Chicago’s annual punk rock music festival celebrated its 20th anniversary from September 19th-21st with three jam-packed days of legendary music acts, full album play sets, and some notable local Chicago punk bands to celebrate Riot Fest’s Chicago roots. Opening day included headliners Blink-182, “Weird Al” Yankovic and Alkaline Trio. No matter your musical preference, there’s something for everyone to enjoy. Let’s get on with day one!
Alkaline Trio performed an album play-through of their second studio album, Maybe I’ll Catch Fire. We took a look back at this album released 25 years ago, check out that review here!
Celtic punk legends The Pogues featured an expanded line up to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their album Rum Sodomy & the Lash.
Knocked Loose put on a killer performance that kept everyone moving, as always! Last year they toured for their critically acclaimed album You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To, where we saw them at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom.
Touché Amoré ran the stage with their energetic and powerful vocals and equally enthusiastic fans.
One of the newest bands on my radar is The Barbarians of California, a metallic hardcore band from…California! With the tag line “They’re your new favorite band,” the act is collaboration from Aaron Bruno of AWOLNATION and producer/engineer Eric Stenman.
Chicago’s own metalcore group Harm’s Way joined the lineup of an already impressive amount of hardcore bands playing at Riot Fest. They are currently touring with the blackgaze powerhouse Deafheaven.
The New York hardcore punks Agnostic Front need no introduction. They performed their 1984 debut album Victim in Pain in its entirety.
A band I never had the chance to see live I was looking forward to on this day was The Didjits, a punk band formed in 1981 in Mattoon, Illinois (that’s just under 200 miles south of Chicago). They released five full-length albums through Chicago’s Touch and Go Records, an independent label that has a roster including the likes of The Jesus Lizard, Die Kreuzen, The Effigies and many more.
Honey Revenge is pop punk from California and slay on stage. Consisting of Devin Papadol on vocals and Donovan Lloyd on guitar, Honey Revenge bring an immense amount of fun energy on stage that you cannot help but dance and sing along to. On top of that the overall aesthetics is pretty fabulous if you ask me.
Harrison Gordon is “emo guitar music” from Normal, Illinois and they have made a name for themselves in the Midwest indie scene. Their latest EP Spring Break! was released in March of this year.
Last in our day one gallery (but certainly not the least) is another Chicago-local band La Rosa Noir. Part post-punk, part Midwest surf, La Rosa Noir has been conquering the Chicago music scene with their eclectic sound and dark hypnotic vibes.
Who were your favorite acts of day one? Check out the full galleries and be on the lookout for our gallery of day two!
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