Closing Out Riot Fest 2010

By aaroncynic in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 11, 2010 7:00PM

This weekend, I checked out as much of Riot Fest as one person possibly could. With so much going on in so many different places, it was hard to choose between shows, but I’m not disappointed in my decision to mainly stick around the Congress Theater Saturday and Sunday. On Thursday, I interviewed Chris Hannah from Propagandhi before their show at Metro.

Friday at the Congress began earlier than we could arrive, but we managed to catch the Bouncing Souls first. The Souls always put on a fun set get a crowd ramped up and singing along and the Riot Fest set was no exception. Singer Greg Attonito even managed to pull off the entire set hopping around on a broken toe. The Circle Jerks came on next and completely blew everyone away ripping through 20 of their best songs including “Coup D’Etat,” “Letter Bomb” and “Junk Mail.” To everyone’s delight, they ended their set with a handful of Black Flag tracks including “Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie” and “Revenge.” Bad Religion closed the night out with a flawless performance, doing their best to play as many crowd pleasers from their 31 year catalog. They managed to even sneak in a handful of tracks off their new album, The Dissent of Man.

Still recovering from Friday, we headed back to the Congress early Saturday evening and managed to catch the Flatliners, who pumped out a tight punk/ska set. Anti-Flag took the stage next, opening with their anthem, “Die For The Government,” covered “Should I Stay or Should I Go” by the Clash a bit later and ended their set with their drummer Pat playing in the crowd. Following Anti-Flag was Buffalo’s Snapcase, playing their first show in the U.S. outside of their home town in years. Their set mainly focused on their later releases but they still managed to play a couple songs off Progression Through Unlearning. Still, we’d be remiss if we didn’t express some slight disappointment that they left songs like “Incarnation” and “Windows” off the set list. However, we were very fortunate to interview singer Daryl Taberski, which we’ll have up later in the week. Gainesville’s Less Than Jake tore through a fun rendition of their 1996 album Losing Streak. Easily, the bulk of the crowd had the most fun during LTJ. Pennnywise blew through a speedy set and got the entire Congress Theater shouting along to the classic anthem “Bro Hymn.” The Mighty Mighty Bosstones ended the evening with a set we found a bit lacking and slightly lukewarm. While they generally put on a good show, it lacked the same non-stop energy the rest of the night had.

Overall, Riot Fest was well worth spending the entire weekend. We’re familiar with some of the complaints: There are probably too many bands spread out too far, making it more than difficult to get to see everything. It can be pretty costly if you missed out on the multi-venue passes. However, we feel the shows we were at pleased most people, most of the time and for a show this big, that’s the best anyone could hope for.

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