Riot Fest 2022 (September 16-18, Chicago IL) Festival • Page 231

At the Jeff rosenstock after show, I’m a zombie, but a happy one!

 

Back to 2022…

I somehow ended up about 10 feet from the rail for NIN and it was incredible. NIN continues to be absolutely amazing.

 

NIN is one of those bands that could play deep cuts from albums I listen to once a blue moon & it would still be my favorite show ever.

 

today might've been the best day for me personally; went to an AMC near the hotel to catch The Woman King (Viola Davis proper ladyboss), then went down basically right after to camp between the barrier of the main stages and see Jimmy Eat World, Sleater Kinney, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and NIN; even the Pink Line wasnt as awful to get on this time around. Having said all that, I am *exhausted* and even though I had a lot of fun this weekend I will probably not commit to 3 whole days next year

 

This set was so varied across the catalog. It was nearly perfect.

 

Same here but I’ll settle for being able to hear Heads Will Roll and Maps from Radical after The Maine finished.

 

Lunachicks, Midtown, and The Linda Lindas were my top acts for today.

 

I had a great time today, was my only night at the festival and wished I could have been there Friday but hearing about how bad it was makes me feel less awful about missing MCR.

NIN and Jimmy Eat World though, very very happy to see them again. They were great, especially the NIN stage production. Yeah Yeah Yeahs were awesome as well but missed the beginning of the set cause of the very long food lines. Very much enjoyed Less Than Jake too when I arrived, they’re always fun and haven’t seen them since early ‘00s warped tour.

 

On my flight home, peace out Chicago!

 

Great festival but the transportation issues backed by the road closures thanks to the Mexican heritage celebration Friday and the police shutting down all major roads Saturday left a sour taste in my mouth. Didn’t like being essentially stranded on Saturday

 

Another great Riot Fest in the books! Now to drive to Springfield for a three day work conference.

Also, I am now more convinced that the major announcement that never came was a change of venue due to the lack of dates and "see you next year" from Riot Fest. Let's see where they land!

 

One more recap post now that I've showered twice since getting home.

The good:
The weather, generally. I'd have paid double for some clouds yesterday, but still better than storms.
Lots of great sets - The Get Up Kids, Bleachers, Jimmy Eat World, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs were my favorites.
The lineup and schedule were really good for me. I didn't have a lot of downtime (never even got a chance to walk through the Riot Mall) and if I needed to sit in the shade for a few minutes, there was usually something cool going on at Rebel to check out.
Very few sound issues, at least at the sets I saw/where I was standing.
Hugging friends that I don't see often enough.
Saturday and, for the most part, Sunday were pretty normal in terms of crowd size/lines/general vibe.
My wife went for the first time on Friday and had a really good time. The schedule worked out perfectly for her and we got relatively good spots for all the bands she was most excited to see.

The bad:
They need a second water station. I will never stop saying this.
Food prices (seemed like more than just inflation - vendor fees were probably higher this year too) and at least half of the vendors not having prices listed.
Friday crowd, as we've discussed.
The weird girl on Friday who walked up to us and just started running her hands through my wife's hair. People always ask her if it's real (it is), but usually it's old ladies at the grocery store who say she reminds them of Shirley Temple. Very strange interaction.
I think I still prefer last year's stage layout, especially for headliners.
The more I've thought about it and tried to read/listen to what neighborhood folks are saying this weekend, the more I think the festival really should move next year unless they do a lot of work to engage with the community in a meaningful way.

 

My final recap:

Good:
- Seeing bands live that I have never seen before and always wanted to see (Alexisonfire, Anberlin, MCR)
- Losing my voice to "Give Em Hell, Kid"
- Being there for the first ever LS Dunes show
- Seeing bands like Hot Mulligan getting upgraded from the Rebel stage a few years ago to a much bigger stage this year.
- Yellowcard was just perfect.
- I was very nervous about the Alexisonfire but it was just amazing. They even played Pulmonary Archery.
- I was getting major FOMO for the JEW and AOF aftershows. I went to a lot of aftershows before (RF and Lolla) but never straight from fest after a full day. I ended up getting to the JEW one while Charly Bliss were playing and managed to get a decent-ish spot in the crowd. I was so exhausted and the place was so crammed up, to the point where people weren't even able to get in to the main floor because it was so packed, they just stood by the stairs. I managed to survive 5 minutes and GTFO before I collapsed from every bone and muscle in body hurting. Saw the setlist afterwards and I ended up knowing like 5 songs overall which made my decision feel much much better. The AOF aftershow's setlist was not one of my favorites too so I ended up feeling good about it.
- I always see all those makeshift parking lots in the neighborhood and I did park in one for the first time on Saturday. It was super easy getting out of there and avoiding the post-RF madness.
- Most people this year seemed pretty nice and happy to be there. Didn't see any incidents with fighting or people being assholes.

Bad:
- I ended up skipping Sunday because It was too much for me. The only band I really wanted to see was TAI anyway. It's Monday now and I do not regret that decision.
- Friday crowds. Although it was very hard doing anything that day and the lines were insane, it was still interesting to see how devoted the MCR fanbase is. Forget about basic band T Shits, these people have a different shirt for every damn song.
- Leaving TWY's set in the middle to go see TBS and missing "Cardinals" (my favorite TWY song). It's even worse that Adam Lazzara just sucked.
- TSSF were putting me to sleep. Zero energy whatsoever.
- I am getting old and these things are becoming harder on my body each year. Back, knees, neck... Everything just hurts. I have 3 days of music shows in Vegas next month, it's going to be hell on my body.
- There were at least 2 times that someone inside the crowd was hurt and people were trying to flag security and medics to no avail.

 

Flagging down security was a headache this year. I always bring a flashlight just for getting through the field during the night but I used it more for getting attention of medics and clearing a path to help carry someone out of the MCR crowd more than keeping my footing.

 

Echoing some of the sentiments from a move, here's my overview from my first Riot Fest

Good:

- I thought the wide majority of people that I met and ran into throughout this festival were very nice, kind and friendly. There were a few outliers (mostly obnoxious pit bros, ill get into that more in the bad) but that's to be expected. We met a few new friends and had a great time interacting with fans of bands that we love. The overall environment was friendly and inclusive and fun.

- The staff that I interacted with were very nice, especially the ones working the alcohol and food. They seemed very overwhelmed at times but were very nice and made the process of getting food and drink quite pleasant. It's not an easy thing to do and I appreciated that they were so friendly.

- The food options were very good. Pricey, but good. I thought there was truly something for everybody which is not always an easy thing to accomplish. The same goes for drinks. It was very nice to know that there were so many options to choose from throughout the weekend.

- Transportation was not an issue for me. I walked a half mile down Ogden to the east/northeast, one block past Mt. Sinai. I was able to get an Uber within 5 minutes each time. They were more expensive than usual but not anything mind blowing.

- Yellowcard was absolutely incredible. A masterclass. I will remember that set for life. Hope to see them again very soon.

- Charlotte Sands was a surprise highlight for me. She is very good live and has a great stage presence. Hoping for big things from her. L.S Dunes ripped, The Wonder Years ripped, Menzingers ripped. Mothica was pretty good too (First time hearing of them). Those are the ones that stick out to me immediately, but I'm almost certainly forgetting about a lot as well.

Bad:

- Friday was a complete shit show. Unsurprisingly, this was largely the MCR contingent and overcrowding. The majority of rude and/or negative experiences that I had were on Friday with people who were shoving folks out of the way for MCR. The staff members were overwhelmed and short on numbers. The crowds were incredible. Not great.

- The pit bro activities that I experienced during Menzingers really surprised me. I was with my girlfriend. She is VERY, very chill....in other words, she wouldn't complain unless something was really wrong. We have been to many...MANY shows together. We were not dead center in the pit, but closer to the middle barrier, stage right - directly on the edge of where the pit/activity was. She told me several times that she was groped in areas that were definitely not accidental by guys coming to the edge of the pit. I quickly switched sides with her, but later in the set as we got swung around and embedded in the crowd, it continued. We came close to leaving but decided to just push ourselves up against the barrier instead. Overall, there was a ton of obnoxious shit going on during that set which was really surprising to me. I love the Menzingers and have seen them many times, including most recently at Crossroads in Garwood several months back. I have never had that experience before. That contingent largely was gone by the time TSSF came on, too. So that really sticks out as a bad time during the weekend. May have been an isolated group of assholes, may not have been, I'm not sure. But not cool either way.

- Taking Back Sunday was predictably bad. I get the whole "they've been bad live forever" thing, but man. Just a really weak vocal set and not really enjoyable for me. The Story So Far was also very disappointing. I haven't seen them in a while and I was really surprised. Very little stage presence or energy at all, I was bored and waiting for them to be done by the third song. Whether it was intentional or not, it seemed like Parker had very little interest in being up there. A total snooze fest for me.

- There were a number of people that I saw who badly needed water and/or were unwell and unable to get help from security on Friday. I want to note that this significantly improved on Saturday - the staff was making a very specific effort to get water to people. But it was bad on Friday, to the point where the crowd was trying its very best to get the staffs attention and failing. That's something that needs to improve in the coming years.

Overall, this was a really enjoyable weekend. I think Riot Fest does a very good job overall of organizing things especially once you get inside the festival grounds. Friday was an outlier of a shitshow with wayyyy too many people for them to handle. Otherwise, I found the weekend to be mostly enjoyable with Saturday being the highlight. Will almost certainly be back. Hope everyone else had a good time too and very glad the weather forecast held up!

 

TBS has absolutely always been bad live but TBS is stunningly bad live now haha

 

Heard from a couple people that the vegan options were particularly good this year and not super expensive compared to the markups at other places.

 

It was better. My partner is vegetarian so festivals are always a bit difficult. Good options this year and any markup was reasonable.

 

We could always rely on the rotating cast of backing vocalists to be good but John has lost it, too. They were so bad.

I was really happy with Alkaline Trio. Matt’s voice after going sober and the throat surgery is holding up. And you could tell how much fun they were having together.

 

It was atrocious to the point where my group couldn't stand listening and left to get food. Super disappointing.

 

ha yeah Adam takes a lot of the heat for how shitty he sounds but John totally phones it in now or his voice is shot. I I was legit like embarrassed for them when I saw them open for 3EB this summer even knowing they arent usually good live.

 

Coolio and Ice Cube ripped, caught half of Nine Inch Nails and got the hell out before the insanity.

Back home, ready to sleep forever.

 

Just got done with the 5 hour drive home but I dunno if I have all my thoughts collected on the weekend as whole but I know a lot of the big common complaints are things that don’t effect me as Ive found methods over the years to avoid them (long food lines, water lines, post fest transit, etc) so my weekend breezes by way easier than most it seems. Not trying to have that as a brag or anything, more that I have to remind myself of that when I read all the rants and complaints on Reddit an whatnot.

The real low key mvp is the nonprofit booth by the wedding chapel that was like a little convenience store- water, soda, Powerade, earplugs, sunscreen,bananas, fruit cups, chips, other snacks and drinks..all cheaper then the vendors and going to a good cause. But they never had long lines, guess most people missed it.


Music wise I noticed a lot of trends with what I enjoyed.
- all three headliners sounded great and brought their A games. Really strong anchors, But with all 3 I hung back on the edges of the crowds.
-all 3 days had show stealing sets by non headliners after sundown: Portugal the man, yellowcard, and yeah yeah yeahs. All 3 are in my top 5 of the weekend in some order. And they all showed they got those primetime spots for a reason.
- I didn’t go to the rebel stage once on Sunday, BUT Friday and Saturday had two of the strongest rebel lineups I’ve seen, too many to name!, never spent so much time over there! Loved it.
-it’s hard to break down but I feel there was good variety of acts, but still needs more heavy, more ska, more hip hop.

I don’t know what the future holds for riot, I love the fest but have to admit they need to step up their game In a multitude of areas and I truly want to see it be the best version of itself it can be.. but there a chance I sit out next year through no fault of the fest but More because my wife and I wanna try to get to Europe sooner than later and budget / days off have to come from somewhere..

 

Had no idea about this. I would have loved a fruit cup.

 

I had no idea this existed and really needed something like it several times this weekend!