Riot Fest: Day One in Review
There’s something about Mat Kerekes voice. Kerekes, the frontman of Citizen – a five-piece indie rock band with members from Michigan and Ohio – has a way making his audience feel like he knows exactly what they’ve been through. Bandmates Nick and Eric Hamm, Jake Duhaime and Ryland Oehlers join Kerekes to create a sound set in an unforgivingly deep, foggy dream.
Throughout Citizen’s performance, Kerekes’ mouth curls and kisses the microphone, letting out a heavy, unapologetic scream – a sign of past frustration and a desire to move forward. Fans jumped in, throwing fists into the air.
I’m too attached to Bad Cop / Bad Cop, so the following will read as a very biased review of the band’s performance (see Who We’re Ready to See at Riot Fest for more).
Bad Cop / Bad Cop’s set at Storyheart Stage was fast, fun and cool. Two men, who made sure to stand in the front row, completely lost it. Their torsos were spilling over the barricade, and they couldn’t contain their excitement.
Those loyal fans are just two of many who hold onto Stacey Dee, Jennie Cotterill and Linh Le’s voices and turn up to Myra Gallarza’s beats behind her drumset. Their song “Asshole” is an anthem to all the boss ladies out there.
Fans of Neck Deep are strictly devoted to the five-member band originally from Wrexham, UK, and frontman Ben Barlow is ever grateful for their support.
Barlow, along with his bandmates – Matt West, Sam Bowden, Fil Thorpe-Evans and Dani Washington – are also pretty tight with Chicago pop-punk bands Knuckle Puck and Real Friends, which is what makes their visits to the Windy City so much more appreciated.
Decorating Rise’s Stage with the artwork from Neck Deep’s latest album Life’s Not Out to Get You, the Hopeless Records signees took cues from LNOTGY’s “Gold Steps,” “if you write the story, you’ll find out that we’re all stuck on the same page.”
It’s 5:30 p.m. on a Friday, and if you’ve spent half of the day drinking and dancing at Riot Fest, you’ve surely spent the other part of that day, so far, standing in a long line to fill up your water bottle to rehydrate and carry on. At this point, you’ve also wondered on to get food, laid a blanket on the grass and contemplated on taking a power nap.
And then Glassjaw steps on Rise Stage for their 5:45 set. If you were close to that area, you couldn’t escape the crowd that gathered for them.
In fact, you had to weave through numerous bodies – standing, sitting or sprawled on the grass – if you wanted to make it to the food tents. And if you heard lead singer Daryl Palumbo’s screeching voice, you couldn’t help but come to a sudden halt.
Palumbo isn’t shy about showing off. He’s sexy and he knows it. Often, he would swing his microphone around in a big circle, or he’d drop to his knees and plead into the microphone.
With sweat dripping down their faces, Palumbo and his bandmates were the perfect introduction to fall Friday evening.
-Amanda Tugade