Impending thunderstorms required Riot Fest to end two and a half hours early and rejigger its lineup Saturday, but the mad scramble ended up making Day Two an exhilarating festival experience.
The late-afternoon speed round was foreshadowed at the end of The Suicide Machines’ 2 p.m. album play set, in which they whipped through Destruction By Definition. “We got eight and a half, nine minutes left,” said lead singer Jason “Jay” Navarro. “We did that way too quick.” The solution: “We’re going to do three songs as fast as we can.”
The ska-punk stalwarts, who recalled playing the first Riot Fest at the Congress Theater in 2005, blazed through “I Don’t Wanna Hear It,” “Give” and “DDT,” amping up the midday crowd before Navarro shouted, “We were Green Day. Thank you and good night!”
On to some fresher blood at the Rebel Stage, where Destroy Boys whipped up the young crowd with a tasty two-guitar attack. Singer Alexia Roditis, rocking a black body suit and a lot of attitude, shouted, “If you’re a woman, you’re a girl, you’re nonbinary, rock music is for you!”
Across the field on the Riot Stage, Quebec’s Angine de Poitrine played to a rapturous crowd, many decked out in variations on the avant-garde band’s black polka-dot attire. The masked duo calling themselves Khn de Poitrine and Klek de Poitrine delivered sonic delights with a drum set and a double-necked guitar/bass combo that worked as two instruments simultaneously thanks to looping. Guttural exclamations punctuated soundscapes mixing prog, funk and disco influences that would not be out of place in a King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard set.
At this point, the oncoming storms were threatening enough to force the festival’s hand, leading to on-the-fly juggling that included stage switches and truncated sets with the aim of wrapping up by 7:30 p.m. That’s when everything kicked into high gear. And while it might not have been fun for the artists, the festival speed run was a blast from the audience perspective.
The fast-forward portion of the day kicked off with Public Image Ltd., whose set was shortened to about 20 minutes. Frontman John Lydon (née Rotten) seemed to revel in the chaos, intoning that he saw no evidence of a thunderstorm. “We walk out with the same money” either way, he added.
Lydon, who did in fact make Friday’s Sex Pistols set seem like a karaoke tribute by comparison, sounded vital and edgy as he and guitarist Lu Edmonds delivered a taste of menacing dub punk and a dash of disco. The closing number, an epic, eight-minute version of “Rise,” was a festival highlight. Lydon, cranky and charismatic, commanded the stage, a malevolent blast from the past. Anger is indeed an energy.
The mood shifted quickly from angry to avuncular as Bob Mould took the stage next door. “This is my fifth or sixth time at Riot Fest, but the first time for Sugar,” he noted as the band powered through a delightful dose of alt-rock goodness punctuated by an upbeat “If I Can’t Change Your Mind” at the finish.
Mould kicked it over to Social Distortion, which delivered another wall of guitars. Tasty, straight-ahead rock n roll, the kind that never goes out of style. After a brief taste, it was on to the Rebel Stage where Descendents brought jovial guitar rock with some nice harmonies before segueing to punk “dedicated to the original dog, Iggy Pop.” Their catchy “This Place,” featuring the chorus “This place sucks,” is a fitting anthem for a festival that has embraced the ironic battle cry “Riot Fest sucks!” for lo these many years.
We took a break during Morrissey’s set (can you blame us?), but were back at it for Riot Stage headliners Tool. They brought their trademark cool art-metal vibe as darkness fell. Creepy videos, lasers, heavily processed vocals and guitar feedback galore. “Flight was delayed, set moved up, storms riding our ass,” said frontman Maynard James Keenan. “No time for the hair hat. Let’s do this shit.”
That left just enough time to bop back to the Rebel Stage for a taste of Bad Religion’s melodic punk as the rain started to fall. Whew.
Photo by Jason Pendleton
