It started in the comments of the Affy Tapple post and they've doubled down today by telling people the replacement was announced yesterday. LOL Normally, I get annoyed by people confused at their social media trolling but I think that's really going to throw people off. Haha. Unrelated: Unironically super stoked to get a candy apple at the fest this year. Straight-up.
Apologies for the confusion to everyone here! I thought I was just being silly RE: Riot's social media account. It is, in fact, just your mom who is replacing the Sex Pistols.
According to someone on Reddit who talked to an employee at G Man, the mystery Riot Fest show is Rilo Kiley. Then in the same Reddit thread, someone else said it has been soft confirmed to be Weezer. Someone else then chimed in that it’s Green Day, Weezer, Smashing Pumpkins and Sincere Engineer. Basically what I am getting at is trust no one at this point lol.
I’ll be so upset if it’s Rilo Kiley and I’m not there, but they really don’t strike me as a band that would do two shows in one night.
I'll be curious to see if whatever artist it is lets it slip during the festival. But everything about this just feels strange to me... It has the vibes of like, them just trying to fill the room for whoever it is rather than it actually being a massive headliner doing an underplay. Encouraging people to get there/in the venue early to listen to a Q101 DJ, the other ticket giveaways, getting people to RSVP in advance, etc. feels more like the kind of thing stations do with up-and-coming artists. It's giving major "bar promo with a live band" vibes. I'm going to keep assuming it'll be somebody on the smaller tip. But I'm probably just letting my time in radio promotions 10+ years ago taint my read on the whole thing. LOL! And I'm definitely hoping I'm wrong!
I don’t know why but I have a gut feeling it’s Gym Class Heroes. Once popular band? Kinda reunited? Kind of a sell for the fest? It lines up.
I should clarify my comment was about the Metro show, not the Q101 show. This is the thread I was referencing: https://www.reddit.com/r/RiotFest/s/0Fdosilyv2 Although I am also very curious about the Q101 show, I RSVP’d for it.
That one is probably on me! My brain's been all over the place today... The Metro show could be literally anybody. Haha.
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Cool that all three headliners are Chicago bands. But yeah, I don’t see why that couldn’t just get announced originally.
Feels like they maybe just didn't have all the contract details in place or something like that to announce it with the initial batch. At least they didn't keep it a surprise and spend two more weeks hyping it up just for it to be Screeching Weasel.
I had thought that it could be Naked Raygun, so I was pretty close! Also, all three were headliners during the club years of Riot Fest. Alkaline Trio and Screeching Weasel played Congress together the first year I went.
It’s cool in theory and is a nice callback to the older days of Riot Fest but that does nothing to me. I feel like the Metro shows should be a bigger band playing an underplay and those bands feel like they are the right size to play Metro any day of the year (if that makes any sense)
I feel pretty vindicated with my insistence that it was probably Chicago bands early on! Haha. If the headliner on Sunday were somebody other than Green Day I'd probably head over to that Naked Raygun show on Sunday. That line-up is wild!
If Riot Fest sold out as quickly as Lolla they’d do the headliner show at the Metro but they don’t so why would you even do something to even the smallest amount to not sell festival tickets.
I am wondering now if this might put Naked Raygun in play as a replacement on Saturday? Obviously they wouldn't be replacing the Sex Pistols but... If they can't pull off a more "proper" Rebel stage closer I really could see them bumping the Murphys up into that slot and plugging Raygun in after the Souls on Radical.
There's still the elephant in the room that Beach Boys might cancel too, but obviously that's speculation.