Riot Fest Day 3: While waiting for The Cure, Mars Volta’s progressive grooves seem to have attracted few new fans | Albiseyler

Patience paid off for Riot Fest goers as the rain slowly began to fall on the final day at Douglass Park.

Around 10 a.m. Sunday, organizers announced a timing delay due to the weather, but later decided to open doors at 2 p.m., saving most of the planned events for the last minute.

Crowds appeared early, massive lines criss-crossing Ogden Avenue and bending into California. The first people in line raced into the park like it was a victory lap and took their seats on the main stages for The Cure’s closing night.

Here’s a look at some of the highlights from Sunday:

Medicine

On the last day of the rock music festival, it was clear that the attendees were into The Cure – and they didn’t disappoint. The marathon performance deserves the title of the best headliner of the summer festival season in Chicago.

Full review

Mars Volta

The fun thing about Riot Fest is the variety of bands and genres, but this year the festival really pushed the boundaries with progressive rock band The Mars Volta.

At times the band provided energetic bossa-nova-like grooves, singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala singing and moving like a happily deranged lounge singer. Some of the songs were in Spanish, and while many in the crowd may not have known the words, they stuck to the international language that is music. On the other hand, as the set went on, the progressive side came out more with extended tracks that sounded like a mix of a jam band and the video game Space Invaders, seemingly confusing the crowd.

The group would often start songs with a jazzy beat, and guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez would suddenly take it in a different, often harder direction to return to the smooth groove he started with, with Bixler-Zavala wailing in between.

The band had a huge audience as many marked their seats for festival headliner The Cure, who were scheduled to play five minutes after the band’s set on the side stage, but it’s doubtful they converted any attendees into new fans. Instead, a set that began as a welcome break from more aggressive punk rock bands lulled the crowd into an ordeal to be endured rather than enjoyed. — Bob Chiarito

Dresden dolls

September 17 will be a day Amanda Palmer remembers for the rest of her life. “I’m the happiest I’ve ever been because I just met Robert Smith from The Cure,” said the Dresden Dolls singer and pianist, sharing how much the British band meant to her and drummer Brian Viglione.

“In 2000, we bonded over many things: We were weird kids, but we also bonded over bands and our love for The Cure. For our band, it is the greatest pleasure to play on the same stage.”

There are some lines between the two groups: Palmer and Smith wear almost equal amounts of eyeliner and also dabble in the dark arts, with The Dresden Dolls taking it a step further in their punk-cabaret set of music and carnival makeup.

A large part of the band’s purpose is to act as a vehicle for Palmer’s beautiful prose, while Viglione adds even more heart and soul to the set – picking up a guitar here and there. Like when he slung one over his shoulders and took over vocals to lead a cover of the Beastie Boys’ “Fight for Your Right.”

For this number, the duo briefly became a trio with guest Melissa Auf der Maur; although she has slipped off the mainstream radar in recent years, Auf der Maur occupies a special place in the alterna-rock era as the bassist in Hole and The Smashing Pumpkins. “I heard the band needed a bass player,” she joked as she took the stage.

“You and I and this bass have space history, Chicago,” she added. “The Smashing Pumpkins changed my life and changed rock history.”

(Curiously, Auf der Maur was a guest on the same night that the Pumpkins staged the 30th.^Thursday anniversary of the performance of the landmark album “Siamese Dream” at Madame Zuzu in Highland Park.)

The Dresden Dolls offered one more cover, this time as a duo, with a take on Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” done incredibly without guitars. Although the Dolls held off on any new songs, Palmer confirmed they were working on a new album: “We’re too scared to play them, but we’re going on tour soon, so we hope you’ll come see us.” — Selena Fragassi

Gorilla Biscuits

New York hardcore band Gorilla Biscuits took Riot Fest back to its roots on Sunday afternoon with a packed set that made the smaller Rebel Stage feel like a punk rock club, if only for 50 minutes.

The key band was the last of the seven on the roster to play the album in its entirety, and playing “Start Today” probably wasn’t a difficult choice for them. It was the second and last Gorilla Biscuit record to be ranked by NME as one of the 15 best hardcore albums of all time.

The band started their hour-long set 10 minutes late, but with most of their songs under two minutes, time wasn’t an issue. Lead singer Anthony “Civ” Civarelli fired up and jumped right into the crowd while others started crowd surfing and moshing.

At the start of the set, Civarelli told the crowd that there should be no fighting or arguing today, adding “this is about love” before launching into “Degradation”.

Love for one another was a sentiment he returned to several times throughout the show, and despite the crowd’s moshing and constant fist-pumping to the band’s songs, the energy seemed to be overwhelmingly positive.

The band deviated from playing the album’s songs in order, and once they were done, dug into its catalog for the rest of the set. Civarelli dedicated “Big Mouth,” a song from the band’s first album, to several friends who had passed away in the past few years, while urging the crowd to “live life.”

Civarelli also threw his microphone into the crowd more than once, allowing die-hards to sing while he looked on and smiled. He then played “Time Flies”, which goes without saying.

Towards the end of the set, he asked the under-25s and women in the crowd to raise their hands, asking them to “not become your parents” before launching into the band’s closing song, “Start Today”. — Bob Chiarito

LS Dunes

Remnants of a rain-soaked morning stuck out on the road to LS Dunes, with yellow caution tape blocking heavily soaked mud pits on the way to the Radicals Stage. The equipment and speakers on the stage itself were still covered by protective wrapping.

But for LS Dunes singer Anthony Green, it was “the most beautiful day”, marking an important moment in the band’s short history. “It’s an honor to celebrate our one-year anniversary as a band — a real band … and not just be known as some industry scumbag,” he said, recalling the supergroup born of COVID that debuted in this very park at 2022’s Riot Fest.

A few months later, LS Dunes released their first album, the scintillating “Past Lives”, marking the collective record of the five members in the punk timeline (in addition to Green, who recorded time in Circa Survive and Saosin, the lineup also includes members of My Chemical Romance, Thursday and Coheed and Cambria).

Naturally, this album was the centerpiece of Sunday’s performance, with songs that veered into emo, post-hardcore and good old fashioned punk undertones. There was also a climactic pizza moment when a fan in the crowd handed a giant slice of pepperoni to Green, who happily accepted. “This has to happen when you die, a bunch of people screaming your name and serving pizza. — Selena Fragassi

LS Dunes

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Remnants of a rain-soaked morning stuck out on the road to LS Dunes, with yellow caution tape blocking heavily soaked mud pits on the way to the Radicals Stage. The equipment and speakers on the stage itself were still covered by protective wrapping.

But for LS Dunes singer Anthony Green, it was “the most beautiful day”, marking an important moment in the band’s short history. “It’s an honor to celebrate our one-year anniversary as a band — a real band … and not just be known as some industry scumbag,” he said, recalling the COVID-born supergroup that made its debut in this very park at 2022’s Riot Fest.

A few months later, LS Dunes released their first album, the snazzy “Past Lives”, marking the collective record of the five members in the punk timeline (in addition to Green, who logged time in Circa Survive and Saosin, the line-up also includes members of My Chemical Romance, Thursday and Coheed and Cambria).

Naturally, this album was the centerpiece of Sunday’s show, with songs that veered into emo, post-hardcore and good old fashioned punk undertones. There was also a climactic pizza moment when a fan in the crowd handed a giant slice of pepperoni to Green, who happily accepted. “This has to happen when you die, a bunch of people screaming your name and serving pizza. — Selena Fragassi

Black Angels

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Opening the gates after Sunday’s rain delay, The Black Angels were the first to warm up the Roots Stage. The Austin, Texas quintet quickly ran through a litany of psych-influenced rock so welcoming it could have been directly responsible for bringing out the sun.

The Blacks Angels are one of those bands that caters to both record store enthusiasts and regular biker bars alike, bringing equal parts denim and leather to the main stage for a hallowed blend of guitar scrambles, spirited organ, rich vocal reverb and the occasional tambourine and harmonica in a well-knit mix. All of this ties in well with the band’s affinity for The Velvet Underground canon.

Bringing good bits from their six-album catalogue, most recently 2022’s ‘Wilderness of Mirrors’, the bandmates were short on stage banter, instead keeping the crowd in the zone with their unyielding performance, proving once again that there’s always something to be found. everyone at Riot Fest. — Selena Fragassi