Riot Fest 2025 Tour • Page 59

Was diving into some of your must sees and now I’m stoked for Cliffdiver, Big Ass Truck, Harrison Gordon and Samiam.

Especially Big Ass Truck, that’s gonna be a fun show.

 

My current thinking is the Cabaret/Metro stage on Sunday will be Green Day, Jawbreaker, Dance Hall Crashers, Screeching Weasel, and the Linda Lindas with an artist slotted between the first two there. The Ataris? Smoking Popes?

With the AAA stage having Idles, Bad Religion, Lambrini Girls, Soft Play, and a few others. Basing it purely on vibes so who knows...

Last year seemed like they tried for themed stages and mostly pulled it off but there were some obvious deviations or days that felt "split in half." Like, the Cabaret/AAA on Friday started with "hard rock" and segued into pop-punk while Rise/Radical started with a bunch of hardcore adjacent artists then ended with hip-hop and reggae. Rise/Radical on Saturday were kinda all over the place while Cabaret/AAA was super indie-friendly. with Brutus randomly slotted in. Cabaret/AAA on Sunday was mostly metal but started with two aggressively non-metal artists.

So. I think it's fair to assume there might be a few oddballs on some otherwise themed stages. I love speculating this shit so much. Real nerd hours.

 

Here are my top 5 at the moment, although it will likely change day to day depending on how I’m feeling. Friday was a lot easier to narrow down than Sunday. Sunday is seriously stacked. And if they go back to the old rebel small stage and put H2O on that stage again, then they shoot back up to one of my top must see sets of the weekend. Because their last Riot set on that stage is one of my all time favorite sets period.

Friday:
Weird Al, Alkaline Trio, Samiam, Blink, Agnostic Front

Saturday:
Sex Pistols, The Damned, Militarie Gun, Agent Orange, Bouncing Souls (Would be number 1 for the day if I hadn’t seen them play the album before)

Sunday:
Dance Hall Crashers, Green Day, Screeching Weasel, The Ataris, Pegboy

 

Completely forgot until now that Viagra Boys is at Salt Shed the Thursday before Riot Fest

 

Alright. I took a stab at stage designations for the whole thing. I shot for an average of 6-7 bands per stage considering what we had last year. A "*" means it's the first band of the day for that stage combo (and it alternates from there, obviously). And "**" means they're the last.

I think I did a pretty decent job sorting out where some of the more random ones might fall. Curious to see how this holds out when the actual schedule drops. Hah!

Friday
Cabaret/Metro: **Blink-182**, Alkaline Trio, Senses Fail, Honey Revenge, the Didjits, Julia Wolf
AAA: Knocked Loose, Rico Nasty, Touche Amore, Agnostic Front, Big Ass Truck IE, *Barbarians of California*

Oddball: "Weird Al" Yankovic, Sparks, Camper Van Beethoven, Puddles Pity Party, Mac Sabbath

Rise: **Rilo Kiley**, the Hold Steady, Shudder to Think, Shonen Knife, Loviet, *LOCAL*
Radical: The Pogues, Stiff Little Fingers, Mariana's Trench, Samiam, the Tossers

Saturday
Cabaret/Metro: **Weezer**, the Beach Boys, Citizen, Superchunk, Helmet, Violent Vira
AAA: Jack White, James, Panchiko, the Cribs, Marky Ramone, *Girl in Coma*

Oddball: All Time Low, the Front Bottoms, Knuckle Puck, Free Throw, Militarie Gun, Wishy

Rise: **Sex Pistols**, the Damned, Buzzcocks, Thrown, Speed of Light, *LOCAL*
Radical: Dropkick Murphys, the Bouncing Souls, H2O, Agent Orange, Cliffdiver

Sunday
Cabaret/Metro: **Green Day**, Jawbreaker, Dance Hall Crashers, the Linda Lindas, Smoking Popes, the Effigies
AAA: IDLES, Bad Religion, Screeching Weasel, Pegboy, Lambrini Girls, *Soft Play*

Oddball: The Academy Is..., Hanson, Cobra Starship, Gym Class Heroes, Chase Petra, the Paradox

Rise: **Texas Is The Reason**, Inhaler, Dehd, Ovlov, Delta Sleep, Quannic, *Footballhead*
Radical: The Wonder Years, Microwave, the Ataris, Zero Boys, Weakened Friends, Dune Rats

 

love it. if this hold relatively true - friday the big choice of the day for me will be silly vs hardcore. barbarians and big ass truck vs mac sabbath and puddles early and then weird vs KL at night... and thats before i even try to consider squeezing in rilo, pogues, shonnen knife...im expecting this to be the most conflicting day

saturday will be busy but also relatively care-free in the day, lots of 'want to see' but not any 'need to see' until the evening when shit gets real... haha

and sunday im pretty much at metro/AAA all with possible dips to see paradox, cobra, and ataris, though inhaler is growing on me a bit also. was hoping for a bigger conflict with idles, bc i can skip them since im seeing them a few days before on the Deftones tour

 

Guess I’m doing Friday and Sunday.

 

I'll probably still go all three days but Saturday is gonna be pretty relaxed for me tbh

 

I'm glad Saturday is mid for me because I have Ethel Cain that night.

 

Going all three days, but Sunday's easily the best of the three. Not looking forward to deciding between Jawbreaker and Cobra Starship or some shit. Please also don't let The Wonder Years close a stage.

Friday and Saturday will both be pretty easy until the end of the day, but very excited for the weekend regardless!

 

I would actually rather see TWY a little earlier in the evening on the main stage than closing a smaller stage. Would be different and fun.

 

I think Saturday will get a bit goofy between my dad and I's conflicting tastes but the bands I want to see are relatively spread out between days. I'm manifesting Gym Class Heroes -> Cobra Starship -> Academy Is back to back to back on one stage ending with Snakes on Plane

 

Each day has a solid set of 7-8 bands that I would really, really not want to miss. So I'm not sure that there's a "weak" day for me but relatively speaking... Saturday packs the least punch. Mostly because I've seen most of the bands I'd want to see on that day already.

Like, I love the Bouncing Souls but that will wind up being show #4 for them this year. I'll still go out of my way to make that work with whatever the schedule is but... Makes it a bit less exciting than some of the other choices.

I think my favorite day overall has got to be Sunday, though. Green Day, Jawbreaker, and Dance Hall Crashers alone are enough for me to say that.

 

Let's say you're going to the movies. You have two choices: You can get dinner at an "artisanal" restaurant with a chef notorious for being influential. The menu is a little stale because you've eaten there a few times now and they haven't changed it. But, straight-up? The food is bomb. Or you can just go straight to the theater, eat a bunch of candy and load-up on nachos.

This is what I imagine choosing between these two bands would be like. It's gonna taste good either way. Just a matter of choosing between a hearty meal or the sugar rush.

There's an alternate version of my stage designation take that had the Wonder Years in the slot between Dance Hall Crashers and Jawbreaker on thew two main stages. It would be a bit of an odd slot but it could definitely work and would be a nice change of pace (see also: Taking Back Sunday and Bad Religion on the main stage in 2023).

 

I think I'd go with Jawbreaker in that scenario, but I know what you mean! Here's hoping that Cobra/TAI do an aftershow like in 2022!

 

i remember in some of the post-covid years they tried dipping into the world of the young gothy metal/pop type acts (mothica, carolesdaughter, jake hill, etc..), which im glad they mostly pivoted away from as im probably just too old to for that scene...having said that, Violent Vira is the best of that style ive heard so far, and am now actually interested in checking them out!

 

The Green Day/Idles/Jawbreaker/Bad Religion block on Sunday is a direct attack on my wife and I

 

Although I agree for the most part, I do love some of Mothicas music and her set was pretty great.

 

I just really hope Rilo Kiley and blink aren't on at the same time. Ideally I can see them & Weird Al too for at least a bit, cus honestly the rest of the day is not my favorite. But I'd prefer Friday to be the lightest day for me, I hate when a festival is front loaded.

 

Yeah I feel like the two main stages on Sunday will definitely be:

Green Day < Jawbreaker < Dance Hall Crashers < The Linda Lindas < The Paradox
Idles < Bad Religion < Screeching Weasel < Pegboy < Smoking Popes

 

See this would be ideal, that I could just camp out up there and be in Idles/BR pits!

 

Glad you took it the right way. Because I wasn't even saying it in a negative way about Cobra...

I will say, though, that if you're just a passive Jawbreaker fan and don't have a "connection" with the music? I don't think they're a must-see live act. They hit the notes, they sound good, or whatever but it's not like they're bringing insane energy or anything.

But you're talking to a person who cried like, three times during their set at Riot Fest 2017 soooo I may be overcorrecting to avoid sounding like a fanboy. LOL

I still need to dig into some of the smaller/younger artists this year but nothing that I didn't already know is really sticking out to me. And, per usual, there's a few artists on here on the younger side that have caught me offguard with how high up they... I swear I've never heard of Honey Revenge before but they're up there!

I'm into it, though!

For me, if that winds up being the actual main stage run for that afternoon/evening it'll be a feature and not a bug.

Not gonna lie though: I'd inevitably wind up using IDLES as my "dinner" break during that run...

 

Oh wait! I forgot that Paradox got a bit of notoriety for covering Green Day and opened for them last year in Atlanta.

Yeah, they're probably gonna be on the main stage that day. Haha. I fucked that one up in my "mock." Time to go back and edit...

 

The inevitable Weird Al - Blink conflict is going to be anxiety inducing. I think I would choose Weird Al just because who knows when he'd tour again but missing my first time seeing Blink with Tom would be brutal