RIOT FEST CHICAGO- DAY ONE – FRIDAY

STEP RIGHT UP, DON’T BE SHY! COME ONE, COME ALL, TO THE EVENT OF THE YEAR!

Come step into Riotland and get whisked away into an entirely new world full of wonder, magic
and rock music!

Hello ZRockR! Sara here coming at you with a fresh take of Riot Fest 2024 as this is my first time attending such a massive festival. Five stages, a carnival, burlesque performances, and a certified freak show. Over ninety bands took to the stages of Riot Fest and played their hearts out to almost, wait for it, almost fifty thousand attendees. It unfortunately was impossible to get to every single artist, although I wish I was able to do some mitosis and split myself to see everything, but we are going to go through everything we were able to see and give you guys all the nitty gritty deets of the whole festival.

People R Ugly
We started out today with a band I truthfully never heard of but was nevertheless incredibly impressed by their set. People R Ugly really set the high paced and energetic tone for the day with some 20 th Century Fox Fanfare and following it up with both original and iconic covers. My personal favorite cover, the iCarly Theme Song, brought back lots of nostalgia in all the best ways. This LA based band describes themselves as “Your Mom’s favorite band” on Spotify. Thanks guys for really setting a high energy pace that really kept up throughout the entire day! Can’t wait to hear more from them in the future.

Zheani
Next on the list is the Aussie born, independent rapper and artist Zheani who gave a wickedly enchanting performance. Drawing inspiration from several genres such as industrial, hip hop, drums and bass, screamo to create a unique sound she dubs “Fairy Trap”. This artist seems to have nothing short of a cult following as most in her audience knew every single word to all her songs. I’ve personally been following her since about 2019, so this was especially a little treat for myself. Really love her and can’t wait to see her back in the States, hopefully sooner rather than later.

The Warning
Coming all the way from Monterrey, Mexico, hot and fresh off their 2023 tour Guns N Roses and their 2023 VMA’s performance, this kickass group of sisters started and ended a bang with that classic rock sound that really got the crowd moving. Every single member sang in this band including the drummer, which like how? I can barely keep a tempo much less even imagine playing the drums AND singing. With songs in both English and Spanish they got enough to keep you rocking. Can’t wait to see more from these ladies in the future!

ALL
Next up is one of my personal favorites, ALL! Hailing from Los Angeles, California and Fort Collins, Colorado, this band truly encompasses the fast pop punk sound expected of the members who come from a slightly more well known band, I don’t know if you guys have ever heard of them, The Descendents? I genuinely wish that ALL would get the same amount of attention as its counterpart because they are just as good gosh darnit. With songs like “Worlds On Heroin” and “Breakin Up” this was not a performance to miss. Anytime I get to see Bill Stevenson tear it up on some drums I’m gonna take the chance. If you love The Descendents, please, please, PLEASE give ALL a chance.

Cypress Hill
You know Cypress Hill is playing if you can follow the smell of weed to their stage. Accompanied by a giant inflatable weed monster these boys really showed who’s the boss of stoner music around here. Sen Dog and B-Real told us what was up with songs like “When the Shit Goes Down”, “I Wanna Get High” and of course “Insane In the Brain”. They closed out the festivities in a cloud of smoke with a cover of “Jump Around” and the crowd was in fact a’jumpin.

Public Enemy
How the fuck did I not realize that Flava Flav was in this band? Complete with choregraphed dancers, this set opened on “Show ‘EM Whatcha Got” and boy did they show us what they got. They still got it! Flava Flav and Chuck D threw down with a bright and hard hitting show. They played tunes like “911 is a Joke” and “Rebel Without a Pause” and of course ended the night with “Fight the Power”. Flava Flav was wearing a “Support Women’s Sports” shirt as he just made recent headlines for his support of the USA Women’s Water Polo team for the 2024 Olympics.

The Offspring
You ever wanted to hear the entirety of “SMASH” played all in one go for its thirtieth anniversary? Well you should’ve been there at Riot Fest on Friday because that’s what they did! Not only that they also played about every hit song they had, from “You’re Gonna Go Far Kid” (my personal favorite) and “Self Esteem”. I will never get tired of seeing these guys live, Dr Dexter Holland himself sounds just like he did on the original album, you wouldn’t think that “SMASH” came out in 1994.

Fall Out Boy
Be still my emo heart, I finally got to accomplish a lifelong dream that my little fourteen-year-old self would kill to see. We unfortunately couldn’t get up there with the camera, so Alex and I just enjoyed from the back of the crowd. My favorite part about this set in general was the fact that they included a song or several from each one of their albums so everyone got to hear something that was near and dear to their heart. For me those albums were “From Under the Cork Tree” and “Infinity On High”. Not one person around us wasn’t singing along at some point within the set, its always such a treat to see such a loved band get to feel that love in person. Thanks for the memories boys!!

Day one was a success for us here at ZRockR! It’s so cool to see so many bands of so many different genres coming together for one common goal, to rock the fuck out!!

Additional Galleries:

Drug Church

The Exploited

The Lawrence Arms

PHOTO CREDIT: All Live Photos by Alex Sanchez for ZRockR Magazine (c) 2024- All Rights Reserved