I missed Riot Fest yesterday but I had a blast DJing my friends Justin and Carrie's wedding last night. So after a few hours of sleep I am back in Humboldt Park enjoying a beautiful day and waiting for some music. I noticed right away that the stage props on the Roots Stage belong to Social Distortion who play later tonight.
The Menzingers kicked off my day with a solid set of punk songs. They were very popular with those who arrived early.
My first mohawk of the day...all is right with the world.
Chrissy read that this band, Survay Says! are fans of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. That was enough for us to check them out.
I am really glad we did because they were a lot of fun. Besides the mic issues early in their set, they cranked through a bunch of punk and ska songs that had people dancing throughout their set.
Love me a good horn section...
...and a friendly pit of skank dancing kids.
The band had some entertaining dance moves of their own.
I loved the mix of people enjoying the music.
When I first saw this I thought about those who grew up under Ronald Reagan's influence and how they destroyed America, then I realized it is also the name of a punk band. I am pretty sure the band agrees with my first thought.
A beautiful day for some punk music...
...which was provided by old timers...
...and youngsters Team Spirit...
...this old punk chick enjoyed both bands.
Posters of some of the previous Riot Fests we have attended.
Evidence of just how muddy this park was on Friday.
The Whigs rocked Sunday afternoon from the Rise Stage.
Then I finally saw a long time favorite of mine, The Hold Steady.
We stopped by the Revolt stage to check out Tiny Moving Parts...
....that's where I saw this t-shirt. Then we checked out Naked Raygun but the crowd was huge and the sound was fading in and out where we were standing so we headed over to see Lucero...
...and stopped for a little homo erotic wrestling...what the hell it never hurt anyone.
Not sure this is a wrestling move but what do I know...
...I know good music and this band definitely plays good music.
Singer Ben Nichols waiting out a fight in front of the stage...He joked about a fight happening during their one slow song.
Please bring more horn sections back into rock 'n' roll.
He wasn't use to performing this early and needed a little whiskey to feel right.
Christy showing off her practical punk style in a still muddy park. We watched the Dropkick Murphys from way in the back. Their set was pretty lackluster and the sound was terrible.
Hometown band, The Blue Meanies. They play a hardcore version of ska music. That's how I decided to describe the band.
We hung out for most of their set, it's been about 20 years since we've seen them play live.
The female background singers added color to the stage.
All the drink booths had amusing signs about tipping the servers. Besides this one, my other favorite was "It puts the tip in the basket or else it gets the hose."
The sound on the Roots stage was pretty bad all day long...surprise it was bad for Social Distortion too. I was kind of pissed because several of my favorite bands played on that stage today. So we grabbed a spot up close at the Riot stage for one of my all time favorite bands...The Cure. Since The Cure were the only band all weekend to have 2-1/4 hours of stage time. I figured we would check them out for an hour or so then catch Weezer on the way out...
...sorry Weezer, I still love you but The Cure were smoking hot tonight.
We sang and danced along to an amazing set by Robert Smith and the band. The famously mopey singer laughed at messing up the lyrics then danced and jokingly just sang la la la as the crowd sang the chorus to Close To Me. What a great way to end Riot Fest for us. A beautiful night in the city of Chicago with Cure songs playing for all to enjoy.
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