Two weeks after having to quell doubts it would even take place, Riot Fest placed on a well-attended, hitch-free displaying in Chicago’s Douglas Park. The months main as much as its 14th run assaulted it with quite a few obstacles typical of the 2018 competition market — canceled headliners, delayed schedules, a ticketing hack — but the previous three days of punk, steel, hip-hop and different alt-adjacent sounds let followers and organizers breathe a collective sigh of reduction. Riot Fest did certainly occur, and as soon as it obtained going, it was onerous to inform something had gone awry.
It was, nevertheless, powerful to overlook the absence of Blink-182. Back on Sept. 6, the seminal pop-punk band canceled its Riot Fest headlining gig (and the remainder of a small tour) upon studying drummer Travis Barker, recovering from blood clots in his arms, had not been medically cleared to carry out. At this level, the ultimate wave of performers was nonetheless unannounced, and Blink’s cancellation meant two of the fest’s three evenings had been with out headliners. Also including to the grim hypothesis was the truth that single-day schedules remained unannounced. But in got here the reinforcements of Taking Back Sunday, Run the Jewels and Weezer — the latter two becoming a member of Beck to fill the vacant headline slots. A Blink set would have been monumental for quite a few causes: Their final album was a career-reviving No. 1, they’ve been hinting at new music for over a 12 months, and followers would’ve gotten to see guitarist Matt Skiba (who changed Tom DeLonge in 2015) play with each his outstanding bands in the identical weekend (Alkaline Trio tore by a hometown efficiency Sunday night time which may as properly have been a headliner).
With Blink out of fee, Weezer paid its respects Friday night time by masking arguably their greatest hit. “Say it ain’t so, I will not go,” sang Rivers Cuomo in a faithful “All the Small Things” run-through, proper earlier than cleverly kicking into his band’s personal “Say It Ain’t So.” This pairing was bookended by Weezer’s now well-known cowl of Toto’s “Africa” — aka, the second-biggest alternative radio song in America — adopted by a set-closing cowl of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid.” They additionally coated “Take on Me,” “Happy Together” and a snippet of Green Day’s “Longview,” deftly navigating the karaoke-bar-style goofiness that competition crowds lap up.
Through arguably extra suited to a Lollapalooza stage (or, inside metropolis limits, even Pitchfork Festival), Beck capped Saturday’s lineup of extra circle-pit-friendly sounds with model and charisma, doling out greater than 20 years of alt radio hits. After the likes of “Loser,” “Girl” and “Dreams” had been by, Beck completed with a jamboree of Weezer-whimsy proportions. Roughly two-thirds of the best way by “Where It’s At,” he introduced out electro pioneer Gary Numan (who’d carried out earlier that day) for a spot-on take of the Numan traditional “Cars,” adopted by bits of Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” and Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight,” earlier than returning to at least one final “Where It’s At” refrain.
While Elvis Costello’s look was as soon as doubtful (a most cancers scare pressured him to cancel several gigs this summer), the residing legend did certainly carry out, wanting not in the slightest degree rusty jamming alongside the Imposters. In certainly one of his first reveals again, Costello handled followers to a set full of ’70s and ’80s requirements early Saturday night. “I’m doing nice, thanks,” he introduced upon taking the stage, earlier than leaping into “Pump It Up.”
And then there was Jerry Lee Lewis. The 82-year-old “Great Balls of Fire” singer is likely one of the final ’50s rock ’n’ roll icons nonetheless kicking, and he rewarded Riot Fest for having the center to ebook him for a Saturday night time set (alongside Interpol and the Jesus Lizard) with a massively entertaining efficiency. Lewis doesn’t carry out a lot nowadays, and when he does, it’s usually to casinos and tame theater crowds. This night time, he obtained to lookup from his child grand and see an precise circle pit — followers working round, genuinely shedding their minds to “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.”
It’s unlikely many different festivals of Riot Fest’s dimension may pull off a Jerry Lee Lewis set, similar to it was type of preposterous they managed to pull Jawbreaker out of retirement and make them a headliner last year. Despite the hiccups in its rollout, Riot Fest 2018 was energetic, well-attended (crowd sizes roughly the identical as earlier Douglas Park runs) and deserving of loads of good will towards subsequent 12 months.
