Ready for Riot Fest?

by | Sep 8, 2014 | Festivals, News | 0 comments

While summer festival season is almost a memory,  it’s not quite over yet, as Riot Fest is coming to Chicago this weekend. The festival will occur over the span of three days with headliners including The National and The Cure. Riot Fest began in 2005 when music fanatics looking to have a monumental concert booked a multi-venue weekend that consisted of bands such as The Misfits and Dead Kennedys from the punk and rock genres. After a couple years the organizerss of Riot Fest realized the magnitude they wanted to provide could not be contained in a mere couple of venues and so the event expanded to Humboldt Park in 2012. Not only did the venues expand, but they added carnival rides into the mix as well. As we’ve mentioned before, 2014 marks the 10th anniversary of Riot Fest so the festival will not only take place in Chicago, but in Toronto and Denver as well!.On their website, the founders explain that they are “fans first” and that their goal is simply to plan some unforgettable shows. These guys are definitely going about this the right way because who better to map out one of the greatest festivals around than huge music fans themselves? The bands have their jobs because fans from around the world make it possible.

Here are some metal things to watch at this weekend’s festival:

  • GWAR will be performing their second show without Dave Brockie, following their triumphant return last month at the GWAR-B-Q. They proved they were up to the task in front of an audience of GWAR fans (bohabs), but now they have to convince casual fans.
  • Slayer, Samhain, and Jane’s Addiction will be playing full albums from start to finish. Hearing Reign In Blood, Initium and Nothing’s Shocking played in their entirety will be exciting, especially with the latter two albums not having been played in their entirety in a while.
  • The union of Primus and Tool as Tool drummer Danny Carey sits on Primus’ shows while Tim Alexander continues to recover from open heart surgery. It’s the closest you’ll be getting to see him drum for Tool for a while.