Words and Photos: Emily Sisson/ ESOfficial Studios
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Weezer, the indie rock icons, took the stage for the headlining show at Douglass Park Saturday night, taking us all on a blue voyage that was out of this world. A show that shared generational enjoyment and took time not only for just the hits, but niche classics, paying homage to their deep rooted fans. The intro on screen was a cinematic style scene where the band “Weezer” were being called to action for a journey to space after the sudden discovery of a Blue Planet. Even though I know this is a joke, I can’t help but feel slightly heightened and on edge at the sight of a giant clock ticking down in front of the 50,000 of us. A newscaster appeared and speculated “Scientists have detected a stress signal from extra terrestrial life. A mysterious ‘blue planet’ 30 light years away…. And we’re live with Weezer to discuss the voyage. Tell me boys, are you ready to go where no Ween has gone before?” “Absolutely, I’m excited to meet new civilisations.” says Brian Bell. “No. This is stupid.” says Rivers Cuomo. Once on stage, the crowd roared and welcomed them loudly, thus their spaceship finally ascended. The band then broke out into the song “Anonymous” starting off the Voyage takeoff segment of the show. During this beginning portion the band powered through hits across various albums aside from “The Blue Album”. “Hash Pipe”, “Pork and Beans”, “Beverly Hills”, “Island in the Sun” and “Perfect Situation” played all in succession. All of these kept a steadily set high bar of excitement throughout the performances. After ending the song “Run, Raven, Run,” the lights on stage shut off, apparently caused by an asteroid collision. “Where the heck are we?” Rivers asks. An automated intelligence voice replies back “Looking for parts to fix the ship. We are currently in an asteroid belt”. “Hmm, what asteroid belt? It looks familiar.” He asks. “The Pinkerton Asteroid Belt.” the voice replies.
This portion of the show showcased songs from the album Pinkerton. Songs like “Getchoo”, “Why Bother?”, “Pink Triangle” were played. The asteroid belt set ended with “I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams”. All while fans who were unable to attend, silently kicked themselves, sleeping on the pullout couch in their parents unfinished basement. Finally the band landed on The Blue Planet, Rivers struck the ground with a flag brandishing Weezer’s crest and turned to the audience. “One giant leap for Weezer-kind…” he says. When “My Name Is Jonas”, the first song on the blue album finally began, the crowd finally lost any cool they might have claimed they had before the show. The excitement we all had, ready to hear the Blue album played straight through, was palpable and immense. This song had essentially matched that high excitement level of the first segment of the show and raised it for everyone in attendance. Crowd participation was heavy on songs like “Buddy Holly”. During its interlude, a group of strange blue humanoids gathered on the screen. “Who are those dudes?” Brian asks. “Those are the Weezer-oids. The aliens from the Blue Planet…..I know that because I am one of them. This is where I’m from. And so are all of these guys…” says Rivers as he points to the crowd. They play the song “Undone – The Sweater Song” and spoof some of the lyrics to Chicago references. “… I think I want to go, but my friends don’t really want to go. Can I get a ride to North Damon Avenue?” The final notes on the end of “Say It Ain’t So” reminded us that we were close to the end of our album play through and the audience united in unison to sing its chorus. “Thank you Chicago, thank you, Beach Boys. I’d be here even if Weezer wasn’t playing man. Thank you guys so much for sticking with us, on the voyage to the blue planet. It’s been 30 years! Tonight was the last night we play this show, so thank you for playing with us.” During the final song “Only in Dreams” the band played off of each other’s talent, working the song into a crescendo of feeling and settling the crowd to completion. Fireworks shot off in the sky, and every single person at the festival found themselves walking out the gate to consume a Sonoran hot dog from the nearest local street vendor.
Saturday brought many oddball punk types to Douglass park, those young, old and only young at heart. The day was highlighted by an appearance by the band “The Beach Boys”, ft.John Staymos on drums. There was plenty of excitement to be had. We caught up with the band Cliffdiver after their afternoon set, intervened in a dispute between Gwar at the RIOT fest porta potties plus witnessed and jammed out to one of the best acts of the week, Jack White. We met so many interesting fans this year as well. The first set we attended from “Free Throw” was on the RISE stage. We caught up with Christian and April after the performance who are fans of the band. “At this stage, we’re here all day!” Christian says. “We’re most excited for Knuckle Puck!” says April.
Helmet immediately drew the audience’s attention, delivering an ornate and captivating set. The band took to the Radical stage at 2:20pm Saturday to play through their 1994 Hit album “Betty”. Frontman and creator Page Hamilton played his bright pink ESP Horizon guitar, creating raspy tones and organic rhythm through their cranked up PA speakers. Fans and artists like Jack White watched from side stage, highlighting the idea that this band was not only a master of their musical craft but spectacles for masters alike. Throughout the years and throughout all the lineup changes the band has seen, Helmet has influenced many memorable acts while experimenting, molding and ultimately creating their clever and polished sound. During the opening song “Wilma’s Rainbow” the sound techs wrestled with audio difficulties through Hamilton’s microphone, giving the audience a partially instrumentalized rendition of the tune. Once all was resolved halfway through the song, audience members were met with a wave of gruff and husky vocals on top of Hamilton’s hardcore atmospheric rhythm. During their set, Page mentions to the audience that this performance at Riot Fest would be the second to last performance of the album in full! Later clarifying to Bearded Gentlemen Music that they would only play the album “Betty” in full once more during a show planned in Australia, due to the popularity, as well as the anniversary of its 30th year. Finishing off this set was a handful of songs from a range of their older albums, “Give It”, “Unsung”, “Just Another Victim” and “In the Meantime” closed the show.
Gwar – Taking the stage and stirring up controversy yet again, the band performed a lively and chaotic metal set filled with classic qualities and other worldly performing styles, gore mixed with absurdism. Often a staple act during the Riot Fest season, GWAR never fails to be one of the most engaging performances of the festival year after year. However, it’s hard for anyone in the crowd to unengage themselves when blood is actively being shot into the audience following the decapitation of a polarizing political figure or billionaire, apparently. It seems almost silly to spectate because of how silly the show makes itself out to be, but over the weekend, some uninformed internet users took to social media to complain about the band’s Riot fest performance claiming “Gwar is normalizing violence”. With all the talk, Michael “Blöthar the Berserker” responded to Billboard magazine amidst the uproar, calling their act “a parody of violence.” “We’re not millionaires that are afraid of what people are going to say when they see what we do… We’re a group of artists that makes art, and it’s really the idea that what we have done is normalizing violence… There’s nothing normal about the violence that goes on at a Gwar show. It’s a cartoon, it’s Looney Tunes… It’s trying to make violence into a spectacle and show humanity’s absolute absurdity. That’s what Gwar is, it’s absurdism. To say it’s normalizing violence is really reaching.”
The Front Bottoms – took to the ROOTS main stage Saturday around 5pm. The band played their record “Back on top” in its entirety for a crowd full of heartbreakers with an apathetic flair. Following the “album playthrough” motif Riot Fest conjured up, “back on top” stands as one of the front bottom’s most popular records. Opening with the song “Motorcycle” Singer and writer Brian Sella delivering an emotional, engaging performance. The energy in the air was palpable as the sunset. “Have an awesome festival, fuck ICE.” He says before seguing into the final song on the album “Plastic Flowers”. Along with their mainstage set, the band also made an appearance at The Bottom Lounge earlier that Friday night for a RIOT FEST “after show” alongside the band “Sincere Engineer”. Celebrating 10 years of the “Back on Top” album. The front bottoms are currently on tour, set to play until late December. Saturday’s show ended with a handful of songs spanning across multiple albums including the songs “Tighten Up”, “Joanie”, “Outlook” and the final song “Twin Size Mattress”.
Dropkick Murphys – played a set fit for a Celtic king. Thumping drums and heavy bagpipes create a backbone for their classic folk punk sound. Starting the set off with a peppy rendition of “The Boys Are Back” singer Ken Casey jumps around the stage giddy and joyful while clips of rowdy hockey fights shine on the screen behind them. Playing songs across their wide array of album releases, the next song in the lineup was “Skinhead on the MBTA” from their 1998 record “Do or Die”. No stranger to political discourse, during the song “Bury the Bones” the screen behind them aired images of KKK members, modern day nazis and Donald Trump in parallel symbolism. The audience raised their middle fingers up in unison and screamed “The people must have the power if this world is meant to survive!”. Their second to last song and most recognizable tune “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” made way for a very rowdy crowd to fully lose control. As the sky changed from light to dark, the band transitioned to their final song of the night. The last song of the set was “The Big Man”, a song commemorating friend of the group “Fletcher Dragge”, the guitarist for the punk band Pennywise. As the band began to play Casey Spoke “We challenge you right now, as we have every night since we started playing this song. Let’s make this fucking pit the biggest of the weekend. If you don’t want to dance, get the fuck out of the way! Move it! Come on Chicago!”
All Time Low – played a set packed with everything from classics to their brand new releases. The band graced the Riot Fest stage for their second ever appearance, armed with pyrotechnics and colorful Las Vegas imagery. Headlining the RISE stage for night 2, frontman Alex Gaskarth says he had been eager to come back to perform, after attending the festival for the past few years in his free time. The band had not played Riot since 2016. Kicking off the hour long set with their new song “Suckerpunch”, a 2025 single. The band came out guns blazing, jumping, pouncing and running around the stage. For a band who mainlined the myspace and warped tour era, it was fun to see that that energy they used to bring to their shows has yet to change. The audience agreed, discourse post concert revealed fans admiring the comradery amongst the crowd and the collective electricity the band brought to the stage. The show encouraged dancing, crowd surfing, and singing, making the show a very feel good event for everyone in attendance. The bands newest EP “Butterflies” has been released the day before this set and already had many in the crowd chanting along. Just before the transition to the song, Alex spoke up “If you know it. I need you to sing it at the top of your lungs, and if you don’t know it. I need you to open this place up like no one’s ever seen it before” “Vocals and circles.” Jack adds.
Jack White – performed arguably one of the best shows of the weekend. His crowd draw was incredible and his stage presence was unmatched. With crowd participation, genuine connection and great sound, Jack White gave us exactly what we wanted! Starting off with a cover of the song “T.V. Eye” by “The Stooges”, Jack is entertaining without needing any filler; No flashy sets, no fireworks, only pure talent. With such a large number of White creations being memorable and iconic, it was exciting to hear a handful of songs he had composed through his most memorable ventures, “The White Stripes” and “The Raconteurs”. This would be Jack White’s first time playing Riot fest as a solo name, his last appearance with “The Raconteurs” on September 15, 2019. This show also drew a large crowd to Douglass Park, but was nowhere near as big as the turnout that showed up for this year’s Riot fest performance. A big talk this year was Jack White’s surprise appearance during the “IDOLS” Sunday night Riot fest show where he accompanied the band in a group performance of “Never Fight a Man With a Perm”. Whether you’ve been following his music since the 90s, only know his hits, or just stayed for a good time, it’s clear his music is grounded by his love of classic artists like Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. With his endearing flair for the dramatic I can’t get enough. Whether it be utilizing unique pedals or experimenting with improvisation, the end result is a true showman working the crowd as if he was born to be on the stage. Jack white brought his larger than life energy and swagger, performing songs with such flair they sounded astonishingly revitalized! Mixing in songs from the albums “Boarding House Reach”, “Lazaretto”, and “No Name”, Jack never failed to capture our attention. It’s not often you find an act that arrives so naturally gifted without need for filler, to any guitar enthusiast, the act was a holy grail. Finishing up the set with the absolute classic “Seven Nation Army”, you would be hard set to find anyone in the audience not singing along to this one of a kind stadium anthem lullaby.
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