2012 Riot Fest

2012 Riot Fest, a set on Flickr.

For the 7th year in a row, I purchased an every day pass to attend Riot Fest. This pass is supposed to provide access to all events including after shows. IMO, in a complete bullshit move, they sold tickets to the after shows this year. Then, they granted these ticket holders access to the after show events with priority over every day pass holders. More on this later.

I arrived at the Inn of Chicago at about 3pm. This may be the least attractive hotel room that I have got by bidding on Priceline. I will be skipping the 2.5 star hotels from now on if someone else is sharing the room with me. After a brief nap, I decided to hit Reckless Records on Madison in the Loop. It was about a one mile walk which was fine as I like looking at the buildings in downtown Chicago from different angles and at different times of the day. I managed to walk away empty handed from there. The punk selection was very limited.

I stopped at the Elephant and Castle for a pint of Harp and some nachos and then took a taxi to the Congress Theater. I picked up my 3 day pass wristband and headed in. I arrived in time to miss Dead Sara as planned. I was able to grab a beer and up on stage came Pegboy. They played an energetic 30 minute set to a surprisingly already large crowd. Larry spent most of the time hanging on the barrier or on his knee on stage out of breath. The guy gives it more than his body can handle. I was dissapointed in the sound for them. Bass and drums too loud and guitar and vocals too low. I enjoyed the show but have seen them sound better. They skipped any song that Larry plays guitar on because they had a short set. They only played about 8-9 songs. Here is what I remember them playing.

Dangermare

Slipped Through My Fingers
Strong Reaction
Revolver (Mission of Burma cover)
Hardlight

I had a few more beers and a slice of Congress pizza in an effort to avoid Neon Trees. They were not my cup of tea. I can't believe they did a cover of "Mommy's Little Monster".

I was pretty excited to see The Offspring for the first time. The venue was pretty full by the time they hit the stage. They had a 3 guitar attack for most of their set. I enjoyed them, but had the same complaint about the sound as I did for the Pegboy set. I left at 10pm to head to the Subterranean for the Naked Raygun show. The Offspring were scheduled to play until 10:15pm. Here are some songs I remember them playing.

Come Out And Play

Days Go By
All I Want
Bad Habit
No Brakes

When I arrived at the Sub, the line was around the corner. I didn't think this was a good sign. Long story short, I was next in line to get into the venue when they quit letting more people in unless you purchased a ticket or were on the guest list as they had more than 400 people upstairs already. All I will say is this may be the last Riot Fest I attend due to the shenanigans of selling tickets for after shows after promoting admission to after shows to entice people to buy 3 day passes early to provide cash flow to fund the festival. Ever get the feeling you've been cheated!

2012 Riot Fest Compilation

Next weekend, Riot Fest makes its return to Chicago.  I think this is the 8th year in a row that I will be attending.  In honor of the event, I made a compilation CD with some tracks from some of the bands that are playing that I will most likely be watching.  Leave a comment to contact me if you want a copy.

01 Offspring - All I Want
02 Descendents - Blast Off
03 Teenage Bottlerocket - Bottlerocket
04 Dropkick Murphys - Citizen CIA
05 Dan Vapid and the Cheats - Die Trying
06 Teenage Bottlerocket - Freak Out!
07 Dickies - Gigantor
08 Off With Their Heads - Hard to Admit
09 Less Than Jake - How's My Driving, Doug Hastings?
10 Naked Raygun - I Don't Know
11 Less Than Jake - Jen Doesn't Like Me Anymore
12 A Wilhelm Scream - Killing It
13 Descendents - Marriage
14 Descendents - Mass Nerder
15 Naked Raygun - New Dreams
16 Offspring - One Fine Day
17 Hot Water Music - Our Own Way
18 Elvis Costello - Radio Radio
19 Iggy & the Stooges - Search and Destroy
20 NOFX - Seeing Double at the Triple Rock
21 Offspring - Session
22 Rise Against - State of the Union
23 Rise Against - The Art of Losing
24 Pegboy - Through My Fingers
25 Pegboy - Time Again
26 Dropkick Murphys - Time To Go
27 Adicts - Too Young
28 Off With Their Heads - Trying to Breathe
29 Rise Against - Voice of Dissent
30 Casualties - We Are All We Have
31 NOFX - We Got Two Jealous Agains
32 Alkaline Trio - We've Had Enough
33 Teenage Bottlerocket - Welcome to the Nuthouse

2012 2000 Tons of TNT Festival Compilation

Next weekend, I am headed to Hartford, CT to attend the 2000 Tons of TNT festival.  I am meeting up with Earthdog and his brother Pakky for the event.  Hopefully, I meet up with my old college roommate SteveO too.

I've put together a compilation CD of tracks from some of the bands that are playing the festival.  Contact me if you want the link to download a copy.  22 of the 27 songs were played at the festival.  You can check out my review at my other blog - http://bar-b-lew.blogspot.com/2012/09/2000-tons-of-tnt-labor-day-weekend-2012.html.

Here is the track listing of the compilation CD.

01 Forced Reality - 15 Pints (And I'm Still Standing)
02 Meatmen - Blowjobs Ain't Cheatin'
03 Infa Riot - Emergency
04 Meatmen - Fast Food Fist Fuck
05 Anti-Nowhere League - Fucked Up & Wasted
06 Menace - GLC
07 Anti-Nowhere Leauge - Good As It Gets
08 Evil Conduct - Home Sweet Home
09 Anti-Nowhere Leauge - I Hate...People
10 Infa Riot - In for a Riot
11 Meatmen - I've Got a Problem
12 Infa Riot - Kids of the 80s
13 Menace - Last Years Youth
14 Negative Approach - Negative Approach
15 Anti-Nowhere League - Never Drink Alone
16 Forced Reality - Never Forget
17 Stars & Stripes - STFU
18 Menace - Screwed Up
19 Meatmen - Shut Up and Suck
20 Anti-Nowhere League - So What
21 Infa Riot - Still Out of Order
22 Yellow Stitches - Tale of a Fat Fucking Retard
23 NOi!se - This Is Who We Are
24 Negative Approach - Tied Down
25 Bruisers - Till the End
26 Meatmen - Toolin' for Anus
27 Warriors - Warriors (Come Out and Play)

2012 Rebellion Festival Compilation

This weekend is the Rebellion Festival in Blackpool, England.  One day I am going to make the trip across the pond to attend this festival.  Maybe next year.  Here is a 2CD compilation that I put together of some of the bands playing this weekend.

CD1
01 Geoffrey Oi!cott - 17 Pints of Ale
02 Only Ones - Another Girl Another Planet
03 Dun2def - Anti Social
04 Peter & the Test Tube Babies - Banned from the Pubs
05 Xtract - Boys in Blue
06 Zooparty - Bring the Bored
07 Abrasive Wheels - Burn 'Em Down
08 Crashed Out - Devil on My Back
09 Penetration - Don't Dictate
10 Runnin' Riot - Drunk & Disorderly
11 Left Alone - Drunk Again
12 Voodoo Glow Skulls - Drunk Tank
13 Section 5 - Every Saturday
14 Social Distortion - Far Behind
15 Vice Squad - Fistful of Dollars
16 Menace - G.L.C.
17 One Way System - Give Us a Future
18 Agnostic Front - Gotta Go
19 Business - Guinness Boys
20 7 Seconds - Here's Your Warning
21 Booze & Glory - Hooligan
22 Protex - I Can Only Dream
23 Boys - I Don't Care
24 999 - I'm Alive
25 Chelsea - I'm on Fire
26 Sick on the Bus - It Won't Suck Itself
27 Vibrators - Judy Says
28 Stiff Little Fingers - Kicking Up a Racket


CD2
01 Last Resort - King of the Jungle
02 Argy Bargy - Lights Over London
03 Outcasts - Mania
04 Anti-Pasti - No Government
05 Demob - No Room for You
06 Buzzcocks - Oh, Shit!
07 Case - Oh!
08 Sensa Yuma - On You
09 Ruts - Out of Order
10 Fits - Peace & Quiet
11 Neville Staple - Pressure Drop
12 Public Image Ltd. - Public Image
13 Control - Punk Rock Ruined My Life
14 Rat City Riot - Rat City Riot
15 Subhumans - Religious Wars
16 Goldblade - Riot Riot
17 Agitators - Salute to All
18 UK Subs - Self Destruct
19 Gimp Fist - Skinhead Not a Bonehead
20 Varukers - Soldier Boy
21 Lurkers - Suzie Is a Floozie
22 Off With Their Heads - Trying to Breathe
23 Zero Boys - Vicious Circle
24 Splodgenessabounds - We're Pathetique
25 Pipes and Pints - When the Pipers Play
26 Slaughter and the Dogs - Where Have All the Boot Boys Gone?
27 Spizz Energi - Where's Captain Kirk?
28 Rancid - White Knuckle Ride

2012 Vans Warped Tour Compilation

Every year, I pick up the 2CD compilation of Vans Warped Tour bands.  I have them going back to the first year they issued one.

The 2012 tour compilation includes 25 tracks on each CD.  Of the 50 songs, I only would listen to one more than once, Anti-Flag's "Broken Bones".  I don't know why they picked such a bad song by Rise Against to start of the first CD.  There were a few other bands who had decents songs - Nothington, I Am the Avalanche, Blacklist Royals, Murderland, and Ballyhoo.  I guess time has passed me by as I have no interest in most of the stuff that kids are listening to today.

Punk Rock n Roll Vol 01

Here is the track listing in the first of I am sure many of my new series of punk rock(ish) compilation CDs.  I love the lyrics to the Street Dogs "Punk Rock and Roll" so I named the series after that song, and will be making it the lead track for every volume.  Additionally, I love the lyrics to the Dropkick Murphys "Going Out in Style" so I will be making that the final track for every volume.

Vol 01 consists of a mix of different "punk" genres - bluegrass, celtic, ska, swing, street, etc.  I've been working on this one for a month or so, and have found that it makes for great beer drinking for the approximate 80 minutes that it lasts.  Contact me if you want a copy to entertain yourself.

Track Listing:
01 Street Dogs - Punk Rock and Roll
02 Dreadnoughts - Cider Road
03 Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band - Clap Your Hands
04 Flatfoot 56 - Cotton Fields
05 Black Tartan Clan - Country Roads
06 Wellits - Drunk on Spring Garden
07 Deal's Gone Bad - Fire
08 Old Man Markley - For Better or For Worse
09 Kings of Nuthin' - If I Were You
10 Swaggerin' Growlers - Kiss My Ass
11 Larry and His Flask - Land of the Free
12 Pietasters - Maggie Mae
13 Fiddler's Green - Night Pat Murphy Died
14 Transplants - Not Today
15 Old Man Markley - Party Shack
16 Dropkick Murphys - Peg O' My Heart
17 Dreadnoughts - Polka Never Dies
18 Old Man Markley - Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms
19 Flogging Molly - Saints & Sinners
20 Dropkick Murphys - Spicy McHaggis Jig
21 Flogging Molly - Swagger (live)
22 Specials - Tears in My Beer
23 Brian Setzer Orchestra - This Cat's on a Hot Tin Roof
24 Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - You and Me and the Bottle Makes 3 Tonight (Baby)
25 Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band - Your Cousin's on Cops
26 Dropkick Murphys - Going Out in Style

Teenage Bottlerocket - Freak Out!

For years, I kinda blew off this band until Earthdog convinced me that I needed to go watch them in the corridor at the Congress Theater during a Riot Fest weekend.  So, here we are in the lobby crunched between stage, the beer stand, and the stand selling the famous Congress pizza slices.  The sound sucked all day long because of the echo from the concrete floor to the concrete ceiling.  Then, these Ramones looking youngsters from Wyoming hit the stage.  Holy shit!  I was addicted to them from that point on.  I have seen them a few more times at Insubordination Fest in Baltimore with Earthdog.  They play Ramones style simple (for someone who may play an instrument) chords with catchy, most of the time funny lyrics.  Most of the songs just crack me up.

Well, their newest release, Freak Out!, is no different.  I've been listening to it a lot the last few weeks.  And, it has been growing on me with every listen.  I can't stop listening to it tonight so I figured it would make for a great time to write about it.

I can't wait to see them at Riot Fest this year!!!

1. Freak Out! - quick blast with more mentions of Freak than any other words and gone in a flash.  As the Guinness commercials said, brilliant!
2. Headbanger - a song about a guy that whips his head so fast he gives himself a concussion.  How can that not be funny?  They even give a throwback to the last release and mention the Kiss Army - "what the fuck are you talking about?"
3. Cruising for Chicks - just what you would think it is about in Wyoming.  "In my mother's old Suburban, cruising for chicks."
4. Necrocomicon - a parody of the San Diego Comic Con.  "I thought I saw fucking Yoda."
5. Maverick - a parody of the movie Top Gun - "I'm the only guy in Top Gun she ever dated."
6. Done With Love - the anti love song.
7. Punk House of Horror - Don't go there as Rat smells like piss and the place is a fucking dive.
8. Never Gonna Tell You - (That I Love You) the love song.
9. In the Pit - a sarcastic song about the jocks who couldn't make the football team.
10. Mutilate Me - the X rated sex song.
11. Who Killed Sensei? - " I wanna know who killed Sensei?"
12. Radical - the 2nd love song about a girl that you can not afford.
13. Summertime - the song about the weather extremes of Wyoming and being hot as Mexico in Summertime.
14. Go With the Flow - the 3rd love song and the back and forth break ups that take place during teen love.