Riot Fest 2018 Day Three – Review
Riot Fest 2018 happened. Despite fears that the festival would be cancelled due to major delays in second wave lineup announcements, Riot Fest 2018 happened, and it was great.
For those who don’t know, Riot Fest is a 3-day music festival that takes place in Douglas Park, Chicago, Illinois, and features mainly punk rock and alternative music.
Here’s how day three went:
Day Three: Sunday, September 16
I must admit, day three of Riot Fest had the lineup I was most looking forward. While checking out new bands and seeing how excited their fans are about seeing them on the giant festival stages, it’s even better when bands you personally love are finally get their time in the spotlight.
The first band of the day that I was super excited for was Mom Jeans, who were opening up the main stage. While they’re certainly a topic of debate amongst emo fans, it’s clear that they’ve found popularity with the Riot Fest crowd. Despite it being only slightly past noon, there was already a pretty big crowd compared to the same time the previous two days.
After Mom Jeans, I ran over to the Rebel Stage to catch Just Friends. Having previously listened to some of their songs, I was looking forward to seeing them live for the first time, and was not disappointed! They truly brought great energy to stage, and it was such a chaotic and fun time.
Up next on the Rebel Stage was a band I had just seen a few days prior, but was nonetheless excited to see again: Save Face, who has quickly become one of my favorite bands. They were amazing, as always, and I was so happy to see that the crowd was just as excited to see them as I was. This band is going places, so I highly recommend you check out their album Merci now, so you can say you knew them before they were famous.
After a quick break, I headed over to the Riot Stage to check out the hype about SWMRS. The only thing I knew about this band before seeing them was that Billy Joe Armstrong’s son was in the band, but I must admit that they definitely held their own up on that stage. The band’s stage presence was incredible, and you can tell everyone there was having an amazing time.
After the energy from SWMRS’ set, I decided to head back over to the Rebel Stage to catch The Bouncing Souls! Admittedly, I was a bit confused as to why they were playing the smallest stage, and the size of the crowd gathered to see them proved my point. This New Jersey punk rock band really brought the energy, and getting to see them play was absolutely incredible.
Up next on the same stage was the Dillinger Four and they were just as fun! I had never much listened to them before (other than playing them on my show a few times), but I’d definitely go to see them again given the chance.
While Dillinger Four was playing, I snuck over to the Rise Stage to check out Underoath. I didn’t really know much about them before going to check them out, but they were absolutely incredible. Spencer Chamberlain had an incredible stage presence (and hair) and I hope I get the chance to photograph their set again sometime as they were another of my favorite discoveries over the Riot Fest weekend.
The last band of the night that I got to see was Bad Religion. I was especially excited for this set, as I knew they were scheduled to play their third album Suffer in full, which is an album I had listened to a lot when I was younger. What made it even better was that the album playthrough was the second half of their set, meaning that (since they were the last band of the night) I could drop my camera off mid-set, and still had plenty of time to run around and crowd surf to iconic songs such as “Give You Nothing” and “Do What You Want.” Not a bad way to end Riot Fest weekend 2018.
