Riot Fest 2024 at Chicago’s Douglass Park was a great event, and there was a lot to do, especially considering all the bands that played. Even for those who are not fans of metal, punk, or just rock in general, Riot Fest would still be a cool and enjoyable experience for anyone.
Due to traffic in the city, it is impossible to drive to the festival, so almost everyone takes the Metra train to get there, which is super crowded. To add on to that, it’s a 30-minute walk to get to the entrance of the festival from the train station; one day, it was pouring heavy rain. Luckily, everybody knew where to go because you were able to just follow the crowd to the entrance. Since Riot Fest is in Douglass Park in Pilsen, it was all grass and very muddy to walk around in. I personally didn’t mind, but you could see on many faces that others hated it.
I only went on Sunday, so I wasn’t able to catch Fall Out Boy or Beck, but I will review everyone I saw that day. The first band I saw was Sunami, which is a heavy metal band from San Jose, CA. They put on a really good show, but for those who don’t like heavy metal, I would not recommend them. The best song they played, in my opinion, was “Contempt of Cop.”
After seeing them, I went to go get something to eat and saw a kiosk for Novi’s Beef, which I didn’t expect to see. Novi’s is an Italian beef restaurant in Berwyn, which I once lived right across the street from. I just got an Italian beef sandwich, fully dipped, with giardiniera and fries. It was very good, and I would totally recommend Novi’s if you haven’t tried it yet.
The second band I saw was The Vandals, an ‘80s punk band from Los Angeles, CA. They’re not a very well-known band, so not many people were there at their set, but they are a very underrated band with a lot of great songs. For me, the best song that they played was “Urban Struggle.”
The third band I saw was Gwar, and I only got to see half of their show. Looking at them, I assumed that they were a death metal band because they had these crazy costumes and were splashing fake blood on everyone, too, but I was wrong. They were actually pretty chill, and they don’t even play metal, they play punk. My favorite song they played was “Sick of You.”
The fourth band I saw was Lamb of God, which is a heavy metal band from Richmond, VA. I grew up listening to them, but mostly from my dad blasting their music in the car. They were great, and I knew all of their songs. The best song they played, in my opinion, was their opener, “Laid to Rest.”
After Lamb of God, the fifth artist I saw was Rob Zombie from Haverhill, MA. He is one of my favorite artists, so it was really cool to see him live. He also doesn’t do concerts a lot anymore, so it felt pretty exclusive. He did get really mad at everyone during his set, though, due to everyone having their phones out and recording him. Then he started his encore while yelling at everyone to put their phones away. The two best songs he played, in my opinion, were “Feel So Numb” and “Dragula.”
Finally, the headliner started playing, and it was none other than Slayer, one of the most successful metal bands in the world! The only thing was that the bands Sublime and NOFX were playing at the same time as them. I made the difficult decision to not see Slayer, but to see Sublime instead because I like them much more. Sublime was really good. If you didn’t know, the original singer passed away, so his son is now the lead vocalist, and he sounds the exact same as his dad. I think the best song they played was “Same in the End”.
After that was the end of Riot Fest. For those who didn’t go, it’s a great and super fun event that you should definitely go to next year if you enjoy music and live performances.
