Riot Fest

LIve in Chicago (part two) (2014)

TomTrauma

For part one, you can go here.

Meanwhile, back in Chicago……
Sunday's highlights:
1. The Bouncing Souls. Great set early in the afternoon. Lots of stuff from How I Spent My Summer Vacation and Anchors Aweigh. They got the hungover masses moving.
2.Social Distortion/The Cure. Both bands played songs from throughout their long careers. Mike Ness was pretty animated. Social D was yet another personal favorite. Robert Smith still has that hair. The Cure's set was very good, but a bit subdued for the closer.

Sunday's lowlights:
1. Cheap Trick. They played at the same time as Social Distortion. I was not able to catch them. Typical of the scheduling conflicts for an event this large.
2. Weezer. They sounded good to me, but we couldn't even get close enough to see the giant video screen. This was the epitome of the traffic bottleneck problem. It's hard to justify huge ticket prices if you can't get to the bands you want to see. There was definitely a couple I was bummed to miss.

I would like to thank Riot Fest for allowing me to see a lot of great bands I might not have been able to otherwise. Thanks for The Replacements, Iggy and the Stooges, Descendents and Cock Sparrer, just to name a few. I'm sure you're nice people, and you have very good taste in music. Unfortunately, I think it's time we part company. Punk rock needs to be an intimate experience, and you just can't get that standing in a field a hundred yards away. Maybe I've gotten to old to fight the crowds. Maybe I just need a change of scenery. Either way, as of right now, I have no intention of going to Riot Fest 2015.*

*I reserve the right to change my mind based on the line—up.