VINTAGE PERFORMANCES
Smashing Pumpkins, Living Colour bring back good memories with stellar sets
Day 2 of Riot Fest got underway Friday afternoon in Douglass Park beneath sunny skies and warm winds. And even a sprinkling of rain late in the evening couldn’t dampen the spirit of the thousands of festivalgoers who showed up for the daylong music event.
Nighttimers included Lupe Fiasco, Beach Bunny, Smashing Pumpkins, Coheed and Cambria, NOFX and a whole lot more.
Dayside sets included a host of musicmakers including Living Colour, Amigo The Devil and Fishbone, the latter offering up a full play of 1991’s “The Reality of My Surroundings.”
Here’s a look at some of those Day 2 sets:
Smashing Pumpkins
Seeing a band play its hometown is one of the defining moments of live music, and watching the ownership Chicago fans have for The Smashing Pumpkins truly never gets old — nor does a full crowd of people singing the lyric “the city by the lake” like it’s their birthright when the band explodes into “Tonight, Tonight.”
There are few bands that can still evoke the feeling of a time so viscerally as The Smashing Pumpkins can with the beginning notes of songs like “Cherub Rock,” reminiscent of the Wicker Park art scene three decades ago where they got their start.
Founding members Billy Corgan, James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin were a display of unity with their full reunion finally coming to fruition in 2018. Still missing is original bassist D’Arcy Wretzky, though the addition of Jeff Schroeder rounds out the troupe well and pads out the lush sound that dominates their catalog.
On this night, the band chose to stick with the classics, with all the chips on the table on songs like “1979,” “Zero,” “Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” “Today” and new song “Cyr.”
One of the real treats of the set was “Eye,” their contribution to the “Lost Highway” soundtrack, for which they brought out Meg Myers (who delivered her own set earlier in the day) for vocal duties.
Later, the band brought out local guitarist Michael Angelo Batio for a searing rendition of “United States” that added even more of a heavy metal tinge to the track.
Clocking in at nearly two hours long, the homecoming performance was one to write home about.
Living Colour
Living Colour had a special guest in tow for their set — not that the magnetic performance from the alt metal-funk fusion masters needed anything extra to set it over the top.
Pro wrestler CM Punk came to the stage to introduce the act’s final song, their mega hit “Cult of Personality,” which is also famously his entrance music.
Guitarist Vernon Reid has Mensa-level licks that could conjure the spirits of the long-gone blues underworld, while vocalist Corey Glover has a voice that oozes rhythm with every note. Glover will go down as one of the most colorful characters of the weekend, not just for his vibrant rock star persona but also literally for what he wore. Dressed in a neon green suit and orange dreads tucked under a bowler hat, the “A Clockwork Orange”/Willy Wonka vibe worked for him as he was clearly visible headbanging at the front of the crowd and letting loose his uncompromising vocals on songs like “Ignorance is Bliss” and “Love Rears Its Ugly Head.”
Amigo The Devil
Day 2 got off to a twisted start with the darkminded singersongwriter. The artist, born Danny Kiranos, brought out a heavy bag of murder ballads and revenge songs paired with expressive facial twitches that made you wonder if you should maybe avoid eye contact as he rolled through the set.
From the lurid step-by-step detail of how he’d exact vengeance on a person who harmed a child in “Better Ways to Fry a Fish” to the Jim Jones-inspired song “Hungover in Jonestown,” Kiranos’ set was mired in the macabre and a good bit of cabaret theater that made him an early favorite of the day.
Jokingly describing himself as the “fat Dave Grohl,” Kiranos’ comparison was fitting in at least the same way he is able to command a crowd — and does it solo, on top of it. Though Kiranos does move well between acoustic and electric guitars and the banjo, it would be interesting to see him with a full backing lineup to really amplify the shock and awe he delivers. A cover of “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” was a bizarre best bet but it’s his original material that makes him our true crime-obsessed generation’s new Johnny Cash.