Riot Fest rocked this year, but sometimes the banter speaks louder than the music and can be more memorable. Citizen — in their early set last Friday — talked about how nice it was that it wasn’t raining, as the sky opened and temporarily drenched the crowd.
Bands such as Tiger Army, Gwar, Refused and Morrissey were just a few of those making political statements during their sets. Most commented on the political system as a whole. Some were a little less discreet with their political leanings, when Gwar had Trump and Hillary deciding the presidential election in the form of mortal combat, clearly Hillary had the upper hand and was slapping Trump in the face with his own intestines. It is all part of an elaborate gory act. Tiger Army continued the mood on Sunday saying they are not a “political” band before breaking into another song.
For the past couple of Riot Fests, there has been a Riot Fest Speaks stage. At this year’s Riot Fest, in an election year, there were no speakers. Refused brought up a bigger issue during their set. While acknowledging that it appeared Riot Fest made an effort, they pointed out that women only represented 12 percent of the Riot Fest lineup.
Morrisey was late and many in the crowd were audibly annoyed instead of entertained by the music videos that were being shown while the crowd waited. The former lead singer of The Smiths compared the U.S. political system to the U.K.’s saying, “We just got a prime minister who we didn’t vote for… well you know the game.”
The bands that were most surprising were Enanitos Verdes, which featured a lot of technical guitar playing that was not heard anywhere else on Friday. On Saturday, The Walters were the most surprisingly energetic, even losing their shirts mid-performance. Sunday found the most surprising headliner performance in Deftones, when frontman Chino Moreno climbed on the shoulders of security people to get closer to his fans.
One of the more underwhelming sets was The Misfits; the speakers were not projecting loud enough for the entire festival to properly rock out. The Misfits closed the entire festival with original bassist Jerry Only playing with them.
