Riot Fest Day 2 Highlights: Viagra Boys, Mr. Bungle, Death Grips, Snap Case, Queens of the Stone Age (FESTIVAL RECAP)

If Day 1 of Riot Fest left folks feeling a little too sun-drenched, Saturday proved to be the perfect antidote, with a persistent overcast practically all day, and even some light rain showers thrown into the mix during the early afternoon hours. But with temperatures hovering the upper 60s, all-in-all the conditions were near perfect for another highly entertaining day of great live music.

Here’s a recap of Day 2:

Snapcase

Generally speaking, getting old can kind of suck, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Such thoughts came to mind while taking in Snapcase’s early afternoon set, with tolerable light rain coming down. For a band has heavy as Snapcase, who were one of the best alternative hardcore bands in the mid-late 90s (checkout Progression Through Unlearning for proof), to see them up on stage 30+ years into their career delivering a quality hard-hitting set was a very cool thing to behold. Sure, it’s possible they might have lost a step over the past few decades (blame it on the rain), and lead singer Daryl Taberski’s voice no longer has that over-the-top intensity to it (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), but whatever the case, that didn’t stop him from hopping down off stage (with some help from a nice bouncer) and jumping into the crowd during their closing number “Caboose”, which garnered the most enthusiastic response from the audience.

Throughout their show, Taberski seemed genuinely grateful and humbled to be performing on such a large festival stage after all these years, and the crowd rightfully showed their appreciation as well by consistently whipping up a pair of moshpits on each side of the center barricade. All-in-all, a great 1^st set to take in to help kickstart Day 2. Long live Snapcase (and that snare drum on Progression Through Unlearning).

Corey Feldman

An absurdly massive crowd of curious onlookers had gathered to witness everyone’s favorite ’80s era actor, the one and only Corey Feldman (yes, that’s right) take to the Radical’s stage for what proved to be a somewhat surreal performance. In fact, it was often downright hilarious, not only because the songs were so (intentionally) cheesy and sounded like parodies of 1980s hair-metal (i.e. “Deceptive Diana” and “Go For It”), but also because the Friday the 14th Part IV star brought with him some serious dance moves and frequent wardrobe changes that were clearly channeling his old pal: the late, great Michael Jackson.

Indeed, when the Gremlins star wasn’t performing topless, he was rocking his fedora and white V-neck shirt, or changing into a sparkling glittery unbuttoned vest (a clear homage to Dangerous-era MJ), all the while delivering those aforementioned MJ-esque dance moves. Throw in his often-hysterical stage banter, and it was a truly entertaining spectacle (for lack of a better term). In short, if the Goonies star is ever performing in your town, drop what you’re doing and go see him and his band immediately! You won’t regret it.

Viagra Boys

On the other side of the festival at the Roots Stage, an up-and-coming band by the name of Viagra Boys managed to deliver a pretty entertaining set in their own right. Similar to Corey Feldman, lead singer Sebastian Murphy also seems to enjoy performing topless (he ditched his Adidas track jacket after only one song), and also has a somewhat comical angle live (he had to check his phone for the lyrics to “Troglodyte”). But of course, the two bands couldn’t be more different stylistically (duh). Viagra Boys sport a distinctly irreverent down-and-dirty punk-rock sound often backed with some synthy beats that give their music kind of a muddied lo-fi dancy quality. Coupled with Sebastian Murphy’s sardonic delivery, Viagra Boys are a unique beast, somewhat like IDLES from a topical perspective, but more blatantly derisive. Whatever the case, the massive audience was eating up their performance, as evidenced by all the bouncing about and crowd surfing taking place. Good times.

Death Grips

Have you ever had your computer hacked? It can be a disconcerting experience to say the least. In fact, losing control of your computer can be downright frightening, especially if it starts behaving in a belligerent and threatening manner, with disturbing messaging, flashing wildly, etc.. In a nutshell, Death Grips is kind of the musical equivalent of getting your computer hacked by the most volatile, angry, glitchy, noisy, aggressive computer virus imaginable.

In a live setting, Death Grips performance was occasionally impressive, like when they would provide fleeting moments of head-bobbing, ominous rhythm coupled with Stefan Burnett’s consistently potent delivery on the mic. But unfortunately, those moments proved to be too few and far between, as for the most part Death Grips were just doing an excellent job of being abrasively noisy and disorienting for most of their set. The sheer intensity of their performance was impressive, no doubt, but it was often difficult to decipher/enjoy, which granted is kind of the point with Death Grips, but, whatever the case, if you liked harsh/grating/hyperactive arhythmic industrial-flavored noise, chances are you might have enjoyed some of Death Grips set. Moving on…  

Queens of the Stone Age

Josh Homme recently stated that, in his view, it’s kind of “cunty” for bands not to play their most popular songs at concerts. And he certainly put his money where his (dirty) mouth was Saturday night, wasting no time in getting the party started by kicking off their excellent set with perhaps their most popular song “No One Knows”. From there, the band mostly pulled from their more recent material, offering up saucy versions of songs like “Smooth Sailing” and the inherently sultry “Make it Wit Chu”. And although this reviewer was slightly disappointed they included zero songs from their first 2 classic (perhaps best albums), closing their set with an epic performance of “Song For the Dead” largely made up for that fact. Part of Queens of the Stone Age’s staying power comes from the fact that nobody else sounds remotely like them, which always makes seeing them live a uniquely awesome experience, which was certainly the case Saturday night. Great show, as usual. 

Mr. Bungle

When most people think of Mr. Bungle, thrash-metal is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. Demented, jazzy, schizophrenic, circus-metal, strapped to a roller-coaster headed to the gates of hell while tripping on acid: yes. But thrash-metal? No, not really. That is until recently anyway, when Mike Patton recruited a couple of legends from the scene in Dave Lombardo (of Slayer fame) and Scott Ian (of Anthrax fame) to re-record a 1986 Mr. Bungle demo tape that was essentially just straight-up thrash. And in a live setting, the band stuck to this new/old reincarnation of thrashy Mr. Bungle almost entirely, making them sound almost completely unrecognizable to the delightfully unpredictable/psychotic Mr. Bungle they are essentially known for.

And while this fact was initially a little surprising/disappointing live, Mike Patton & company quickly won over the crowd by delivering a fantastic performance of grade-A textbook thrash that would make Slayer blush. It was that good. In fact, after initially yearning for some traditional Mr. Bungle material, by the time they finally got around to playing “My Ass is On Fire” it sounded somewhat clunky/pedestrian in nature compared to all the blistering thrash that came before it.  In a nutshell, the thrashy brand of Mr. Bungle, while quite different, was delivered so emphatically, and the band’s playing was so airtight, it almost made the traditional Mr. Bungle sound of yesteryear become an afterthought by comparison, which is really saying something. Closing their set with a cover of Sepultura’s “Territory” only served to put the proverbial exclamation point on what was a powerhouse performance from the new/old Mr. Bungle. In a word, it was awesome, kind of like Day 2 of Riot Fest as whole.

Day 2 tidbits:

Best random t-shirt spotted: John Fuckin Denver

Best porta potty nickname spotted (yes Riot Fest put nametags on some porta pottys): 

• Chat G-Pee-Pee
• Honorable mention: Potty Rockers in the House Tonight