Riot Fest 2024 – Day 1
Drug Church, Fall Out Boy, Sum 41, New Found Glory and more!
Douglass Park // Chicago, IL // September 20-2022, 2024
Photos and review by Casey Lee
Friday’s heat and humidity would make Florida’s Poison the Well feel right at home as the band brought their metalcore to the forefront on the AAA Stage, one of the two side-by-side main stages at the fest, by jumping straight into “Botchla,” and playing through songs from Tear from the Red, You Come Before You, The Opposite of December…a Season of Separation, and Versions, an almost career-spanning setlist.
Poison The Well
Hardcore/punk/thrash had its moment on the Radical and Rise stages as San Francisco’s Spiritual Cramp, Albany’s Drug Church, and Venice’s Suicidal Tendencies took to the tandem stages Friday afternoon. All three acts were running full force, from the first note to the last.
Drug Church
Spiritual Cramp
Suicidal Tendencies
Sum 41
Meanwhile, on the main stages, pop-punk was having its own moment, with State Champs, New Found Glory, and Sum 41 all playing festival-worthy sets. State Champs walked out to the ever-appropriate “We are the Champions” before launching into “Just Sound.” New Found Glory continued to build the main-stage energy as the crowd filled in in anticipation of the night’s headliner. The band played a career-spanning set, kicking off with “Understatement,” “All Downhill From Here,” and “Hit or Miss,” and continuing to play tracks off of Coming Home, Catalyst, Not Without a Fight, Sticks and Stones, self-titled, as well as two Disney covers, before ultimately closing with “Intro,” and the massive “My Friends Over You.” They then handed the proverbial aux cord over to the mid-farewell-tour Canadians in Sum 41. After an AC/DC “T.N.T.” intro, the band, fronted by Deryck Whibley, went right into “Motivation” and “The Hell Song,” bringing the first hits of pyro of the weekend. The band would continue to play through yet another career-spanning set (plus a cover of Queen’s “We Will Rock You”), hitting All Killer No Filler, Does This Look Infected?, Chuck, Underclass Hero, and Heaven :x: Hell. The band plans to disband at the conclusion of their 2024 farewell tour.
State Champs
New Found Glory
After a day of pop-punk, hardcore, and hardcore adjacent acts, it felt only appropriate to have Fall Out Boy play the headlining set of the night. An hour and forty-five-minute set, running from Take This to Your Grave through to So Much (for) Stardust, and hitting every record between. In a time of album plays, Chicago’s own Fall Out Boy bucked the trend and instead made sure that no matter what your favorite record of theirs, you would leave hearing something you love. For some in attendance, this was their Eras Tour. Except maybe a bit more unexpected. The quartet had played similar sets at a couple of other summer festival stops, but I don’t think anyone in the audience expected to hear “Chicago is So Two Years Ago” as the opener. In Chicago. Or “Grand Theft Autumn/Where is Your Boy” on the cusp of fall. Or “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” with Tim McIlrath from Rise Against joining Patrick Stump for a part of the song. With each album, and sometimes song the set on stage might change, or a new set piece flew in, pyro added (looking at you, “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)”). Before playing tracks from So Much (for) Stardust, the band took a bit of an interlude, and Patrick played a cover of Robert Johnson’s “Sweet Home Chicago,” which had many a Midwest local singing along. The band’s finale closed with Take This To Your Grave’s “Saturday,” possibly one of the only truly predictable song placings on the setlist for the evening, as the band closed down the stage and handed it over to Saturday’s lineup.
Fall Out Boy
The Aces
