#foo fest

[killazilla777]

im seeing this man in 24 hours.

[queeniemay39]

When you went to Riot Fest in Chicago and you were FRONT FUCKING ROW FOR FOO FIGHTERS!!!

Pics will be later I’m still in recovery from making eye contact with MOTHER

[giasesshoumaru]

Sent you a bunch. Lost count. Hope you're nearing max 💞

Thank you! I'm nowhere near lol. I appreciate it though.

[chaunceyandchumleysdad]

Aquadolls

Pinkshift

Kim Gordon

The Breeders

Foo Fighters

Riot Fest 2023 Day 1

Bands/Artists I saw/heard/sampled:

Aquadolls, Oragami Angel, Pinkshift, Parliament Funkadelic, Oso Oso, Kim Gordon, Quicksand, The Breeders, Turnstile, Foo Fighters.

[strangecaffeine]

[clownboybebop]

sweet lird I’m seeing my favorite band in september

[xkatchy]

I did the thing. Who's coming??

[mxdwn]

Foo Fighters and Shania Twain Team Up to Play “Best Of You” At ALC Fest

[chickrawker]

Foo Fighters at Riot Fest 9/15/23

Oh hey Chicago. Foos at Riot Fest? Yes please.

Foo Fighters

Riot Fest

Douglass Park

Chicago IL

9/15/23

All My Life

The Pretender

No Son of Mine

Learn To Fly

Rescued

Walk

Times Like These

Breakout

Run

My Hero

This Is a Call

The Sky Is a Neighborhood

Shame Shame

These Days

Generator

Aurora

The Glass

Monkey Wrench

Best of You

No surprises from Dave and the gang at this show. Dave has his stories he tells about Chicago. He always talks about how the first show he ever went to was here (which is detailed in his bio.) I've seen the Foos a lot and they are always good but this version of the band intros after Breakout was extra great. They did snippets of

Beastie Boys Sabotage / Ramones Blitzkrieg Bop / Devo Whip It / and NIN March of the Pigs (as a way to flex the other bands everyone has been it.)

This show seemed less emo than earlier this year at Boston Calling. Maybe because no Violet or Shane. But that's okay. They've definitely found their groove without Taylor and that is a good thing.

[sinceileftyoublog]

Riot Fest 2023 Preview: 4 Reasons to Come Early, 1 to Stay Late

Just Mustard; Photo by Olof Grind

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Is it me, or is this the biggest Riot Fest yet? The independently run festival has managed to book bands that can fill arenas (Foo Fighters, The Cure), in-demand anniversary full album plays (Transatlanticism, Give Up, Last Splash), and previous headliners as sub-headliners (Queens of the Stone Age). As always, though, there are just as many highlights in the fine print as on the first row. Here are our top 5 picks: 4 reasons to show up before sunset, 1 to stay till the very end.

FRIDAY

Quasi; Photo by John Clark

Quasi, 1:25 PM, Roots Stage

A couple years ago, if you had asked me what band I thought would have a post-pandemic reunion, Quasi would have been at the bottom of my list. The duo of Sam Coomes and ex-Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss hadn't released a full-length since 2013, and in 2019, a car crashed into Weiss's car, which broke both of her legs and collarbone. As it turns out, during her recovery and COVID lockdown, Weiss, along with Coomes, used free time to bang out new songs in Quasi's practice space. The result is their Sub Pop debut and first album in 10 years, the awesomely titled Breaking the Balls of History, released earlier this year. The album is certainly of a time and place, riddled with references to pandemic-era isolation and the anti-science Neanderthals that have dominated discourse on the political right. But what stands out more is how revitalized these two sound to play music together, and Weiss in general. If her departure from Sleater-Kinney came after an album that minimized her role as a drummer, her meaty fills absolutely dominate "Last Long Laugh", "Queen of Ears", "Riots & Jokes", and "Nowheresville". In tandem with Coomes' fuzzed-out guitar and warped keyboards, Weiss' timekeeping creates an almost retrofuturist aesthetic, 60's pop harmonies rubbing elbows with distorted keys and drums on tracks like "Shitty Is Pretty". And The one I can't wait to hear most at the festival is "Doomscrollers", a surefire anthem for those crumbling under the weight of the world--or their phones--and even "everyone else just tryna get by / To stay alive or at least not die."

Screaming Females

Screaming Females, 4:50 PM, Rebel Stage

Desire Pathway (Don Giovanni), the first album in 5 years from the New Jersey punk greats, is a an album inspired by and about breakup and heartbreak. Thankfully, it doesn't sound down in the dumps. In fact, it's quite the contrary, the hardest rocking Screaming Females album yet, less snot-nosed punk and more mammoth metal. As much as Marissa Paternoster likens herself to "a freight train in the desert dragging chains," her theatrical vocal performances and limber axe wielding show a musician at the top of her class. The album starts unexpectedly, with feedback-heavy synths on "Brass Bell", but not before Paternoster and drummer Jarrett Dougherty enter with power riffs and snares akin to your favorite sludge band. Even a summertime sadness rave-up like "Ornament" yields the same sneering, anthemic quality as the best Screaming Females songs, Paternoster menacingly chanting, "An ornament / Your head hangs heavy on it." So as much as she offers a sense of humility on "Let Me Into Your Heart" and "Titan", don't get in her way on Friday.

Foo Fighters, 8:00 PM, Riot Stage

You know the story by now. In a short amount of time, Dave Grohl experienced two devastating losses: the passing of his mother Virginia and the tragic, sudden death of Foo Fighters' longtime drummer, Taylor Hawkins. Such periods of shock often cause massive shifts in life perspective, and perhaps, as a silver lining, it caused him to rethink things musically. Songs on recent Foo Fighters albums seemingly followed the tired formula of starting out quiet and melodic and building into an instrumental avalanche and full-throated screams. But Here We Are (Roswell/RCA), on which Grohl plays all the drums, instead recalls earlier Foo Fighters albums with confident and consistent paces and even explores new territory for the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers. It starts immediately raw and in shock on "Rescued", Grohl describing learning about Hawkins' death in clear terms: "It came in a flash / It came out of nowhere." Elsewhere, the wah wah guitars of an umptempo jam like "Under You" recall the talk box thrills of an older tune like "Generator", and the strutting drum and guitar interplay of "Nothing At All" ascends with a clatter like the band's early Aughts records.

As But Here We Are goes on, the band opts for the unexpected. On the self-reflexive "Show Me How", Grohl and his daughter Violet duet over shoegaze electric guitars and dream pop strumming, singing about his mom's passing, realizing the same thing will one day happen for Violet. The penultimate "The Teacher" is like a ten-minute question, Grohl wondering how to deal with grief and anxious about life and death, wincing, "Who's at the door now?" over scraped guitars and strings. The song slows down and rebuilds gradually with a chugging drum beat and chiming, dreamy guitars, ending with static. That sets up "Rest", on which Grohl repeats, "You can rest now." Such a statement seems like it's as much a mantra for himself as it is a directive to Hawkins and his mother. "Life is just a game of luck," he declares, "All this time escaping us, until our time is through." After the biggest explosion of guitar distortion on a major label radio rock record since "Hurt", Grohl ends the song, "In the warm Virginia sun, there I will meet you." That it's the name of the state in which he grew up and of his mother is not a coincidence, as he's using the memory of his mom, Hawkins--heck, even Kurt Cobain--for comfort.

With new drummer Josh Freese in tow, stay late and catch Foo Fighters performing songs from their best album since The Colour and the Shape.

SATURDAY

100 Gecs

100 Gecs, 7:00 PM, Radical Stage

When 100 Gecs released "mememe", the first single from what would be their long-awaited second album 10,000 Gecs (Dog Show/Atlantic), the first thing you noticed was that Laura Les' vocals were notably less pitch-shifted. A trans woman who had experienced voice dysphoria, Les was now taking voice lessons and deciding to reveal her voice unaffected. That, and her experience with gender transition surgeries and HRT treatments, informs some lines on songs on 10,000 Gecs. "I did science on my face," she sings on "Dumbest Girl Alive". "Everybody shuts the fuck up when I'm passing / You can see me on the fuckin' news, and I'm laughing," she sings presciently on "The Most Wanted Person in the United States", as a few days later, the notoriously anti-LGBTQ+ Fox News would go on to play 100 gecs on air due to anchor Greg Gutfield's fandom. This is the world in which 100 gecs thrive, appealing to all by feeling free to be themselves, refreshingly sans irony no matter how bonkers their juxtapositions. Ribbits nestle between guitar strums and harmonies on the ska-infused "Frog On The Floor". "One Million Dollars" creates a dance jam out of TikTok TTS voice, samples from anti-weed government propaganda, and Primus-level wiry breakdowns. "Hollywood Baby" and "Billy Knows Jamie" are respective tributes to pop punk and nu metal. And Les sings about everything from snack foods to her removed tooth like long lost loves. Even if they sound anything but, 100 gecs might just be the most earnest band around.

SUNDAY

Just Mustard, 1:15 PM, Riot Stage

You don't normally associate minimalism and ambiguity with bands playing Riot Fest, those with riffs and messages that hit you over the head and hooks and feelings sky-high. I bet Irish post-punk quintet Just Mustard wins over some festivalgoers looking for respite, whether from the sun or the distant cry of pop punk. Last year, they released their second album Heart Under (Partisan), and the first on which Katie Ball took full-time lead vocals. Their deliberate tempos and masterful control of dynamics should serve as hypnotic as it is beguiling.

[queeniemay39]

Part 1 of Riot Fest pics! Enjoy the close ups!!

[selfishwife]

That Time I Wrote an Update - A Lesson on Living Your Life

So I'm not sure why Tumblr doesn't post dates I publish, but it's July 2023 and it's been six months since my husband had a reoccurrence of cancer and two months since the end of Nuclear Chemo (TM). We've made it to the Otherside, not 100% scarred but also not 100% the same. That's cheesy as hell, but it's the only way I know how to describe it.

It's been a weird journey man, but first the good news. Thanks to the Nuclear Chemo (TM), it looks like the cancer was blasted straight to hell, and while another reoccurrence is always possible, the probability is really small so praise be mother fuckers. Husband has some side effects that may/may not go away, but they fall under the bucket of "it beats the alternative."

Due to some other family nonsense, we're still going through it. You know what's fun -- when your husband's company lets him go two days before he finds out about his cancer reoccurrence. Life lesson: don't work for startups. Also, I'd like to take this moment to thank unions and my great teacher healthcare. If you ever cross a union picket line for any reason you're dead to me.

BUT I DIGRESS.

The most important thing I've learned is that Life Doesn't Stop Happening. So do the stuff now, and always now. We threw a giant party when summer started to thank those that we love and helped, and we legit had more people than were at our wedding. We shut down our block, hired a taco truck, and invited God and Everyone to party. Husband's oncologist came, special guest star friends Husband hadn't seen in 10 years flew in, it was a time. Kids played street hockey and ran around with sparklers. There was a taco truck (thank you, Guapo Taco!). Shit happens, and it will keep happening. Don't let your bucket list sit there. In the words of Matt Damon, Just Do It.

My summer bucket list includes dragging my kids to my favorite Chicago neighborhoods that we don't always get to. I'm working on my short story homage to Shirley Jackson which I keep threatening to finish. Doing stand-up for the first time in three years if I can get my ass downtown past 9 pm (but it's so laaaaatttteeeee).

Finally, seeing my boyfriend Dave at Riot Fest. True story: I knew Husband was going to be ok when they announced that Foo Fighters were headlining. It's been my joke for years "is this when Foo Fighters will headline RF?" knowing they would never play there. And this was the year I was thinking about skipping. The universe likes to laugh a lot.

I never have answers for anything, but all I've got is everything will turn on a dime all the time. You can't predict anything. All you can do is put one foot in front of the other, try to be a kind person, and go to the shows.

[chaunceyandchumleysdad]

Day 1 of Riot Fest and I'm kicking off the best weekend of the year with tonight's headliner, Foo Fighters.

[fallingthruspace]

Anyone know when they’re going to release the individual day lineup for Riot Fest 2023?

I know whose headlining what night but I’d like to know what days the other bands are playing because I might only have enough money for a single day ticket this time

[sundayinthcpark]

gonna BITE SOMETHING to wong foo, thanks for everything! julie newmar (1995) hits all the good things it’s queer it’s got cute romantic stuff it’s got cute country stuff it’s got stockard channing it’s got the dealing with abuse it’s got weird family relationships and it’s got that feeling distanced from society it’s got “they only grow in darkness and dank. oh, but sweetness, how they blossom.” i’m in fucking tears it feels like something is standing on my chest and it’s got noxeema being so into her infodumping that she didn’t notice clara talking it’s got a man who reminds me way too much of my mother it’s got this strawberry social that reminds me of the blueberry fest in my hometown and it’s just got all the LITTLE THINGS that make a movie PERFECT oh and also THE SOUNDTRACK !!!! anyway. i’m fine i’m in the middle of rewatching it

[queeniemay39]

I’m seeing this man in less than a month omggggggg😭😭😭🥰🥰🥰

He is so adorable 🥰🥰🥰