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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.

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ionnalee, Luminous Kid and Vander Von Odd photographed together at Great American Music Hall yesterday. 🖤

📷: instagram.com/luminous_kid_

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Boygenius via Olof Grind's instagram story!

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boygenius in copenhagen. by olof grind

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20230412 iamamiwhoami | ionnalee The Foundry, Philadelphia

(photos: Olof Grind)

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Heather Kemesky by Olof Grind

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Olof Grind (2020)

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Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers

Photography by Olof Grind

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Phoebe Bridgers, Punisher, Dead Oceans, 2020 (album cover)

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olof grind Oil on a failed print of Johanna and Elin, 42x29 cm, 2019

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"this is Luminous Kid whom we have the pleasure of having as our support for the whole US/CA tour. just like me and Tess Roby, Olof is an audiovisual artist and an amazing photographer. here with John. 🤍" – ionnalee via instagram stories.

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Boygenius photographed by Olof Grind via the boygenius instagram account!

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Olof Grind

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