Watch some recent Ice Cube live vids on youtube from the last couple years before making your decision. He's fallen off as a live act, lots of backing track and his breath control isn't great.
While I think in retrospect it was probably the right choice I kind of regret watching Cube over No Doubt a few years ago, it was more so billed as NWA which was cool but when they played the movie trailer for Straight Out Of Compton in the middle of the set it was so lame that it ruined the whole set for me lol Hopefully No Doubt plays again
that was my first riotfest and my ex and i split time between the two (back when those 2 stages were facing directly towards each other. and i know i would do it different cuz we never got close enough to either to fully enjoy. if i had a do over, id go see motorhead over both.
Definitely worth doing! We didn't do it for a full week, but my partner and I included a day before an a day after the festival last year to make the most of it, try some new vegan-friendly restaurants/bars, do touristy things, etc. It's a nice way to wind up to and wind down from the festival. I split the time between the two and don't regret playing it that way. I walked back and forth between both stages (literally coming/going at least 2-3 times from each LOL). The Ice Cube set definitely had some cheese to it, but it was fun... I'd like to see him again but unless it's an album play for The Predator, I'm not sure he'll be a high priority for me this time around. On the other side of things, though, I wasn't all that impressed with No Doubt. They were fun and the band was on-point but the whole thing felt super uncomfortable. It was pretty apparent that Gwen and the rest of the band weren't on great terms.
It seems Dogulass Park will have several festivals this summer. Summer Smash in June, Heat Wave (a new EDM festival) in July and Riot in September. And I remember Summer Smash last year was chaotic. I can understand why the neighbours are angry.
To each their own and all but god this stresses me out so much lol If I ever split a set it has to be an even split. And even that I try to avoid unless I truly can't decide.
5+ years later, I'm not so sure that I'd do the same thing. Haha. The stage set-up was also helpful that year because if I stayed in the back, I could walk like 50 feet and see/hear what was happening on the other one. What I did was look at the setlists from the last few No Doubt shows prior and was like, "Okay, here's where I can pop over to the other stage" because I wasn't so into the song or whatever. I weighted that out with what I wanted to see from Ice Cube (which was mostly the N.W.A. stuff). And yeah, I wound up missing a bit of certain No Doubt songs I wanted to see but... It was better than nothing. Missing out on one or the other completely would have been waaaay more stressful for me! Haha. (Like you said, to each their own.)
Yeah I don't really split sets often. I'd rather fully commit to one as opposed to 15-20 here, power walk across the park, 15-20 for another. Different strokes, though.
I will give you that the setup that year was uniquely suited to make this more possible than it would normally be. And I respect that you had a real plan, I'm glad it worked out for you!
I just read a comment on Reddit complaining that there is too much punk and emo on the lineup. Uhm what????
I really hope that we get more album plays this year and that last year was just a one time thing of not having many. A couple of albums with anniversaries that I haven’t seen mentioned that I would like an album play for are Four Minute Mile by The Get Ip Kids and Duh by Lagwagon. I’ve already seen Lagwagon do three albums, so might as well add a fourth!
If anything, they've skewed a bit too far in the other direction this year. In checking out some of the smaller artists, there's really not all that much in the traditional sense. Partially because I just don't think there's a lot of 18 year-olds writing music in that style at the moment but... I kinda can't be mad at it. If I want to see younger pop-punk bands, I'll catch them when they're on tour. And I'm sure trends, the bands they have capacity to book, etc. will shift as time goes on. I remember people making similar remarks in 2018. And then the 2019 line-up was (arguably) the strongest yet for punk/hardcore/emo. It's just kinda cool to see Riot Fest change/evolve with the times in a way that works with the overall aesthetic of the festival. And, selfishly, I kinda like it because I always find some interesting shit that wouldn't be on my radar anyways because I'm too busy listening to A Wilhelm Scream all day or whatever. Haha.
Yea I’ve been surprised with the amount of stuff happening with the younger artists in the lower card after having a few days with the playlists on random. Heard one song the other day where the song was 2/3rds straight forward rap, but then the final 3rd just turned into a metalcore breakdown and screaming, it was wild, I don’t know if all of it will be for me but it’s definitely unique and I’ll be checking out a few of them out at the show I’m sure
So apparently a Ghost/Mastodon tour is happening later this year. I guess that’s what Mastodon meant when they said “see you again soon” at their Chicago show last month. Not Riot. That explains it
SDRE tour with a few days gap before their Riot date. Wouldn’t be surprised to see an aftershow from them on Friday, hopefully with Appleseed Cast.