I’ve had some time to ruminate on Riot Fest 2024. Please see Jason Baygood’s ongoing blow by blow account as well. This year, I thought I would switch things up and give you some quick snippets of standout sets, surprise sets, and thoughts on the Riot Fest overall. See below for my standout sets of 2024.
Public Enemy Friday, 7:25pm, Radical Stage
I went to college in the 90s. As we refilled our solo cups from the kegerator, a cornucopia of musical flavors flowed from the stereo system. Safe to say that among Jane’s Addiction, The Descendents, Bad Religion, and NOFX, hip hop got its due with Cypress Hill, Dr. Dre, The Beastie Boys, and of course, Public Enemy. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and Fear of a Black Planet were on heavy rotation. Charting hits “Bring Da Noize” and “Fight the Power” flickered on MTV every half hour. Flash forward thirty-five years to 2024. Fuck!!! Has it been thirty-five years?!?! You wouldn’t believe it if you caught Public Enemy at Riot Fest. Flava Flav still tells time with his chest, and Chuck D stomps the stage spewing his baritone truth. Pseudo-Nintendo games, pixelated ambulances (911 is a joke), and provocative political images pulsated on the screen as Chuck and Flav brought the goods. Through the sheer force of their set, Public Enemy dragged the audience back to the days when rebellion had to percolate from below society’s surface, and music represented the medium to generate social change. “Can’t Truss It” got it going early. “Can’t Do Nuttin For You Man” stood out. Then they closed with “Don’t Believe the Hype”, “Bring the Noise,” and their activism anthem “Fight the Power.” All throughout the set Chuck preached for political action and peacefully challenging the ruling powers, a timely message.
The Dickies Saturday, 2:30pm, NOFX World Stage
How many of you have seen 18 Again? Nope, that’s 17 Again. I’m talking about the movie with George Burns, not Zac Efron. Google it. Anyway. For some reason, back in 1988, in a state of malaise, I found myself immersed in this film. I wouldn’t say the film is terrible (29% Rotten Tomato), but apparently others would. Normally in a bad film, when a band makes a cameo, it’s someone you’ve never heard of. That was the case for me as The Dickies appeared and performed “You Drive Me Ape (You Big Gorilla).” Maybe the song grabbed me, or Leonard Graves Phillips’ slightly frightening monkey mask, but I had to hear more. No Spotify back then, I hit my local record store and picked up Great Dictations. That began a thirty-year, or so, love affair with The Dickies. Shockingly, it took me until 2012 to catch them live, when they played a Riot Fest aftershow at Congress Theater. I’ve seen them a few times since. During Covid, when the world yearned to go to a live show; The Dickies livestream helped to bridge that painful gap. As we would come to find during the 2024 Riot Fest set, both Dickies founders Stan Lee (guitar), and Leonard Graves Phillips (vocals) recently celebrated their 68th trips around the sun. What can we expect from these soon to be septuagenarians? How about the second best set of the fest. They opened with their cover of The Moody Blues “Nights in White Satin.” If you don’t know the Dickies, they invented the concept of doing punk covers. At Riot Fest they also dropped: “Paranoid” (personal fave), The Banana Splits theme song (70s kids show), and “Pretty Please Me.” The Dickies came strong with their classics like “Got it at the Store,” “Manny Moe and Jack,” “Tricia Toyota,” and of course “You Drive Me Ape.” Even with a bit of a sore throat, Leonard still absolutely nailed the vocals, Stan crushed the leads and the band romped through a spirited collection of Dickies favorites. Do yourself a favor and catch The Dickies when they come through your town.
Laura Jane Grace with Catbite Sunday, 5:45pm, NOFX World Stage
Much like Captain Ahab sought the White Whale, Riot Fest has exhausted all resources to get Operation Ivy, the legendary ska (Punk) band out of San Francisco to reunite. This obsession has not led to anyone’s vicious demise, but every year, the fixation takes its toll. Enter Laura Jane Grace of Against Me. While on tour with Philadelphia Ska band, Catbite, somewhere in the dark recesses of a concert hall, an insane idea was hatched. Why not combine forces and save Riot Fest from their circuitous quest and impending insanity; thus, the Op Ivy cover set was born. When Riot Fest released their lineup for 2024, this set jumped out at me and I’m sure others as well. Riot Fest may have finally caught Moby Dick!! Or Moby’s brother, Little Richard. A palpable wave of positive vibes permeated the immediate area around the NOFX stage as LJG and Catbite launched into “Knowledge,” the first song from Operation Ivy’s classic album Energy. In the next 45 minutes, they pummeled the crowd with an onslaught of grooves, playing Energy basically from front to back. They tacked on some tunes from Hectic at the end and left the crowd completely spent. I’m sure this set was number one on a lot of people’s lists. (No whales were injured in the drafting of this blurb.)
Descendents Saturday, 7:00pm, NOFX World Stage
Somehow it took until Riot Fest 2011 for me to see Descendents live. I pounced on those tickets as soon as they went on sale. That show is permanently etched into my brain. I remember each song causing the crowd to ebb and flow like the waves on a California shore, many bodies and shoes got sucked up in the wake. Ever since then, Descendents have been a staple in the Riot Fest lineup, appearing pretty much like clockwork every other year. I’ve missed them a couple of years, conflicts are always a bitch. This year, I had them circled with an exclamation point. A throng of people crushed the NOFX stage prior to the set. Due to the sound bleed from St. Vincent, you really had to get into the teeming mass to avoid the cacophonous interplay. After nuzzling my way through the crowd, I got situated just in time for them to break into “Hope.” Milo hopped up on the stage monitors in his usual stance as he sang, “I know my day will come…” Is there a more quintessential pop punk drummer than Bill Stevenson? Don’t say Travis Barker, although I’m sure Travis schooled himself on Descendents back in the day. If you haven’t seen Descendents, please do what you can to rectify that. They bring the goods in their live shows, for this set they played 29 songs including “Everything Sux,” “I’m the One,” “Myage,” “Bikeage,” “Van,” and “Coolidge.” Riot Fest, let’s make Descendents an annual act, like GWAR!
NOFX Friday, 8:30pm, NOFX World Stage
I can’t believe NOFX is hanging it up. The first time I saw them was at Metro in Chicago in 1998. I’ve seen them at multiple other venues in Chicago, in Washington DC, and I made a point of catching their Punk in Drublic album play at Riot Fest 2014. Now that Fat Mike and the boys have hitched up their wagons for one last hootenanny before they ride off into the sun, I had to catch as many of these sets as I could. Luckily, I made it to the Friday set. Of the three sets they played, for my money, Friday’s took the cake. I missed the first few tunes because I had to catch some of Fall Out Boy (see below). When I walked up, they dropped “Leave It Alone,” and safe to say they crushed it. NOFX has been touring for what seems like five years straight, they have their songs nailed down. For as loose and goofy as their stage banter is, the songs are tight. Some other standout tunes from this set were “Don’t Call Me White,” “Franco Un-American,” “My Heart is Yearning,” “Linoleum,” and “Lori Meyers.” All killer, no filler. I caught some of the Sunday set as well. Fat Mike notified the crowd that they would be playing “Good Songs” that just aren’t that “popular.” Deep cuts. I’m sure the hard-core NOFX faithful squealed with glee. Certainly, NOFX’s Chicago swan song provided something for everyone. On Sunday, they dug out an archive for the oldschoolers, “Day to Daze.” That song introduced me to NOFX back in 1992 when it appeared on the Epitaph comp More Songs about Anger, Fear, Sex, and Death.
Face to Face Friday, 4:00pm, NOFX World Stage
The best laid plans… during the Polaris set, we got our faces melted by the band, and all began to wilt under the scorching sun. Schedules and circles went out the window and we packed up our things and sought shade. The NOFX stage served as our oasis. Lucky for us, the lineup at the stage was stacked. We caught some of ALL. They ripped. Next up was Face to Face. FTF is a classic California punk band. They’re gritty with a pop sensibility. I like their music, and I absolutely love their genre apparently. Whenever I listen to Bad Religion, Teenage Bottlerocket, or even Ramones on Spotify, some FTF gets thrown into the mix. I like them by association! So I was not bummed that we got marooned in the woods for the FTF set. These guys lay every song down with precision. I’m not the biggest fan of audience participation, maybe I’m an old curmudgeon, I have to say the audience really nailed the “Who-oh-oh-ohs” in “Bill of Goods.” Face to Face crammed the set with some classic jams like “Ordinary,” “Walk the Walk”, “Complicated,” and of course the closed with the timeless anthem, “Disconnected.” I have to give Trevor Keith (frontman) credit, there was a damn dust cloud due to the moshing and hot/dry conditions, he (and the others) were wearing black in 90 degree heat, it was four in the afternoon, and he cracked a beer. Hard core.
The Lawrence Arms Friday, 5:30pm, NOFX World Stage
By this point, hometown heroes The Lawrence Arms have seen it all. They’ve played a million festivals, traveled the world, eaten at Dennys. Even with all that, how they ended up on a bill with Face to Face, The Circle Jerks, and NOFX I’m sure escapes even them. The sun pounded the stage when they stepped out there. Dust clouds obscured the performances, to put it succinctly, it was brutal. The arms will never let you down though. They rambled and cajoled through their set unscathed. Although the set did not dig into the early deep cuts the crowd (I) was looking for, it did mine the gold of their discography. They dropped “Quincentuple Your Money” early, a crowd pleaser. The sound bleed from New Found Glory interrupted Brendan’s ramblings and he asked Chris, “Who’s playing? Are they better than us?” Glad they snuck “The First Eviction Notice” in there. “Porno and Snuff” films brought the house down and hearkened back to the Metro shows of the early 2000’s. “Are You There Margaret, It’s Me God” closed it down. Safe to say, those dripping in sweat, and coated with dirt, testified to this ripper.
Fall Out Boy Friday, 8:15pm, Cabaret Metro Stage
You may be wondering how I could be writing about Fall Out Boy when their set occurred roughly simultaneously as NOFX. You’re good. The way I do it, is to just completely make up the whole article. I didn’t even go to Riot Fest. I just watched YouTube videos. I kid. I wish I could have caught more of FOB, but what I did catch, crushed. They opened strong with “Chicago is So Two Years Ago,” “Grand Theft Autumn,” then “Sugar, We’re Going Down.” Talk about whipping the crowd into a frenzy. To foment the flames, they then played “Dance, Dance” and a couple of other tunes from From Under the Cork Tree. FOB has so many hits, they can just drop toasty nuggs all night long. Which is basically what they did. As mentioned, I cut out for NOFX, but FOB left an impression.
