ON THE RIOT TRACK
were not handed out, as they are at Pitchfork and Lollapalooza, for environmental reasons, she said.
Another problem was dangerous crowding at the smallest stage that happened to host big-draw artists including Joan Jett and Public Enemy. Crowds were narrowly squeezed, primarily because food and drink vendors situated close to the stage, giving the audience limited room to move. Crowd- ing was also evident at one of the two main stages Friday when Fall Out Boy stopped its show twice to encourage the audience to step back, and to allow for the removal of concertgoers who felt crushed.
What Riot Fest corrected compared to Lollapalooza and Pitchfork is wait time outside of the music. Lines were short or nonexistent for food and drink vendors and also for the portable toilets.
Six ambulances were called late Saturday near the end of a set by Blink-182. While police said that the injured may have overdosed on drugs, West said that two of the five people whisked away suffered asthma attacks and two others were security guards who had minor injuries. She called the ambulances the result of “an abundance of caution.”
“There were absolutely no drug problems whatsoever,” she said.
Riot Fest is branding itself as the punk alternative under the open sky to most other genres that dominate their competition. That means a festival where punk is split with ska, pop, thrash metal, spoken word, alt-rock and more.
The best example of this hybrid was shock-rock metal band GWAR. The band, dressed in cartoonish gladiator gear, did its best to
ensure boundaries were crossed and offenses were universal. Besides the liquids spewed across the stage, the band ushered in a beleaguered Christ figure, sexualized clergy and European royalty, and other over-the-top props to keep the spectacle big and broad.
On the other side of the spectrum was Joan Jett, a pop-rock class act offering endurable hits (“Do You Wanna Touch Me,” “Cherry Bomb”) that had multiple generations singing along in unison, and new songs that fit right in — like “Make It Back,” a song detailing the hardships of Hurricane Sandy victims — that rang with the maturity of her years.
Near the end of her set, she introduced the crowd to Laura Jane Grace, the transgendered lead singer of Against Me! They sang “Soulmates to Strangers,” a song they co-wrote for Jett’s upcoming album.
Friday also marked the return of Chicago’s Fall Out Boy to its largest hometown audience since the band paused its career four years ago, mostly due to the distraction created by bassist Pete Wentz’s tabloid celebrity. Lead singer Patrick Stump dedicated the set to “anyone who was there” at the band’s Knight of Columbus show in Arlington Heights back in 2003.
The band revealed its new chapter as an electro-rock band with new songs from “Save Rock & Roll,” released in April. The new songs didn’t sound like much of a departure than older fare like “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” and “The Phoenix,” except for their harder rock edge and the muted presence of Wentz, who minimized his circular stage twirling, which was probably for the best. Stump once again proved to be the secret weapon of this band with vocals that soared but might be better matched by stronger material.
Public Enemy, a Brooklyn hip-hop crew that emerged as the music’s fiercest — and back then, the most threatening — provocateurs of their day, played Saturday. Most songs were from nearly three decades ago, but the crew made them sound relevant today. “911 Is a Joke” was dedicated to Trayvon Martin, while the recent song “Hoover Music” applied to the current threat of government spying programs.
Musically, they proved the most versatile of the festival: heavy beats from DJ Lord, flashes of acoustic and hard rock electric guitars and even rapper Chuck D closing down some songs with harmonica.