I definitely agree that the festival has been losing the magic of rare/reunion undercard acts, but I’m sure it’s harder to get those consistently. Getting Rilo Kiley last year and (hopefully) The Format this year is nice, but I know those reunions are/were part of bigger reunion tours, so not as unique as a rare/reunion act exclusive or a rare/reunion act doing less dates.
Yeah, there's just less "you can't see this anywhere but Riot Fest" now. It's not just a true exclusive (or first) reunion, or an album play, but to me it's more the curation of artists and styles generally with some of the unique/special stuff thrown in.
I do think it’s nice when they book acts who, while not being reunions or rare, have never played the festival before so it just feels fresh, like when they booked Waxahatchee, Alex G, St. Vincent, etc. (which is why I am manifesting they book The Beths or Courtney Barnett). Sure, you could see them elsewhere, but being able to see them at Riot Fest instead of some repeat act who has played three times before or something is cool. That being said, they should totally book Friko. Great Chicago band, great new album, great stage presence. Would be the perfect mid day set. And they have never played the festival before!
Yeah I feel like part of what made Riot so special was the huge, exclusive reunions they got during their 2010’s lineups (Misfits, Jawbreaker and Replacements all come to mind). They haven’t done something like that since Jawbreaker. Although I don’t fault them for not being able to pull something off like those again. Although I still do credit them for being able to pull newly-reunited undercard bands (like Rilo Kiley and Texas Is The Reason on last year’s lineup)
A Modern Baseball reunion at Riot this year would be insane. It probably won't ever happen but it's fun to hope.
it also probably got harder as the years go on because those 3 specific years with the 3 big reunions, riot ate everyones lunch by getting those reunions, but now other fests realized how big that was for riot and now are trying to do the same, especially the single day genre-specific ones that may be more enticing to specific bands to play with in the confines of their contemporaries (just like heaven, when we were young, sick new world, best friends forever, etc..)
While there's fewer "exclusives," the gestalt of everything Riot provides is still the major draw for me. There's no festival like it in that regard. There's more niche festivals in all directions but... For something at scale with a breadth of different genres? It's the only festival stateside I can think of. So it still has that going for it in a pretty major way. Like, maybe there's 10-15 bands on the bill I love and have seen before but there's still a solid number of smaller/younger acts I haven't caught yet and want to each year, indie acts I'm intrigued by but would never buy a ticket for otherwise, etc. And yeah, the "big get" reunions are harder to come by these days and the mid-tier ones probably don't draw enough for Riot (or to the point previously made - for certain artists it's just a better deal to play a small headliner guaranteed to sell out and do numbers on merch). It still feels like a cool, special thing. Just in a very different way. All that said - now that we're all talking about this I bet when the line-up drops there's a shit-ton of surprises. LMFAO! And, BTW, today's email said the line-up is coming very, very, very soon and presale tickets are "almost sold out." I'll believe it when I see it. LOL
Chance the Rapper is out. Playing Chicago on 8/8. Of course, my eyes gravitated toward the September tour dates and he has 2/3 of the Riot Fest weekend dates open so for a split second I thought he was in the mix. LOL
Angine De Poitrine might be a lock. Additional tour dates for the year were dropped today and still no Chicago
With the way things are looking for their trajectory it may be easier to see them at a festival than try to get tickets for these shows. I heard them at a bar the other day.
I listened to them and respectfully it is not for me but I do like that they are at least doing something interesting and unique (at least from my perspective).
From an e-mail they sent out: “Presale tickets are almost sold out, and once they’re gone, they’re gone. Tickets will not be on sale again until the lineup comes out and prices will increase. If you’ve been putting off grabbing yours, this is your sign to stop doing that before future you starts yelling at present you for spending more money later. Also, the Riot Fest 2026 lineup is coming very, very soon. We’ve got some seriously exciting things headed your way, so keep your eyes glued to your inbox and our socials because things are about to get real interesting. Summer is creeping in, big announcements are right around the corner, and we’re getting very excited to reunite with all your beautiful weird faces again soon.”
They seem really confident in what they got this year. I don’t ever remember seeing the emails be that happy until recently.
I really think they’ve got Metallica and/or a massive reunion. Otherwise all this talk and the price hikes are gonna set them up for a Bamboozle 2023 level dunking. I’m gonna say Metallica, Sex Pistols with Johnny Rotten exclusive reunion, & MCR doing Black Parade.
MCR did The Black Parade at Soldier Field last year…I don’t see them doing it again in Chicago since that was a big show and presumably everyone who wanted to see the album in full got a ticket and went, either in Chicago or whatever stop was closest to them.
Is the tone of the email really all that different from other years? It feels like it's usually par for the course with them hyping the lineup... I think Sex Pistols with Johnny Rotten is still very much not in the cards. But maybe I'm wrong? Weirdly, Metallica feels like a possibility and could make some of the metal acts (Anthrax, Testament) skipping Chicago make a bit more sense... Given the options this would be my favorite choice. I don't care about PJ but Deftones and Operation Ivy would be sick! If we're stretching... My "relatively reasonable" hope would be No Doubt/Deftones/Op Ivy but there is no way that happens. LOL
I’m still hung up on the fact that Rancid was been suspiciously quiet since they dropped their last album. They haven’t done any shows in almost two years (the Saviors tour with Green Day). So I’d like to think it’s because OpIv has been rehearsing again lol
Looking at ConcertArchives, Rancid tends to slow it down once every couple years. In 2007 they did 9 shows. 2010 was 3. 2022 was 3. Then they hit it hard... But it's rare for them to take a full year (let alone two) off. Which seems to be the case. Worth noting that Lars got married in 2023 (and has been traveling a lot; I keep hoping to bump into him when he's in MA LOL) and Matt started that bass playthrough channel in 2024. I checked Tim's Instagram and it seems he started a new company? Operation Ivy rehearsals would be the dream but could just as easily just be them taking time off to live life. Wrong Tim Armstrong. LOL
There’s also a bunch of great legacy acts and gimmicky acts you could book to headline Rebel as counter programming to say Fall Out Boy or Twentyonepilots too.