Sep 20

Sep 20 Riot Fest Day 1 Recap: My Chemical Romance, Bleachers, Taking Back Sunday Rule The Day at Douglass Park

Riot Fest 2022 – Day 1
My Chemical Romance, Bleachers, Portugal. The Man, Alkaline Trio and more
Douglass Park
Chicago, IL
Friday, September 16th, 2022

Photos and Review by Jared Stossel

As someone whose only stuck around and attended shows throughout the Bay Area and Northern California for most of his life, I’ve heard stories about the legendary shows that take place outside the confines of the state. I’ve heard tales about attending events like Coachella, EDC in Las Vegas, any show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, and Bamboozle on the East Coast. Without fail, one of the festivals that’s always brought up to me when I ask people what they think I should try to attend is Riot Fest. I ended up viewing the lineup for the 2022 edition of the festival, and I couldn’t have agreed more. I had to make it out to this one.

After a year of buildup and anticipation, the legendary Riot Fest returned to Douglass Park in Chicago on Friday, September 16th, boasting a lineup filled with some of the biggest names in rock, punk, emo, and hip-hop. While the festival did take place last year with a lineup that featured acts like Run The Jewels, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Slipknot, there was more at stake this time around: the Friday date of this year’s edition of Riot Fest would feature a headlining performance from none other than My Chemical Romance. The band were initially booked to play the festival in 2021 but postponed their tour due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This would be the first time that the New Jersey based act would take the stage in Chicago in well over a decade. To say that there was excitement in the air would be a severe understatement.

As the doors to the festival opened, fans were greeted to a plethora of great music on all fronts, whether it was indie rock and synth pop on the Rise stage (Pale Waves), high-energy alternative rock on the Roots stage (Sincere Engineer) or an intense amalgamation of genres like shoegaze and post-rock with a heavier touch on the Radicals stage (Holy Fawn). Sincere Engineer brought one of the funniest moments of the day as they inspired a “corn dog circle pit” to take place; i.e., fans bought corn dogs, held them up, and began a circle pit during the band’s set. I didn’t say it needed to make sense, all I’m saying is that it was a lot of fun. Festivals can be overwhelming, and there’s almost always something going on at each stage, at any given point in the day. But at Riot Fest, there is no shortage of good music or exhilarating performances.

At 1 PM, one of the day’s most highly anticipated acts took the stage, L.S. Dunes. It was the band’s world premiere performance, with members from My Chemical Romance, Thursday, Coheed and Cambria, and Circa Survive rounding out the lineup. Their music is excellent, a collection of post-hardcore tracks being unleashed upon the crowd as Green makes the audience his stage, often diving into the crowd and getting up close and personal as he sings his way through each track. I’ve seen Green perform countless times in the last decade, and this is his style; performance is personal, and he makes sure the audience never forgets the show, no matter what band he’s fronting. Guitarists Frank Iero and Travis Stever, bassist Tim Payne, and drummer Tucker Rule round out the band, and they work exceptionally well together. I look forward to hearing their debut album when it’s finally out this fall.

Two of the day’s best performances both came on the Rise stage, as Foxy Shazam brought forth their unique brand of modern-day glam rock in a frenetic and glorious fashion. Foxy Shazam may be a new favorite of mine, given the performance that they demonstrated at this festival. Every single member of this band gives it their all, and it’s impossible to turn away from them. One of my most highly anticipated sets came from Anberlin, a band who I last saw walk off a San Francisco stage in 2014 during what they dubbed their final tour. I’m glad that show wasn’t the end, and it was exciting to see them excitedly make their way through both old and new material. Over on the Rebel stage, up and coming act Cliffdiver put on an insanely fun performance, incorporating elements of punk, ska, and emo into one power-packed set. Shortly after their set, on the same stage, one of the UK’s newest exports in the form of Wargasm put on one of the heaviest sets of the day, with music that combined high-octane hard rock with electronic elements.

Two legendary punk acts (Lagwagon and Descendents) dominated the crowd on the festival’s main stages with mosh-pit inducing sets, while AVIVA brought forth an excellent performance of electro-tinged alt-pop that got the crowd moving. Rocket From The Crypt came to Riot Fest with a special treat: a full performance of their 2001 album Group Sounds, getting the crowd hyped up with a fast-moving and exciting punk rock set. Over on the Radicals stage, The Wonder Years put on the best set I’ve ever seen them play. Full stop. There was something about this show that had them so super-charged, but they played with an intensity that I’ve clearly only see whispers of at their west coast shows. This was a next level performance from the six gentlemen from Philadelphia.

The anticipation began to build as Taking Back Sunday took to the main stage with a performance that found them running on all cylinders, careening their way through a briskly-paced set of fan-favorite tracks. We covered their show earlier in the year at Sacramento’s Ace of Spades, but seeing them on a stage this large elevates their music to even greater heights. Alt-rock darlings Portugal. The Man closed out the Riot stage with an engaging set. The band’s live performances have always been astounding, and they manage to make sure that every person in the audience, no matter how far away, will remember them. A video screen behind them changes throughout the evening, both with visuals and text written by the band. A roar of cheers comes from the crowd as the words “I Don’t Care What Jack White Says, Chicago Is A Beautiful City” appears. Their music isn’t “punk”, but they have a punk rock spirit about them.

Bleachers closed out the Radicals stage on Friday night with an electrifying performance. Jack Antonoff is an immaculate performer, producer, and songwriter, and it’s clear to see why Bleachers are chosen to close out one of the stages on day one of the festival. While Bleachers isn’t a punk act, Antonoff plays with the energy and electricity of any act you would find at a traditional punk rock show. Switching between various guitars throughout the hour-long performance, Antonoff owns the crowd as he works his way through an eclectic catalogue of hits that comprise Bleachers’ three studio albums, bringing the Radicals stage to a close with a must see performance.

The stage is dark. Alkaline Trio have just played an outstanding performance on the “Roots” stage next door. Chants of “MCR! MCR!” fill the crowd. There’s no grandiose fanfare; they just walk out on stage. After nearly a decade, the members of My Chemical Romance have arrived. Shrouded in darkness, vocalist Gerard Way picks up a canister of spray paint and scrawls a message across the bass drum head of drummer Jarrod Alexander’s kit. This has happened at every single show of the band’s current tour, with a different message each night. For Riot Fest, Way inscribes the bass drum in hot pink paint with one simple word: “Destroy”.

A My Chemical Romance performance is an event of epic proportions, and each show brings a different set list and a new outfit from Way. For Riot Fest, the frontman is dressed in what I can only describe as an outfit that a 1940s movie star would wear in public to avoid the paparazzi, launching into the band’s epic new song, “The Foundations of Decay”. The crowd behind me is deafening, the loudest I’ve heard in years, the barricade doing everything it can to hold back the swath of dedicated fans as they scream the words. Each show begins with “Foundations” before launching into an eclectic setlist comprised of fan-favorite hits and surprise deep cuts. The band’s Riot Fest set was kicked off with “Na Na Na” from their fourth album, the Technicolor post-apocalyptic party at the end of the world known as Danger Daysand the bass-driven “Give ‘Em Hell, Kid” from Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. To my absolute shock and delight, the band performed “Vampires Will Never Hurt You”, an intense track from their debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, along with the heavy-hitting B-side “Boy Division” and the thrash-inspired “Thank You For The Venom”.

The crowd at this show was particularly rowdy, with Way politely asking people to keep taking a few steps back after every song. The production manager for the band had to come out prior to the encore and ask people to step back a bit more, as many fans were needing to be pulled out of the crowd. This was probably the biggest show the band have played in the U.S. on this tour thus far, and a lot of bands would have just kept going amidst the chaos. But My Chemical Romance are not like other acts, and the care that they demonstrated to making sure their fans were safe amidst the intensity of the crowd was inspiring. After photographing, I ended up moving to the far back of the crowd, as it was a bit harder to find a place closer to the front due to the size of the audience. But it didn’t really matter where I was; at any given moment, a hit like “Welcome to the Black Parade”, “Teenagers”, or “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” would start up, and everyone around me would start singing. It was a family affair, one that found thousands of lifelong My Chemical Romance fans reunited in one place to sing their hearts out.

While the official final song on the set list came from Danger Days (“The Kids From Yesterday”), an unplanned final song came in the form of “Cancer”, a piano-driven ballad taken from the band’s masterpiece third record The Black Parade. This isn’t how you’d envision a band’s festival set at a show called “Riot Fest” to come to a close, but I can only imagine that Way decided to throw this song in at the very end to quell the crowd, help everyone calm down, and end the night on a more tranquil note. It was a hectic first day, but My Chemical Romance closed out Riot Fest with a set for the ages. I’m looking forward to their return to Oakland in the coming weeks.

My Chemical Romance Set List
The Foundations of Decay
Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)
Give ‘Em Hell Kid
House of Wolves
The Ghost of You
Thank You For The Venom
Boy Division
Helena
Teenagers
This Is How I Disappear
Vampires Will Never Hurt You
Mama
Welcome To The Black Parade
Famous Last Words

Encore
I’m Not Okay (I Promise)
The Kids From Yesterday
Cancer