Riot Fest 2022 (September 16-18, Chicago IL) Festival • Page 222

Got to see LS Dunes, Boston Manor, partial Foxy Shazam, Hot Mulligan, food/relax, Jeff Rosenstock, The Wonder Years, partial Taking Back Sunday, partial Portugal the Man, partial Bleachers, like 70% of MCR inside then the rest from outside. Incredible day, and not sure how it's only the end of day 1. Every year I'm like yeah we got this!! and then I feel like shit after the first day lol

 

First riot experience and that was insane. Literally only saw lines and tech/ sound issues. Saw some amazing sets but couldn’t get past how chaotic everything felt. Feel lucky to have gotten to the Cobra Lounge for PVRIS so quickly. I truly don’t know why I thought an after show was each night made sense.

 

Walked out after black parade and figured we’d beat the crowd but we walked all the way to the front of the california to get into a front car and the train didn’t even come close so we had to wait for the next one.

 

Hasn't felt this chaotic in my 6 years of going. Hoping for a little calmer of a day tomorrow. Have fun

 

Got to see some of Sincere Engineer, LS Dunes, Boston Manor, then waited for merch for 2 hours, The Wonder Years, Bleachers, MCR.

Bleachers we’re incredible!

 

Jumped on the 94 only to get stranded waiting to transfer to a 20 for 45 minutes, literally 3 busses were due during the time we waited. Ended up grabbing an Uber the rest of the way for 15 bucks. Feel like no matter when I leave or what mode of transportation I use, I'm just doomed to it taking over an hour to get back to my hotel lol

 

Sound is obviously hard for any festival but this is the first time every stage sounded awful to me.

 

Some stray thoughts on day 1:
- Agreed with everyone, it was pure insanity and not in the best way. Long lines and just a sea of humanity. Gotta think this is the MCR effect, at least partially. Thinking tomorrow will be better.

- Best set of the day for me was Jeff Rosenstock. They had some technical issues but we had a little Weezer karaoke while they figured shit out. He’s just a great performer and it makes me happy.

- also saw LS Dunes, Hot Mulligan, TWY, AK3 and MCR. None bad but nothing as fun as JR. AK3 sounded really good to me though.

- Left MCR after like 10 songs, walked out and onto a 1/4 full Western bus and left and it dropped me off half a block from my place. I’m in shock how lucky I was sorry to hear about everyone else’s struggles to get out!

lets do it again tomorrow.

 

Had a great time today, but it was definitely one of the busiest days at riot I’ve seen. Was packed by like 2. The my chem crowd was every bit as crazy as I thought, but the set was also as good as I thought it would be.

but what the FUCK was that exit?? I’ve never had that much trouble getting out of any festival. One exit for the entire fest? Wild

 

Yeah the lines today were MAD, including in VIP for food/drink. Almost made it not worth it, but then I saw the line for regular food and gadzooks.

Saw Foxy (dope), Anberlin (meh), some Descendents, some Cloud Nothings, Portugal (dope), and some Marky Ramona’s Blitzkrieg (neat)

Biking was the move but with a functional Western bus I might do that tomorrow

 

MCR was good but stopping the show a bunch really took me out of it. I know why they did it and totally respect it, but it definitely ruins the vibe.

Edit: To be clear I have 0 issues with making sure fans are okay, it just was different than any other show because they stopped between every song to have the crowd move back. In the end what’s most important is no one got seriously injured.

 

I’ll be reading what you all say about the crowds tomorrow but if this holds up all weekend I’ll definitely be skipping next year. I’m increasingly over it.

 

I’d rather a band stop at times to make sure the crowd isn’t physically hurting people, truly don’t understand complaining about it being “vibe ruining”

 

Such a fucking fun day. Every Hot Topic/Spencer’s is definitely closed this weekend, but it certainly made for awesome people watching. Funko sales numbers will be disappointing on Monday.

Lot of cool sets but Bleachers was definitely the highlight. Seeing Gerard galavant around in his Jackie O outfit was cool but we dipped after a couple of songs. Pink line wasn’t bad when we hopped on (9:15ish) but once downtown, the Mexican Independence Day shenanigans gummed up the busses and redline service going up to Edgewater so we did a nice little moonlit Divy ride along the lake trail back up to Edgewater. My pizza will be out of the oven soon. Stoked.

Oh also, thank you @earthlight for the awesome weather. Keep up the good work.

 

Leaving PVRIS after show. Didn’t play anything old but a fun show.

 

So happy I didn’t end up going this year even tho I had passes. Just not up for another festival after going hard at lolla

 

I’m still not home. Stuck downtown basically, most streets are closed. This sucks.

 

Yeah unrelated to Riot specifically but the way the city handles Mexican Independence Day is ridiculous especially when it’s also Riot Fest weekend. They need to do a better job at stopping the cars.

 

Good sets all around today but I quickly realized by 2 PM that I'm not a festival person. I've decided not to do the next two days, I'm really exhausted and might head home early tbh.

 

If anyone wants to sell a Sunday ticket let me know!

 

Agreed. They’ve never been a great live band in my opinion and Stephen’s vocals were totally buried in the mix yesterday.

 

I ended up catching bits of Cliffdiver, Bob Vylan, and Cloud Nothings that I wasn't planning on because I was already over there getting water and that stage has a lot of shade. Really glad I did - all sounded great. I ended up skipping Sparta to get in line for food, which was also a good choice.

 

It was after every single song and the total amount of pauses easily totaled 15+ minutes. They could have played 3 full extra songs if the crowd wasn’t so terrible and they didn’t have to stop. It was absolutely necessary but yes, it did ruin the entire flow of the set

 

Both can be true. Of course we want the band to make sure people are safe but also, it can ruin the vibe.

I wish the band didn’t have to take all the action, though. Riot Fest could’ve stepped in. How? I don’t know.

 

DM Sent