I saw Remember Sports last night in Chicago and they would be a perfect mid day act for this year. Their new album is killer. The show was sold out and had been for a long time so they are definitely due to come back and play a bigger show. Plus, it was a Riot Fest Presents show which doesn’t always correlate to the festival but it means they are on Riot’s radar at least.
I don't think it's much different than any other year, TBH. We have a few locks I'd put 95% or so (e.g., Social D, Gogol) and some that are probably actually at like, 50-75% (e.g., Reel Big Fish, Descendents, the Chats, Rise Against) but there's no way to know until the line-up drops. There's always 3-5 potential headliners or subs that people are convinced of that don't wind up happening. And the undercard is usually mostly all a big surprise that's impossible to predict/speculate on. I'm thinking about the headliners in the same way this year. Assuming there's at least one that nobody is talking about or considering in a meaningful way.
AFI seems unlikely. At first I thought they might be in play because there were no Chicago dates on their fall tour, but they're in California the Saturday of the festival and then back in Mexico a week later. It's possible but very unlikely.
Good point! I didn't know about the CA show. Somebody brought this up about Save Ferris on Reddit. The amount of hustle they'd have to do to make it work likely rules it out based purely on logistics. Especially when you consider how much more frequent airline delays are these days. Whether they played Friday or Sunday they would have to leave the second they got offstage to head to the airport. And who wants to do that? Sounds stressful as hell. And not sure it would be worth the money unless they were headlining or a stage-closer.
welp, my Sept 26th Dolly show in Vegas got fully canceled. so the positivity im holding onto is that now if the riot line up is really up my alley, i could spring for an upgrade to deluxe.
ACL dropped today Don’t see a lot of (if any) crossover. The only band I think could be likely is Amyl
Unfortunately, they're playing the Salt Shed on 6/14 so they're probably out. They've got that "crossover buzz" so they've been landing a bunch of the bigger festivals the last couple years. I feel like Riot will get them once that well has completely run dry. Riot tends to get those bands just as the hype is taking off or years later.
I think Pup has to be in play, they have their Toronto show with Jimmy Eat World in August, then Neverender and Fest in October. Seems like the kind of year they would be likely to play
I mean, it's all purely anecdotal but that's what happened with Idles, Father John Misty, the National, Airborne Toxic Event, and a few others over the years. Riot usually gets the "indie hype" artists toward the end of the cycles or after the "sheen" has worn off. There's a few exceptions (Bleachers, Turnstile, Lambrini Girls) but it definitely happens. And it makes sense, honestly. Especially for a band like Amyl. Lolla, Coachella, and the like won't book an artist like that without the hype. Whereas Riot will probably be there after the fact, y'know?
Have we actually ruled out Twenty One Pilots? I know they do not feel like the right fit for Riot but they are popping up on lineups and are not on the Lolla lineup and are playing Shaky Knees the same weekend. They would not be a headliner I personally would be into (I like a few songs but am not a fan overall and was bored the one time I saw them at Lolla in 2019) but I feel like they might actually be more likely to headline than people think (or want). Thoughts?
I've been considering this as well! They would certainly bring in a lot of tickets, also with their announcement that 2025 will be the last year they tour for a while the festivals will have a bigger draw. Maybe it means they have some awesome undercards. For me, in this current moment, my headliner predictions are Deftones, Twenty One Pilots, and...Morrissey, I guess. Maybe The Smiths, but I just don't know why THIS would be the festival that brings The Smiths back. Would still love Tool though.
I feel this goes well with what Andy said. Now that the buzz is run dry, Riot might be able to get them. (Not that they wont have a big crowd, but they are not as popular as a few years back I think) Also they are one of the few Fueled By Ramen bands that havent played Riot yet
Vibe-wise I couldn’t see TOP playing Riot, but it would be a great business decision lol. They still have a huge, devoted fanbase and I’m sure they’d move a bunch of single-day tickets for whatever day they’d play
I'd put TOP in the same camp as Slipknot. They aren't not a fit but I'd imagine that they are a back-up to something else the fest would have preferred. But there would also be a way to balance it out on the poster. Here's how the fest has presented headliners/subs in past years: 2025: Blink-182, Weezer/Jack White, Green Day 2024: Fall Out Boy, Beck/Pavement, Slayer 2023: Foo Fighters/Turnstile, Postal Service/DCFC/Queens, the Cure/the Mars Volta 2022: MCR, Misfits, NIN 2021: Morrissey, Smashing Pumpkins, Run the Jewels, Slipknot with 3-4 other artists on each day 2019: Blink-182, Slayer, Bikini Kill with 2-3 other artists on each day 2018: Weezer, Beck, Run the Jewe So when they have bigger headliners that are "very" Riot they let them stand-alone. But when they have artists who are maybe a bit smaller than usual or ones that might be more "Riot-adjacent" then they slot some direct support and stage-closers up there as well. If they were to have TOP, Deftones, and any of the other headliners in speculation? That would look like any other festival. So I could see them slotting in other artists in the top line to balance it out some.
You're right. I just edited my post. But that also further drives home the point. Haha. When you put Weezer up against Green Day and Blink it seems "smaller." Slotting in Jack White along with them makes it look stronger.
TOP's playing Shaky Knees on Saturday, I feel like it'd be hard to get a headlining act's worth of stuff from Atlanta to Chicago on one night's notice
If NIN can get their shit from California to Chicago in a night, I'm sure TOP can do the same with rentals and stuff. The math is different for headliners than smaller artists on the bill. Zero skin in the game because they aren't my thing at all but I don't think it's an impossibility.