All Words and Photos: Emily Sisson
https://www.facebook.com/esofficialstudios
Fall Out Boy fans had been eagerly awaiting the return of their hometown heroes when the screen on stage began playing a video of a film reel counting down from 10. The band’s headlining set on Friday was jam-packed with timeless classics that the band had carefully selected, highlighting the very best of their over 20-year discovery. This set was filled with songs from all 8 of Fall Out Boy’s studio albums, spanning all the way from “Take This to Your Grave” released back in 2003 to “So Much (for) Stardust” released last year in 2023. Their first three songs of the show, “Chicago Is So Two Years Ago,” “Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy,” and “From Under the Cork Tree,” brought the band back to its birth and were heightened by their extravagant and ever-changing backdrop. The stage they performed on consisted of changing scenes such as the cabin wall from the “Sugar we’re going down” music video as well as a 30-foot winged sheep swinging from the rafters. This setlist is rumored to be the same set they will play during their “When We Were Young Festival” performance later this year in Las Vegas, NV. During “Sugar, We’re Goin Down,” Rise Against’ singer Tim McIlrath joined the band on stage for a spectacular rendition of the 2005 smash hit. Singer Patrick Stump exclaimed, “God damn I love ya. I got a little emotional just now. That was incredible. We’re Fall Out Boy. It’s great to be home.” As they worked to get through all 27 of the songs on their setlist, bassist Pete Wentz chatted, “We got a curfew and they’re gonna cut the fucking power so we’re just going to keep playing songs.” Just as the song “Centuries” began, he chimed in again, “Thank you for believing in us and believing in our art. It makes us feel so good to be from here.” As the night came to a close, the screen behind projected an image of a magic 8 ball which the band directed questions to, asking for guidance on what to play next. Showcasing everything from sparks, flames, and boatloads of confetti through their nearly two-hour performance, Fall Out Boy ended off their set with a firework show that would make a small township ashamed of their annual holiday budget. During their final song, “Saturday,” with a little help from friends, Pete handed off his custom Ernie Ball magic 8 ball bass guitar and was lifted into the sky and carried off by what we as the audience could only believe were powerful magic-filled rainbow balloons.
Polaris, the Australian metalcore band consisting of vocalist Jamie Hails, guitarist Rick Schneder, bassist Jake Stanhauser, and drummer Daniel Furnari, rocked an early time slot during the opening day of RIOT FEST 2024 to an engaging crowd ready to throw down. From the beginning of their set, Jamie ordered everyone to open a “circle pit of Hell,” and they obeyed. He then screamed, “This isn’t a fucking basketball game, get off your asses!” as they rocked out in the blistering hot sun. The crowd, many of which gathered to start a Rowboat Moshpit, seemed quite energized by the early performance, despite the nearly 90-degree heat. In 2017, upon the release of their first album “The Mortal Coil,” Polaris listeners like myself were quickly hooked on the band’s idealistic sound. The album was swiftly nominated for the 2018 ARIA Award for Best Hard Rock or Heavy Metal Album as well as Album of the Year at the J Awards in the band’s home country of Australia. Their second album, “The Death Of Me,” shocked many by being “a record about losing faith in yourself and the world,” says Daniel Furnari. Song number two on the album, “Hypomania,” hit us with a wave of post-hardcore existential dread that left us asking serious questions that invited us to look into ourselves instead of “Being a slave to substance or machine.” The album, which takes us through a rollercoaster of elements, reflects a band that has not only created their own new addictive sound but one that resembles the likes of scene favorites like Beartooth, Every Time I Die, Slipknot, and Bring Me The Horizon. The latest release from the band, “Fatalism,” was announced earlier this year following the release of “The Death of Me” in 2020. Back in June of this year, the band was faced with a loss that buckled its structure more than any could ever imagine. On June 20th, the loss of guitarist Ryan Siew was revealed, one day after his death and amid the band’s already begun Australian tour. For being one of the first bands at RIOT FEST, they were quite energetic and certainly a crowd favorite, and we are thankful for their continued journey that Ryan helped start.
By the time The Warning came on, the crowd at the Cabaret Metro Stage was already densely packed. The band wasted no time opening with their song “S!ck,” and audience members were quickly mesmerized by the group’s punchy rock and heavy instrumentals. The Warning has been releasing songs since early 2015 as young adolescents brimming with potential. Now 9 years later as adults ages 19-24, their potential is still brimming, but the Villarreal sisters have amassed a Spotify listener base of over 900,000 monthly listeners and still continue to impress the masses. The once-held appeal and awe that was derived from the shock value of 3 young girls rocking out to a bad-ass cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” would not be a success that they could ride off of forever, yet they drove to set themselves apart. The Warning has managed to perfect a sound that takes ages for many musicians to accomplish and at such a young age they continue to pave their way and foster their talent heading towards what I hope is a long-standing career in music. Videos of Alejandra Villarreal’s bass skills have been flooded all over social media from fans and onlookers who still find amazement in the talent and charisma held by this 19-year-old bass player. The sisters recorded their first EP “Escape the Mind” after raising money on their own through a Go Fund Me campaign. Shortly after that, they appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” where they performed live and received an additional donation of $10,000 each to attend a five-week training program at Berklee College of Music which they documented and shared online. Their newest Full Length record “Keep Me Fed” was released June 28th of this year and the band is now currently on tour promoting the album until April of 2025. Most all the songs the band played are from the newest album “Keep me fed” with the exception of “EVOLVE” from their 2022 album “ERROR” of which they ended their set.
Since 2015, Hot Mulligan has been creating music for the masses of outcasted youth and self-deprecating young adults. For years now, their lyrics continue to sink their teeth into our brains and help us let loose, coping with our daily struggles. Opening with the song “How Do You Know It’s Not Armadillo Shells?” off their 2009 album “Pilot,” the crowd was immediately turned into one moving mass as crowd surfers began swimming over the barcade one by one. RIOT FEST is no stranger to having Hot Mulligan grace their stages, nearly two years ago in September the band played their first RIOT show and released their entire RIOT FEST set to their YouTube channel, professionally filmed and audio engineered. Along with being invited back this year, the band was given their own after-show at METRO where their set ran till 1:30 am! “Any milk drinkers in the audience?” Guitarist Chris Freeman asked as he invited the RIOT FEST crowd to indulge in a circle pit while the song “Drink Milk and Run” was performed. “Being alive is difficult and in my experience, it does not get much better. How about a song about it?” singer Nathan “Tades” Sanville states during the interlude to “Shouldn’t Have a Leg Hole but I Do.” There was one big surprise during this set, however. The band played a debut song to unsuspecting audience members, announcing the debut performance of “Fly Move (The Whole Time),” a song which was released with an accompanying music video just one day before.
Cypress Hill got down to business Friday afternoon just as the unforgiving sun was dying down. B-Real and Sen Dog gave the crowd exactly what they wanted with high energy and good vibes. Starting their set off strong performing the songs “Hand on the Pump” and “Cock the Hammer,” they quickly drew in attention. Among the colored lights and large screen backdrop, they highlighted their set showcasing a giant inflatable skull smoking a blunt. As the skull inflated, the crowd held their breath in suspense. Their setlist was jam-packed with tons of classics from their album “Black Sunday” but still leaving room for hits like “How I Could Just Kill a Man” and “Illusions.” They had the crowd thumpin’ and left us remembering exactly why we label the duo as icons. They gave RIOT FEST a performance of their all. The song “Hits From The Bong” invited fans to light up and smoke their legal recreational green with fellow concert-goers. Ending the set playing “Insane in the Membrane” and even closing with a tremendous cover of “Jump Around” by House of Pain, all while playing to a beautiful sunset, who could ask for more?
Festival-goers were caught by surprise when Suicidal Tendencies was suddenly dropped from the Sunday RIOT FEST schedule. Thankfully, the band was reinstated the week of the festival with a new Friday 4:45 time slot. Once their time came to perform, the band wasted no time starting their explosive set with “You Can’t Bring Me Down.” Lead singer Mike Muir screamed, “Chicago, I wanna know one thing, what the hell is going on?!” Guitarist Mike Clark jumped on top of their 6×10 stack, positioning him more than 9 feet in the air. While everyone immediately thought, “What do you do now? It’s too high to jump,” Clark did just that, sticking the landing with a slight buckle in his legs. He fell to his knees and continued playing like a true showman. I was immediately in awe of the stage presence the group brought to the festival.
Suicidal Tendencies has been around since the 80s, yet they played a show that ran circles around these younger punk acts. The crowd went crazy, and the band was locked in. They proceeded to play multiple endings of “You Can’t Bring Me Down,” with the rhythm getting heavier and heavier with each chord progression. During the song “I Shot the Devil,” Mike Muir went into a speech about not taking sides and just being who you are. They then busted into “The Church of Suicidal,” during which a beautiful unprompted mosh pit was formed. Mike then asked if there were any skateboarders in the audience. He proclaimed, “This next song is dedicated to you. I love skateboarding. The first couple times I did it, I fell on my ass and it hurt. I asked my brother what’s the trick to skateboarding. He said, ‘The trick is you fall down, you get your ass back up.’… This one’s for all the skateboarders!” The crowd had a great time, and the band was having as much fun as their audience. Clearly, this is a band that despite their age has a lot left in the tank. If given the chance to see any show of theirs, this is a must-see!
As the sun was setting, Sum 41 gave the crowd an extremely high-energy set. From the first couple of songs, it was obvious they were here to show us a good time. Deryck Whibley asked, “Where are my crazy motherfuckers?… Is that all you got Chicago?” The crowd was already high-energy, so the idea that the band was able to push the audience into even more of an excited frenzy was impressive. Deryck, lead singer of Sum 41, recently published his first autobiography, stating he had too many stories that needed to be shared. After 24 years of being lead singer in an iconic punk band, how could you not?
The band is now in the midst of their farewell tour, the “Tour of the Setting Sun.” This tour has been stated to be the final concert tour in support of their eighth and final album, Heaven :x: Hell. This tour, which started February 7th, will be running almost nonstop, taking a few breaks all the way into the end of January. Hitting locations like Caen France, Barcelona Spain, Budapest Hungary, and Hamburg Germany, it’s evident their farewell will be bittersweet with fans around the world. The last show of the tour will wrap up back in their home country of Canada. After their sold-out RIOT FEST CHICAGO afterparty set on September 18th, RIOT FEST was a perfect location to wrap up their long run for fans in the Midwest. They stayed toward the newer material but left enough room for classics to make the crowd happy. As their set came close to an end, the band went into a raucous version of Queen’s “We Will Rock You.” Guitarist Dave “Brown Sound” Baksh busted out a solo in the middle that gave way to the crowd’s response of “We will rock you!!!!” Deryck later asked the crowd if they wanted to hear the older stuff. The answer was a resounding “Yes!” They threw down with their smash single “In Too Deep” and left the Riot Fest crowd more than satisfied.
The Offspring, with 11 studio albums, more than 40 million records sold, and among the select few who have been immortalized by none other than Weird Al Yankovic, continues year after year to bring that same energy and anticipation as they did back when we were in high school, despite the earth’s gravitational pull. Their show this year at Riot Fest was no different. The anticipation had everyone on their toes as an inflatable skeleton 40 feet began to grow and expand. After an intro of a soothing voiceover telling us to “Indulge ourselves,” the band played a short snippet during the set from an interview speaking on the release of “Come Out and Play.” As they left their audience hungry to sing the energetic bop, they did not disappoint and delivered just that. The Offspring dedicated this performance to their hit album “Smash,” playing all 14 songs but leaving one till the very end. Singer Dexter Holland sarcastically stated, “Well there you have it, that’s Smash. It went by fast didn’t it, it was a fast record.” Guitarist Noodles replied, “All thirty years went by fast, yeah… Did we skip one?” Soon enough, the crowd was all chanting the melodic intro to “Self Esteem.” Certainly a band that most all attending fans have indulged, this once-in-a-lifetime performance was one for the books. Ending with songs “Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)” and “The Kids Aren’t Alright,” The Offspring was surely a highlight performance this RIOT season.
About Author
