After a 3-hour rain delay, the gates finally opened at 2:00 Sunday and the masses came pouring back into Douglas Park for one more day of Riot Fest Festivities. With The Cure scheduled to close the festival later that evening, Day 3 promised to be nothing short of legendary.
Here’s a recap of Riot Fest’s final (muddy) day:
Earth Crisis
The first stage one encounters when entering Riot Fest is the Rise Stage, which is literally right around the corner from the entrance, so you can’t help but at least overhear or pass by whoever is playing there upon entry. And then in the case of Sunday, that band happened to be Earth Crisis, whose punishingly heavy sound no doubt helped shake off any rain-delay-related cobwebs for the thousands of folks streaming back into Douglas Park. The band are champions of animal rights, straight-edge ethos, and kicking a serious amount of ass in a live setting, which is exactly what they did to kick off Day 3. While they do sport a hardcore-punk flavor, their heaviness is generally more down-tempo and pummeling in nature, somewhat recalling Crowbar as they were jamming away. Whatever the case, they crushed it live, helping to get day 3 started on a decidedly heavy note.
Fleshwater
Around the corner at the Rebel Stage (which typically features more under-the-radar/up-and-coming acts), was a promising new band by the name of Fleshwater, who sports a melodic alt-rock sound that somewhat recalls nu-metal in its tone/intensity, but with a subtly grungy-flavor. The melodic element is in large part thanks to lead singer/guitarist Marisa Shirar, whose vocals have a gracefully mournful quality to them, which helps compliment the band’s reverb-heavy, downtrodden/groovy attack. Performances of songs like “The Razor’s Apple” and “Linda Claire” were particularly pretty killer, kind of like their broader set as a whole, which whipped up a beautifully natural moshpit (the Rebel stage doesn’t have a pesky center-barricade), that even included some bees (you know your band is good when even the bees are moshing). Overall, Fleshwater is definitely a band to keep an eye on, as it wouldn’t surprise this reviewer to see them performing at progressively larger stages at Riot Fest in the coming years.
The Bronx
Often there are bands at festivals that may not particularly be on your radar, but you catch them in passing or at the tail end of their set and you think to yourself: “they sounded really good, if they’re here next year, I’m going to make it a point to catch their entire set.” Such was the case for this reviewer the past few years when checking out bits and pieces of The Bronx live at Riot Fest. They always made a positive impression, so this year yours truly setup shop in the thick of things for their late afternoon set at the Rise Stage. This proved to be a very good decision, as The Bronx ended up putting on one of the most outright fun and memorable performances of the entire festival, thanks in large part to vocalist Matt Caughthran’s highly energetic and enthusiastic performance.
Dude had great command of the stage and the crowd at large, and even climbed into the fray to perform “Knifeman” after orchestrating a huge circle-pit that swirled around him. Those of us on the other side of the barricade initially felt a little left out, but of course, he proceeded to jump over to our side of the ruckus to perform “Six Days a Week”, as the crowd delightfully swirled around him. All the while he stayed in the center of the pit, like the eye of the storm, singing his guts out, which was a truly awesome thing to behold. Cheers to The Bronx, who played with a hell of a lot of passion and clearly love their fans, as evidenced by Caughtrhan’s forays into the crowd. As he put it: “you can’t buy that on Amazon” (in reference to the band’s rhythm section, but also applicable to his ballsy performance in 2 separate moshpits).
The Dresden Dolls
The last time this writer saw The Dresden Dolls, they were opening for Nine Inch Nails at The Warfield in San Francisco way back in 2005. So, suffice to say it was kind of a trip to catch them again on the main stage at Riot Fest, some 18 years later, still doing their delightfully suggestive burlesque-flavored mime act before a sea of thousands of people. But nonetheless, their performance Sunday evening translated from the big stage remarkably well, considering their peculiarly dark cabaret style. Throwing in a cover of the Beastie Boys’ “Fight For Your Right” was somewhat surreal coming from them, but somehow it worked, along with their cover of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” (which seemed a little more up their alley). The Dresden Dolls are hard to take your eye off live, as their set proved to be uniquely captivating overall.
The Mars Volta
It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since The Mars Volta burst onto the scene and blew everyone’s collective minds with their now classic debut album Deloused in the Comatorium. Since then, they’ve continued to challenge their audience with their distinctive brand of experimental progressive rock that can often be a bit mindblowing, which is a fitting description for their performance as the sun was setting across Douglas Park Sunday evening.
Kicking off their set with “Roulette Dares (The Haunt of)” from their aforementioned debut album was of course a fantastic way to start their performance. And kind of like their career (and that album) as a whole, from there, things got weird. But in a wonderfully mind-bending way of course. This was particularly the case during their performance of “Cicatriz ESP”, which ended up being their last song of the evening, mainly because it seemed to last an eternity. While it probably technically only lasted 20-30 minutes, the band managed to make it feel as though all matter, time, space, and energy came to a complete standstill with their hypnotically dense mindfuck of a performance, which included a spellbinding flute solo that probably left most of the crowd scratching their heads.
By the time they brought everything back to the chorus, it felt like you had ventured inside a black hole and been spit back out, which is a testament to the cerebral/psychedelic nature of the band’s performance. It’s The Mars Volta live, so it’s not merely a performance, it’s an experience (man)!
The Cure
Soaking in The Cure’s two-plus-hour performance to close out Riot Fest proved to be quite an experience in its own right, albeit in a completely different way from The Mars Volta of course. In contrast, The Cure was mesmerizingly pristine live, as their beautifully lush waves of sound seemed to cast a dreamlike spell over the audience. Indeed, as the first legit chill of the entire weekend settled over Douglas Park, The Cure’s distinct brand of shimmery melancholy fit perfectly as Robert Smith serenaded a sea of thousands huddled together in the cold dark night.
It was frankly kind of magical really, as the emotional resonance of songs like “Love Song” and “Just Like Heaven” (to name a few) just hit differently in a live setting. The Cure proved plenty capable of revving things up occasionally (“Burn” sounded like a tsunami of sound for example) but even when they did, there was just this overriding sense of majesty and beauty about their music that reigned supreme. Overall, The Cure sounded heavenly (pardon the pun), and proved to be a near-perfect closer for what proved to be a fantastic Riot Fest 2023.
Final parting tidbits:
Best random tank top spotted: Fat Goth Slut
Best porta potty nickname spotted (yes Riot Fest put nametags on some porta pottys):
- Clogging Molly
- Honorable mention: C’mon Barbie Let’s Go Potty
Did John Stamos finally show up at Riot Fest this year? No (and please stop asking him)!
