular set

still great: yard act, the interrupters, olivia jean, through n through, calva louise, total chaos, AFI, fea

incomplete grade because i only caught a few minutes, or just listened from the very back because i was sore or tired but still sounded great: the cure, pup, mr. bungle, godspeed, snapcase, code orange, parliment, ani difranco

 

I'm in the same boat, no "bad" sets for me, just bummed so much of Sunday was rained out. But if I had to break them into tiers:

Best sets of the weekend: Pool Kids, Dresden Dolls, High Vis, Say Anything.

Good times all around: Bowling for Soup, Bayside, Oso Oso, PUP, Frank Turner, Gaslight, AFI.

Happy to watch them but not rushing out to see them again: Parliament, Drain, Corey Feldman.

A bit underwhelming: Turnstile, DCFC.

 

Best Sets: The Cure, Queens of the Stone Age, The Postal Service, oso oso, balance and composure, viagra boys, AFI

good times: Death Grips, 100 gecs, yard act, gorilla biscuits, origami angel

good but sound issues: PUP, say anything

meh: ride, head automatica, the mars volta

the best: Corey Feldman

 

I am so exhausted from the weekend i forgot i saw Origami Angel and Oso Oso lol

 

and random, but down here in STL im still dealing with riotfest conflicts haha, friday night sleep token is playing one place while the used and sleeping with sirens play another, and then saturday night gaslight anthem is playing one place while queens of the stone age / viagra boys / jehnny beth play another... and god damn, current cheapest sleep token resale ticket is $284 and only goes up from there

 

Another really great year, nothing crazy special or anything but a solid time

My fav sets: Drain, Gaslight, Pup (aftershow), White Reaper, Just Friends, Oso Oso, Frank Turner, Say Anything, Bayside (aftershow) and the last bits of High Vis & Interrupters.

AFI was really good, but wish they busted out a different set and bummed I missed H2O for it even though the aftershow was great (just slim attended).

Same thoughts on B&C they were great but not the set I woulda chose lol

 

My favorites were: The Cure, The Postal Service, Say Anything, Oso Oso, Origami Angel, Drain, Death Cab, Queens of the Stone Age, High Vis, Pup late night show

Biggest Surprise: I had such a good time at Bowling For Soup

Most reliable good times: Bayside, Silverstein, Turnstile, The Used

The only thing I'm really disappointed about is I feel like I didn't see that much Sunday but the Cure did a lot of heavy lifting so not a big deal overall.

 

And I still think its wild that we did that whole fest with no GWAR and no TBS. Kinda missed GWAR, TBS...not so much.

 

It’s still wild to me GWAR didn’t play this year. Wonder if they’ll be back next year, or if this is a new era for Riot

 

New era with ICP and Corey Feldman im calling it now.

 

Looking back on this weekend, my wife and I still had a great time. We've done this trip every year since 2016. Love this festival with all my heart.
Had to leave early Friday due to some medical stuff so we only got to see Pinkshift. Saturday we did almost a full day. Sunday obviously with the rain and delays it was a little wild but still had a blast. Really thankful we were able to still have a great time even though we missed our top 3 must sees in Foo Fighters/Turnstile/Bayside.

Already getting excited for next year!

 

And L.S. Dunes

 

A little late but here are some random notes from my 2 days this year at RF:

* I don't remember seeing so many people with shirts in the crowd for a band that didn't even play. There were ton of people wearing the same Hot Mulligan shirt. It's also cool because they played the fest a few times and were bumped from the rebel stage to playing the radical a few years later and killing it there.

* I am so happy that they put that divider up at the radical stage. Being on the left side was so much more fun than being crammed on the other side.

* I was waiting 20 years to see Rival Schools and they did not disappoint. It felt a bit bad that there was barely any crowd there (there was a lot of middle aged men).

* Every time I saw someone wearing an MCR shirt I got triggered hard.

* Speaking of getting triggered by shirts, I was stressed all day because Sleep Token was placed at the rebel stage and every time I saw someone with their shirt on I realized how bad it's going to be. I went to that stage about 90 minutes before they were supposed to go on so I got myself a great spot (which was not easy to maintain).

* I was thing about bands that played the rebel stage and got to a bigger stage later (like Hot Mulligan and Microwave) and i feel like that Drain set would hit so much better at the rebel stage.

* It was my first time seeing Bowling For Soup (outside of seeing them play 2 songs at one Warped tour). I don't remember when was the last time I genuinely laughed like that at a concert.

* During the whole 2 days I was there I saw 1 show at the rise stage, half a set at the riot stage and 2 at the rebel stage. All the rest was at the radical stage. It feels like every year my plans concentrate on just one stage in particular and I like when that happens.

* I had a feeling that Origami Angel would be a good set but I didn't expect the turnout to be that good so early on a Friday. They killed it. Not sure what to think about their fanbase though.

* The older "scene" bands all KILLED it. Silverstein, Bayside, Spitalfield, even Hawthorne Heights were okay. Unfortunately I missed Thursday and Finch.

 

This was my 8th Riot Fest and one of the best. Saturday of Riot Fest 2023 was hands down one of the best Riot Fest days in recorded history. I had an absolute blast and on the move constantly. It was also an extremely silly day given who I saw that day.

Top 3 Sets of the weekend (all on Saturday):
- Drain
- Viagra Boys
- Mr. Bungle

Evidence of Saturday kicking ass:
- The wake up call set performed by Drain. I got ignorant with the kids.
- Whatever the hell the Corey Feldman set was.
- TSOL & White Reaper slaying vocals
- I partied like 1989 during Viagra Boys (this may be the band of the decade)
- Death Grips noise assault
- Eshu Tune covering "Awesome God"
- Pennywise covering "Nervous Breakdown" with part of Rise Against
- Mr. Bungle bunglin' through their set via these covers mixed with their unhinged crossover-thrash: the Pepto Bismol jingle, The Postal Service, Summer Breeze and True.

Unfortunately, I missed ICP but will be going to Hallowicked show. Ideally, ICP would have played on the same stage before Mr. Bungle.

Either way, I hope they go ridiculous again for Saturday next year.

I hope everyone else had a blast this past weekend!

 

They're worthy replacements forsure.

 

i was actually shocked how easy it was to get a good spot for sleep token, i showed up for eshe tunes last song or 2 from the sound tent, and then walked right up to 8-9th row once he ended, got a little annoyed at the 15 mins late, but when they still have them the whole set length i was pumped, they put on a killer show.

putting drain on rebel would have been the move, maybe an early evening set, though i wonder if that would have made their last song stunt better or worse. more people may have tried with it being a lower stage and closer in general, but there is also less gap between stage and barricade so the security wrestling people in a tighter space may have gotten more dangerous.. hard to tell but interesting to think about.

the video posted above of the last drain song does not show ANY of what was happening in the security space between stage and barricade, everyone who crowdsurfed or jumped over the barricade and made any attempt top go toward the stage got tackled, some harder than others

 

Didn't notice the sound issues at Say Anything, but the issues at the beginning of the PUP set were baaaad. What made it even worse for me was that I had spent a bunch of time hyping up the people I was with about PUP since they killed it when I saw them last summer. Consensus was still that PUP rocked, but the sound issues were an unfortunate asterisk on that set.

Oh god, please no. I can't stand ICP and with Feldman I can't shake the feeling that everyone is collectively propping up an ex-child star's multi-year mental health crisis.

 

FWIW, the Feldman booking felt more like a "one-off." I could definitely see Insane Clown Posse popping up more regularly, though if it seemed to go over well and ICP/Riot are both down for it... Given that they won't be touring as much I could see more festival sets being in the (Joker's) cards for them.

 

The bit of Corey Feldman's set that I saw was less of a train wreck than I was led to believe it would be, mostly because his band sounded really great.

I thought ICP was totally done after this year, meaning this was their final Chicago show, but I could very well be wrong.

 

Finch. I was front row for them and there were some psrts were the vocals were really low. Esepcialy during Perfection Through Silence when the double bass kicks in, it drowned all the other instruments and vocals.

 

Came from Death Grips to PUP and literally couldn’t hear a thing. Moved to the middle and it was still really quiet. Same boat here, hyped them up to everyone I was with and it caused their set to fall flat.