Sadly, Dead Kennedys Won't Be Reuniting To Play Riot Fest This Year
By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 20, 2017 3:51PM
Today in news-that's-not-happening news: the Dead Kennedys will not be reuniting to play Riot Fest this year.
Riot Fest is running up a pretty good track record of getting bands back together that you never thought would share the stage again. The two most high-profile of these bookings were The Replacements in in 2013 and last year's once-impossible-to-imagine appearance by The Misfits with original singer Glen Danzig.
Riot Fest organizers have told us in the past that the primary drive behind their booking philosophy is to assemble bills with bands they actually like and are fans of, and according to Dead Kennedys guitarist East Bay Ray, Riot Fest wanted to get that band back together this year. However, this looks to remain in the "you'll never see this reunion" camp. Singer Jello Biafra reportedly has no interest in rejoining his old bandmates onstage.
In a Facebook post from last week Ray said:
Dead Kennedys had a sincere invitation to play a reunion show at Riot Fest in Chicago this fall. Jello Biafra turned it down. Klaus Flouride, DH Peligro and I were looking forward to doing it
Biafra has a long history of accusing his old bandmates of selling out and coasting on The dead Kennedys name—an accusation similar to Danzig's earlier beef with the remaining members of The Misfits. If anyone has shown they can heal that kind of dispute to get a band back onstage it has been Riot Fest, but in this case a Dead Kennedys reunion seems even out of their considerable reach.
We reached out to Riot Fest for comment and will update if we learn anything new.
[h/t Consequence Of Sound]