Recap and Photo Gallery Day Two (Part Two): Riot Fest 2025 at Douglass Park • Chicago

Riot Fest 2025

Douglass Park

Chicago, IL

September 20, 2025

Recap by Jeff Elbel, Gallery by Curt Baran

Saturday at Riot Fest was another day filled with highlights and memorable performances, although many were a bit soggier than Friday’s fare. Agent Orange offered the first full-album performance of the day, playing all of 1981’s Living in Darkness on the punk-focused Rebel stage. Helmet followed on the Radical stage with all of 1994’s Betty, including the heavy hit “Milquetoast.” Fans surged as frontman Page Hamilton launched into the bone-crunching riff of 1992 single “Unsung,” backed by a pile-driving rhythm section. Meanwhile, on the Roots stage, Panchiko made a stark contrast with 90s-style Britpop a la Bends-era Radiohead. The band’s sound included ring-modulated guitar balanced against hazy piano ostinato. During “Until I Know,” the band’s gliding mid-tempo grooves were reminiscent of Cure singles like “Lullaby.” “Gingko” from the band’s new album of the same name brimmed with swaying dream-pop, sweet melody, and reverb-drenched guitars.

The mood shifted palpably at the Riot stage upon the arrival of Manchester, UK art-pop band James. Multi-instrumentalist Saul Davies stoked the excitement of the opening number “Five-O,” sawing wildly on his violin. Frontman Tim Booth danced madly and blissfully during the swinging “Sit Down,” arms overhead. The song earned a roar of recognition and enthusiastic sing-along from the band’s gathered fans. Andy Diagram’s clarion trumpet was a hallmark of the popular single “Born of Frustration,” during which Booth leapt into the crowd to sing and dance with fans. Booth and Diagram were conspicuous in their long skirts among their seven other versatile bandmates. “If you don’t know us, we change the set all the time so we never quite know what the fuck we’re doing,” said Booth when asking his bandmates what they would play next. He added that the band liked the uncertainty because it better reflected the state of humanity “to be fucking up all the time and getting away with it.” The band then played “Way Over Your Head” from last year’s Yummy album, which topped the British album charts. The song included another sing-along chorus about friends in need and concluded with a resounding low note sung by Booth. The singer delivered a speech about democracies that serve corporations rather than people before the band launched into the angry protest of “Heads,” calling the song a “prayer for harmony for the land of the free.” Jim Glennie’s hypnotic and guttural bass joined Adrian Oxaal’s slide guitar to introduce the song of longing “Out to Get You.” The song’s tempo rose to a fever pitch as Davies and Glennie faced off to intertwine lines between bass and violin. Booth introduced “Beautiful Beaches” as a song about escaping the California wildfires. The song concluded with a fierce drum duet between David Baynton-Power and Deborah Knox-Hewson. “Bet you haven’t seen a six-and-a-half-month pregnant woman drum like that before,” said Booth afterward. “The goddess is here.” Diagram took his turn to leave the stage and mingle with the crowd during “Sound.” Booth thanked the crowd for its love and attention, and told all the people waiting at the neighboring Roots stage that he hoped the band they were waiting for (The Front Bottoms) would be brilliant. During “Sometimes (Lester Piggott),” Booth stoked the crowd to repeat the chorus, “Sometimes when I look in your eyes, I swear I can see your soul.” Naturally, the band closed with its most recognized song. Booth assured the audience that the song was a James original, regardless of whose version anyone might know. Friends of the band filled the stage to dance as James played the euphoric 1993 single “Laid” with its siren-like chorus stretching the word “pretty.”

The Front Bottoms took the Roots stage to play their album Back on Top. “This is the one I usually lose my voice on,” said singer Brian Sella when introducing “Laugh Till I Cry.” “No matter; I can feel the love.”

On the no-frills Rebel stage, drummer Marky Ramone led his quartet through a rapid-fire rundown of the Ramones’ catalog, featuring diehard fan favorites and indelible hits known by anyone with a radio. The band’s lanky singer dressed in tight jeans and a leather jacket, looking equally inspired by the late Joey Ramone and J. Geils Band frontman Peter Wolf. “Teenage Lobotomy,” “Beat on the Brat,” “Rockaway Beach,” “Cretin Hop,” and more were delivered with raw punk-pop power. “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” careened at breakneck speed. A few covers added spice, including the Trashmen’s “Surfing Bird” and a revved-up version of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.” Soon after the rain started in earnest, the band played an ironic “California Sun” followed soon by a buzzsaw version of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain.” Therapies were explored, including “I Wanna Be Sedated” and “Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment.” The crowd joined the chant of “gabba-gabba hey!” during “Pinhead.” The set climaxed with “R.A.M.O.N.E.S” and a razor-edged “Blitzkrieg Bop.”

During the half-hour set change, Rebel stage attendees could hear the Beach Boys performing pop classics including “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “Help Me, Rhonda,” and “Good Vibrations” on the Roots stage. The band’s inclusion on the bill meant that Riot Fest patron saint John Stamos had finally appeared at the festival.

Buzzcocks veteran Steve Diggle stood apart from his black-clad bandmates with his shag haircut and bright red jacket. The band roared out of the gate with “What Do I Get?” from the 1979 album Singles Going Steady. The set included the chugging “Bad Dreams” from the 2022 album Sonics in the Soul. “Are you feeling the spirit in this place?” asked Diggle. To the crowd’s positive response, he answered, “Well, why can’t we touch it?” Drummer Danny Farant counted off “Why Can’t I Touch It,” which sparked an exponential increase in crowd surfing. Farant and bassist Chris Remington held a relentless groove while Diggle led an “oi!” chant during “Destination Zero.” The lyrics of “Manchester Rain” were changed to “Chicago Rain” in recognition of the weather. Audience participation peaked with punk standard “Orgasm Addict” and relatable song “Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve).” “I wanna see the joint jumpin’,” said Diggle before starting “Harmony in My Head.” “I was gonna say let’s blow the roof off, but there’s obviously no fuckin’ roof,” he added.

During the ensuing set change, the sound of Jack White’s closer setup drifted from the Roots stage. The Raconteurs’ “Steady, as She Goes” was stretched into improvisational shapes by the band. Even the Rebel stage audience sang along to the indelible riff of “Seven Nation Army” that concluded White’s set.

Next on the Rebel stage was a spirited set by the Damned. Singer Dave Vanian appeared as the festival’s best-dressed goth vampire, accompanied by the cartoonishly buoyant guitarist Captain Sensible. With Paul Gray on bass and drummer Rat Scabies, the lineup matched the personnel who created 1980’s The Black Album, augmented by veteran Damned keyboardist Monty Oxymoron. Sensible filled the opening salvo, “Love Song,” with slashing surf-rock leads. “Wait for the Blackout” was a high-energy sing-along rocker. Other highlights from The Black Album included “Second Time Around” and “The History of the World (Part 1),” after which Vanian expressed his expectations of continuing world history with a blunt “pbfft.” Sensible added the punch line, “unless there’s a Part 2.” Scabies played Keith Moon-style fills during “Is It a Dream.” “Here’s a little song we wrote on the way to the show,” joked Sensible before the band started the elaborate and theatrical “Eloise” from the 1985 album Phantasmagoria. The dramatic arrangement unfolded like a goth-punk answer to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Vanian dedicated “Fan Club” to original Damned guitarist Brian James. The main set coalesced with the breakneck “Neat Neat Neat” and furious debut single “New Rose.” For an encore, Vanian promised a return to 1967 before singing Jefferson Airplane’s psych-rock classic “White Rabbit.” The song featured a stirring organ solo from Oxymoron. The show auto-destructed with Machine Gun Etiquette’s favorite “Smash It Up.” Vanian did silly dance steps and delivered the chorus in a mocking croon. “He’s better than the Beach Boys,” jibed Sensible. “Mike Love, anyway.” Vanian responded by teasing a couple of lines from “California Girls.” After bringing the song to a proper end, Sensible offered his parting blessing. “If we live long enough, we’ll come back and do it again sometime,” he said. “That’s a big wish; let us hope so,” Vanian responded.

Much of the crowd left the Rebel stage to see the final minutes of Weezer’s high-production headlining set on the Riot stage. The band was performing the final night of their Voyage to the Blue Planet tour, and well into the process of playing their debut album, The Blue Album, in honor of its 30th anniversary. Frontman Rivers Cuomo was dressed like a Federation Captain from Star Trek in a gold and black pullover emblazoned with Weezer’s “flying W” logo. Tardy attendees were still able to sing along with enduring songs including “Undone – The Sweater Song,” the cathartic “Surf Wax America,” “Say It Ain’t So,” nerd-rock anthem “In the Garage,” “Holiday,” and swaying album closer “Only in Dreams.” The big screen caught countless images of people flashing the flying W hand sign, and a crowd surfer dressed as Pee Wee Herman. “Thank you, Chicago,” said Cuomo. “Thank you, Beach Boys. Thank you, Jack White. What a concert, man. I’d be here even if Weezer wasn’t playing.”

 

 

 

 

Category: Featured