Riot Fest 2014 Day 1

GWAR

Now that I've seen GWAR twice, I can say with confidence that GWAR is a show that never disappoints.  If you like comedy, GWAR definitely gives you it in its gory glory.  They don't waste anytime getting someone in a President Obama costume on-stage and immediately cutting of his head, spraying blood from the neck stump into the crowd.  Some other scenes include:  a villain with a buzz saw spraying blood all over, slaying a tyrannosaurus rex by stabbing it through the roof of its mouth, a cow utter with dicks on it ejaculating blood, a woman with tits that spray blood out of the nipples, and a game show where contestants get decapitated after inevitably getting answers to questions wrong.

Does the buzz saw wielding maniac survive the wrath of the prehistoric nightmare?
Find out in this episode of Transformers:  Villains Go to Delta House. 

What I thought was particularly funny about the game show was that when the last contestant was supposed to be decapitated, the woman with the blood spraying nipples had trouble getting the prop head to detach from the body when she clubbed it with her prop sword a few times.  So she just tore it off, spraying blood out of the neck stump.  The remaining corpse immediately started head banging (or neck stump banging I suppose) hosing down the crowd with a steady stream of blood.

I think that everyone should see GWAR at least once.  Unless if you're easily offended.


Failure

Failure Live at Humboldt Park
9/12/2014

The best way to describe Failure would probably be that they are a very laid back, very polished sounding Industrial Rock group.  They certainly aren't bad and I will probably check out more of their stuff later.  The amount of bass guitar was almost unbearable though.  I thought the sound guy was trying to kill us by blasting our hearts through our rib cages.  It's a shame when really cool bands aren't mixed right.  This was definitely one of those occasions.

Their music is definitely something I could see myself listening to on a lonely Saturday night.  If you're looking for something to mosh to at a punk rock festival, this isn't it.


Clutch

Clutch Live at Humboldt Park 9/12/2014

Although they were pretty overshadowed by some of the other acts this weekend, Clutch still put on a semi-memorable show.  The bluesy hard rock band maintains your attention with cool guitar riffs and intense vocals.  It won't be enough to make you want to destroy someone in the mosh pit but your head will continue to move up and down from start to finish.  They're worth seeing if there isn't someone else more worthwhile to see.




NOFX

NOFX Live at Humboldt Park 9/12/2014

NOFX will give you the fantastic package of San Francisco punk and alcohol-induced crude humor.  Playing through their Punk in Drublic album was fitting to go along with bashing Chicago's climate and socio-political issues.  After shredding through Punk in Drublic in record time, they decided to play some other songs and ended with a song that was about 5 whole minutes in (a long time for a punk song) before getting cut off by festival management.  After commenting about how it was fair to follow the rules despite being an unpunk thing to do, Fat Mike and company grudgingly left the stage with their ridiculously long song unfinished.

 

The Offspring

The Offspring Live at Humboldt Park 2014

The Offspring rocked through their '94 album Smash (though I'm fairly certain they didn't play every song) and followed it up with some of their biggest hits.  Despite very few attempts to interact with the crowd, The Offspring had great presence and kept the crowd interested.  For the most part, they sounded like their records with the exception of "The Kids Aren't Alright" which sounded particularly unpolished but, nonetheless, still a good performance.



Slayer

Wait... what band is in that fog?
Live at Humboldt Park 2014

Slayer was pretty okay.  They sound just like the studio albums while basking in an overabundance of dry ice and pyrotechnics.  What more could a Slayer fan ask for?







Rise Against

Rise Against played all of the songs that you would expect them to play plus a couple of Ramones covers with Fat Mike from NOFX.  This was particularly funny since he was drunk as hell; coming onto the stage stumbling with nothing nice to say.  As soon as Fat Mike came on, Tim McIlrath sarcastically announced that he would immediately regret the decision to invite him on.

Beyond that, Rise Against's set was a lot like how it was for Riot Fest 2012.  Fast-paced, intense, and emotional.

Below is the video of Fat Mike singing Ramones covers with Rise Against.  The link starts the video when it really starts getting good.

Fat Mike Drunk As a Skunk






Images:

GWAR:  From my friend CJ's Facebook Page

Failure:  http://cdn2b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/57/7b/577b857f7cd856acbbc1347366adebed.jpg?itok=Nbfadg4k

Clutch:  http://www.brooklynvegan.com/img/cl/riotfest/2014/day1/007-clutch/clutch-1.jpg

NOFX:  http://www.altpress.com/images/made/chrootimages/uploads/photoblog/RiotFest-Chicago-2014-Day1/nofx-3_900_600_70_s.jpg

The Offspring:  http://www.brooklynvegan.com/img/cl/riotfest/2014/day1/012-theoffspring/the%20offspring-4.jpg

Slayer:  From my friend CJ's Facebook Page