{"id":62455,"date":"2025-09-21T11:00:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T16:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/?p=62455"},"modified":"2025-09-21T11:46:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T16:46:32","slug":"riot-fest-20th-anniversary-2025-day-2-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/?p=62455","title":{"rendered":"Riot Fest 20th Anniversary 2025 – Day 2 Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By C.D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second day of Riot Fest 2025 brought a little rain, great sets with one clear standout, and a<\/em> moment in Riot Fest history that will never be forgotten.<\/em> Indiana-based shoegazers Wishy brought a breezy, melodic set to the early part of the day,<\/em> and the one-two punch of The Cribs and Superchunk firmly established this year\u2019s focus on<\/em> rock and punk, with both bands crushing their sets that seemed to go by in a flash.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Screenshot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Superchunk\u2019s new album, \u201cSongs in the Key of Yikes,\u201d is one of their best in years, and<\/em> vocalist\/guitarist Mac McCaughan seems to be aging in reverse, bringing the goods as hard as<\/em> ever on new tracks like \u201cCare Less\u201d and \u201cEverybody Dies\u201d; the triumphant chorus of \u201cSlack<\/em> Motherfucker\u201d felt like a rallying cry to the \u201890s kids-cum-adults in attendance.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And what would Riot Fest be without Gwar? Everyone would be less wet from questionable<\/em> alien substances, of course, but no one really wants that. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From the opening of \u201cFuck This<\/em> Place\u201d to \u201cGor Gor\u201d to \u201cEl Presidente,\u201d which saw an effigy of Elon Musk beheaded before an<\/em> alien version of our \u2018fearless leader\u2019 sprayed gallons of blood on the crowd, Gwar\u2019s live show<\/em> remains a Riot Fest highlight.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Manchester indie-pop band James were a fantastic addition to the afternoon\u2019s lineup<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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and The<\/em> Front Bottoms were a dose of jubilant singalong energy from start to finish, with<\/em> vocalist\/guitarist Brian Sella\u2019s unique speak-sing vocal style telling stories to a massive midday<\/em> crowd as Marky Ramone and his crew pounded through an hour-long set of Ramones\u2019<\/em> tunes in trademark \u201c1-2-3-4!\u201d fashion. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Buzzcocks were a fun bookend to Ramone\u2019s set as<\/em> well, with a set that focused on the fan favorites like \u201cEver Fallen in Love\u201d and \u201cOrgasm<\/em> Addict.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Since time immemorial, the specter of John Stamos has hung over Riot Fest, guiding its hand<\/em> and serving as its spirit animal for all these years, though hopes of his appearance have been<\/em> consistently dashed. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Beach Boys took the stage as evening fell for a set stacked with a<\/em> truly stunning array of timeless pop songs like \u201cGod Only Knows,\u201d \u201cSurfer Girl,\u201d and \u201cSurfin\u2019<\/em> USA\u201d (which actually saw some crowd-surfers, perhaps a connection that vocalist Mike Love<\/em> never bargained for). <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And who, you ask, played guitar, bongos, and drums? None other than<\/em> the man himself, John Stamos, who was clearly having a blast and mugging for the crowd<\/em> throughout the set. The circle is complete, Riot Festers.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As objectively as possible, I\u2019ll just say what everyone seemed to be thinking, if crowd reaction<\/em> was any indicator: Jack White is untouchable, and his criminally-short setlist was, thus far, the<\/em> highlight of the weekend. Opening with a gnarly, abbreviated version of The Stooges\u2019 \u201cTV Eye\u201d<\/em> before the blistering \u201cOld Scratch Blues\u201d from his most recent album, White paused only long<\/em> enough to rally the crowd into singing along at times, helping drive the running melody of<\/em> \u201cSeven Nation Army\u201d and the chorus of The Raconteurs\u2019 \u201cSteady As She Goes.\u201d It was<\/em> primarily a set of hits, though deep-cut \u201cWhat\u2019s Done is Done\u201d from 2018\u2019s Boarding House<\/em> Reach saw a lovely full-band arrangement and a savage version of the White Stripes\u2019 \u201cBlack<\/em> Math\u201d was a reminder of just how effortlessly White commands a band; the only artists that<\/em> compare, historically, are Prince and James Brown.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Day 2 was, by all estimations, one of the most memorable for the fest, which remains a bastion<\/em> and escape for music-lovers, particularly given the state of the world right now. As White<\/em> noted just before the band tore into \u201cBroken Boy Soldier,\u201d \u201cthere ain\u2019t no Gestapo-brown shirts<\/em> in charge tonight\u2026rock n\u2019 roll is in charge tonight!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Damn right.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on Riot Fest, click here<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For photos from Riot Fest Day 2, click here<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By C.D. The second day of Riot Fest 2025 brought a little rain, great sets with one clear standout, and a moment in Riot Fest history that will never be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,38,39,20],"tags":[398,199,656,1721,1720,1605,173,130,1603,1723],"class_list":["post-62455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-festivals","category-music-news","category-reviews","tag-20th-anniversary","tag-chicago-music-news-live-venue-interviews-reviews","tag-gwar","tag-james","tag-john-stamos","tag-marky-ramone","tag-riot-fest","tag-the-beach-boys","tag-the-damned","tag-wishy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62455"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62471,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62455\/revisions\/62471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}