2024 Riot Fest Day Two (NOFX, Fun and Dust)
Karina Deniké / NOFX - All photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
After the excellent food the previous night, we decided to check Yelp and find a breakfast spot in Chicago that would continue the culinary experience. We ended up at Wholey Granoly, where I had probably the best mushroom omelet that I’ve ever had (and the coffee was excellent). As soon as we finished, we started the race to get to the festival in time for Princess Goes.
Michael C. Hall / Princess Goes
We made it in plenty of time for Princess Goes, which is the only band this weekend that I was excited for that was not a punk band. We even caught the end of The Codefendants (they were singing “Suicide by Pigs”) on the NOFX World stage on our way over to the AAA stage. The signer for Princess Goes is Michael C. Hall, who starred in the TV shows “Six Feet Under” and "Dexter”. Michael is rumored to be currently filming both a prequel and sequel to "Dexter", which I cannot wait for. “Dexter” is a show about a serial killer that kills other serial killers, and it’s excellent, if you haven’t seen it you most definitely should. Michael also has a great voice, and we were glad that we caught this set.
As soon as Princess Goes left the stage, it was a race back to the NOFX World stage to see The Dead Milkmen. Their set was a lot more energetic, and full sounding, than I expected. They blazed through a bunch of classics, including “Punk Rock Girl," “Big Lizard in My Backyard,” and “Bitchin’ Camaro.”. Throughout their set, I started working my way to the front in anticipation of a string of great bands on this stage, and potentially grabbing a rail spot for NOFX a second night in a row. Something that defined the day was dust. After the heat the prior day, the pit was dry, and every time the crowd started moshing, there was a huge cloud of dust that covered everything. Even the VIP area (with no pit) was dust covered, people were choking and coughing, and at times it was hard to even see the band right in front of us. It was manageable though, and there was a periodic breeze that would clear the air.
Joey Shithead / D.O.A.
D.O.A. took the stage next, and started by explaining that Joey Shithead had recently injured his leg. He didn’t want to cancel any of their upcoming shows, so he was powering through but wouldn’t be jumping around quite as much. I had seen them recently in Detroit, and the set was essentially the same with a version of “Fucked Up Ronnie” reworded for Donald, and Joey stopped and slammed a beer during The Prisoner. It never gets old, they are one of the best punk bands of all time, no question. They also did a club show during Riot Fest, but we just didn’t have the energy.
Dillinger Four
I was eagerly awaiting Dillinger Four, as they were one of the few bands on the roster that I had never seen live. Their songs are generally both noisy and catchy, but this set sounded clean (the music was clean, the air was filled with dust). Their 13-song set included my favorite of theirs, “Mosh For Jesus", but was missing “Honey, I Shit The Hot Tub” to be perfect. To be honest, I didn’t know all of their songs, and some of the ones I hadn’t heard before sounded great. This set will prompt me to go back through their discography and rebuild their set list as a playlist on my iPod – this is one of the best things about festivals.
Joey Cape / Lagwagon
Fat Mike was sidestage watching Lagwagon, and he has impeccable taste. I also consider Lagwagon to be one of my favorite bands, and Joey Cape to be one of the best songwriters in punk rock. Their set included most of my favorites (with “Violins” being a standout), they did their cover of Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl", and finished with the classic “May 16”. Joe Raposo was missing on bass, which was a slight disappointment, as he is my personal favorite bass player (I’d recently seen him, and Lagwagon guitarist Chris Rest, revive their first band, Rich Kids on LSD for a show in Las Vegas). Overall though, this was one of the best sets of the festival.
Milo Aukerman / Descendents
I love the Descendents, but having them on stage also meant that NOFX was next. This was a massive set of almost 30 songs, but a lot of them were the ultra short ones. We got “Silly Girl", “I Wanna Be A Bear", “I Like Food", “Coffee Mug", “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up”, and of course, “Suburban Home”. Milo was looking great with a water bottle around his neck to stay hydrated throughout the set, and a classic ALL T-shirt. They are one of the best bands in the business, and a fitting lead-in to the headliners.
NOFX normally comes out to “Time Warp” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but they mixed it up and did a different intro tonight. The intro song was from a Broadway show Avenue Q, and was called "Schadenfreude,” which is German for “delight at another’s misfortune.”. That sounds just like NOFX.
Tonight’s set was closer to the advertised 40 songs per night, but also fell short by at least 10 songs. Again, there were no complaints considering this was the best set of the weekend (for NOFX, and overall). They kept the banter to a minimum, played most of the songs without messing them up, and the set included a ton of classics (“Seeing Double At The Triple Rock", "Louise", “Murder the Government", "Bob", “72 Hookers", “Green Corn", “The Separation of Church and Skate", “Dinosaurs Will Die" ) and they closed with “Kill All The White Man”. I was also surprised that they played “Drugs Are Good” which I can’t remember seeing live before.
This set also included their “7 songs in 8 minutes” medley, the AC/DC “Riff Raff” intro to “Dinosaurs Will Die", a Rancid cover, and the continuation of the “Slayer Snacks” stories. One more day to go!
