After an action-packed Saturday that featured occasional light rain showers, moderately muggy and warm conditions greeted the masses returning to Douglas Park for the final day of Riot Fest. With a few classic East Bay punk bands scheduled to take the stage, Sunday felt like a mini-Gilman Street reunion for many, promising to make the third and final day of Riot Fest a memorable one, to say the least.
And that it was. Here’s a recap of day 3’s action:
Dance Hall Crashers
The first of those aforementioned classic East Bay bands on tap were the recently reunited Dance Hall Crashers, who took the Roots Stage and delivered a fun and rousing set to a sizable crowd under the steamy mid-afternoon sun. Fronted by the delightful dynamic duo of Elyse Rogers and Karina Denike, the ladies and the band at large did a nice job getting the crowd moving, as evidenced by all the skanking and crowd-surfing that took place during their infectiously jaunty set. With spunky performances of “Lost Again”, “Mr. Blue”, and the always fun “I Don’t Want to Behave”, the Dance Hall Crashers’ music effectively served as the perfect soundtrack for a sunny and carefree mid-afternoon ska dance party. Good times.
Bad Religion
A band that is starting to become a yearly staple at Riot Fest of late, venerable So-Cal punk stalwarts Bad Religion were next up on the Roots Stage. After treating the crowd to some of their classic songs like “Sorrow” and “American Jesus” in the first half of their set, for the back-half they performed their classic 1988 album Suffer in its entirety. As you might expect, the intensity level picked up a bit as the band ripped through jam after jam from that pivotable and highly influential album, which was probably the highlight of their set for yours truly. All in all, Bad Religion is always a surefire bet for a great time in a live setting, but their rendition of Suffer helped give their performance a little extra oomph heading into the evening.
IDLES
Speaking of bands that are a surefire bet in a live setting, Bristol punk powerhouse IDLES launched into their performance on the adjacent Riot Stage soon after Bad Religion wrapped up their set. Their distinctively bruising brand of post-punk was in fine form as the sun went down over Douglas Park, turning in powerful performances of cathartic songs like “Mother” and the rhythm-heavy “Car Crash”, both of which rightfully kept the energy levels high and the crowd at large moving. But the main highlights came via special guest appearances, the first courtesy of Jack White during “Never Fight a Man with a Perm” and lastly via Soft Play who helped close things out in raucous fashion with “Rottweiler”. Overall, a characteristically killer set as usual from Idles, but the special guest appearances (particularly from Mr. White) really helped put it over the top.
Jawbreaker
After Dance Hall Crashers helped kick off the mini-Gilman Street reunion earlier in the day, it was Jawbreaker’s turn to rock the Roots Stage and bring it all back home on the classic East Bay punk front. And bring it all back home they did, turning in a solid set of Jawbreaker jams that had everyone partying like it was 1994 again. Lead singer/guitarist Blake Schwarzenbach (who kind of looked like a punky 1980s-era Bob Dylan in a jumpsuit) playfully asked the crowd in between songs, “Are you guys through with 3 days of Riot Fest? Because there’s a lot more East Bay music to come”. Indeed, while many of us may have been running on fumes by that point in the evening, it was nonetheless near impossible not to enjoy oneself with Jawbreaker jamming away on stage, especially during performances of fan favorites like “Boxcar”, which was probably the overall highlight of their set.
Green Day
Last but certainly not least, the task of closing out an epic 3 days of fantastic music at Douglas Park fell on the shoulders of Green Day, who managed to exceed already lofty expectations by turning in a truly world-class performance that left no doubt of their stature as one of the best bands in the business. Indeed, they really pulled out all the stops during their often-explosive performance that lasted nearly two hours, which included pyrotechnics, confetti, a giant blimp with a frowny face and a “Bad Year” label, inviting a teenager on stage to sing “Know Your Enemy”, you name it.
Green Day’s highly interactive and engaging set couldn’t help but be riveting, not only due to all the aforementioned extracurriculars, but mainly because of the consistently rousing and genuinely enthusiastic nature of their performance as a whole. People tend to forget just how many incredibly fun and infectious songs Green Day have in their impressive catalog, but experiencing those songs in a live setting really takes things to delightfully invigorating and cathartic levels. How else can you describe the feeling of thrashing away to “Welcome to Paradise” live or singing your ass off along with thousands of other fans to “Basket Case”, just to name a couple of examples. On top of that, Green Day would frequently bait the audience and drag out the build-up to explosive sections like the “1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4” part to “Hitchen a Ride”, which of course causes everyone to completely lose their shit when the payoff finally comes.
They did this on a few occasions throughout the night, each time resulting in delightfully unbridled exuberance from the crowd, which, needless to say, was immensely enjoyable and awesome to be a part of. And then there’s the ballads, which, soppy as they tend to be, are nonetheless brilliantly composed and undeniably affecting, particularly in a live setting. “Wake Me Up When September Ends” hit a little harder, given the end-of-summer timing, and then there’s “She”, which is kind of the best of both worlds and sounded extra endearing Sunday night. But Green Day arguably saved their best ballad for last of course, closing out the night with the wistful classic “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”, an all-too-fitting choice to cap off what was a truly memorable and outstanding 20th iteration of Riot Fest.
Parting Riot Fest tidbits/observations:
Number of people who vomited next to me waiting for Jack White Saturday night: 1
Number of moshing (costumed) Jesus sightings: 1
Number of people in a wizard costume that compleminted my Meat Puppets shirt: 1
3-day cumulative Riot Fest steps total: 44,908
