Every year, Riot Fest not only brings some of the best bands on Earth to Douglass Park, but they get some of those bands to play some of their most legendary albums in their entirety. Upon viewing the list of Album Plays for 2023, I was overcome with excitement because each and every one of these albums, I would describe as “lit”.
Without further ado, here’s a chance to get familiar with Riot Fest 2023 Album Plays.
Originally a side project for Kim Deal, bassist and vocalist for the highly-influential Pixies, Last Splash was recorded shortly after the dissolution of the Pixies (a breakup that Deal allegedly found out about via fax), causing Deal to give this record her undivided attention. Enlisting her twin sister, Kelley, and a highly-skilled rhythm section, the shining star of the Pixies produced magic with this record. Last Splash sounds like a simpler time. Each song is challenging intellectually, yet soothing sonically. The off-kilter instrumentation that made the Pixies stand out is present throughout this record, especially on smash-hit “Cannonball”, which remains a standout of alternative rock’s golden era.
The album that was ranked the 35th Best Album of the 1990’s by Pitchfork and 39th by SPIN comes to Douglass Park on Friday, September 15.
You might not know the name Walter Schreifels, but your favorite band probably does. An effervescent force in alternative’s various subcultures, Schreifels is an under appreciated genius. The 54-year-old is also pulling triple-duty at Riot Fest 2023, doing Album Plays for Quicksand and Rival Schools, two bands he fronted, and Gorilla Biscuits, the revolutionary punk band that he played guitar for.
The New York-born musician will kick off his weekend celebrating 30 years of Slip, Quicksand’s debut full-length and an iconic entry into the post-hardcore catalogue. After playing unrelenting and in-your-face tracks with Gorilla Biscuits, he pivoted to a band that was just as intense, but approached things in a different, more melodic manner. Quicksand, and this record in particular, paved the way for bands like Deftones and Thursday to thrive.
In an interview celebrating the 30th anniversary of Slip, Rise Against frontman Tim McIlrath described his experience with the album, “When I heard Slip for the first time, it sounded to me like a series of perfect decisions. At every crossroads, the songs take turns that were so satisfying to my high school freshman ears. I was starting to dabble in songwriting, but this album was so good that I remember thinking to myself, “Why bother?”
Celebrate 30 years of Slip on the first day of Riot Fest 2023.
There’s a lot of debate online about what emo is, and more importantly, isn’t. I won’t bore you with that conversation. All you need to know is that if you are ever confronted by a gang of vigilante music journalists who question your knowledge on emo, you should be able to thwart them by merely saying that Braid’s 1998 output, Frame & Canvas, is a perfect example of midwest emo.
Braid are from Champaign, Illinois, a hot bed for anthemic, emotional records like this. Over the course of three decades, the band has released four albums, none of which were better than Frame & Canvas. At 12 songs, the record is dripping with a certain amount of yearning that could only be conjured up in an Illinois basement. It’s middle America, but it’s also universal. It’s emotional, but it’s also tough. It’s aggressive, but in the sweetest way possible.
Despite coming up along the likes of bands like Jawbreaker, The Promise Ring, and The Get Up Kids, Braid never got the pop that those bands did. Despite having all of the jangly riffs and big choruses that you would want from a 2000’s emo record, it was ahead of the curve, and thus Braid missed out on sweet, commercial bliss. As a result, Frame & Canvas remains an under-the-radar gem.
When Vulture ranked the 100 Best Emo Songs of All Time in 2020, it crowed Braid’s “A Dozen Roses” at #36. I could argue it deserves to be bumped up a few spots. You’ll have your chance to hear that song, as well as the other 11 glorious tracks on Frame & Canvas, at Riot Fest 2023 on September 15.
Give Up was never supposed to be what it turned into. Now a platinum release, The Postal Service started out as a side-project for Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard and musician Jimmy Tamborello (fka Dntel). It has since become an album known for iconic breakup anthems and an appearance in a UPS commercial. Gibbard, unexpectedly, reached truly great heights with this 2003 release.
20 years after the fact, nothing sounds like Give Up. Seattle record label Sup Pop were firmly removed from “the Seattle sound” that they helped cultivate with Nirvana and fully in their indie era, having found success with The Shins and their 2001 release, Oh, Inverted World. Sonically, Give Up is far closer to a Shins record, but Give Up ultimately has come to have the same seismic level of influence that Nirvana’s Bleach had when Sub Pop released in in 1989.
Now as a part of the Death Cab for Cutie / Postal Service 20th Anniversary Tour, Gibbard, Jenny Lewis, and the rest of the band are bringing their unmistakable electro-rock record to Douglass Park as a part of Saturday night’s headlining festivities.
Death Cab for Cutie: Transatlanticism
Ben Gibbard, certified crazy man, will also be performing the iconic Transatlanticism on Saturday night. Released in October 2003, eight months after The Postal Service dropped Give Up, Gibbard staked his claim as having one of music’s most enriching years of all-time. Most bands never make one classic album; he dropped two in the same year.
To this point in history, Death Cab had slowly been inching their way to sounding like a “rock” band. Early records felt sparse and sounded lo-fi. They captured something with “A Movie Script Ending“, the standout from 2001’s The Photo Album, then turned everything up a level on Transatlanticism. There are a lot of bands that sound like Death Cab – whether it be Bright Eyes, The Shins, or The Decembrists, but none of them have shot life into the arm of alternative music the way that Death Cab have and continue to do. Those are not arena bands. This album cultivated a sound that has the intimacy of a dorm room, yet could fill a stadium.
In 2004, the band celebrated the critical and commercial success of this tour by playing around the country, including Q101’s 2004 Block Party. This time, they bring the fun to Douglass Park.
Think about where you were in 2001. Now think about what Q101 was playing in 2001. The first Rival Schools album, United By Fate, which features the aforementioned Walter Schreifels once again behind the mic, feels like something that should’ve been a huge hit in 2001. Alas, the powers that be had other ideas in mind. Rival Schools never popped. They went away for a decade, then put out another two, lesser records in 2011 and 2013. It took another decade for Schreifels to dust off the Rival Schools branding, but they’ve done so for Saturday night at Riot Fest.
A recent retrospective on the album described its “Nirvana vibe of High Acetate” and “the gentler romance and longing of Undercover’s On, Schreifels’ astonishing, gritty but warm vocals a familiar old friend.”
It’s true. Even if you’ve never heard this album before, it feels familiar, like worn denim, upon first-listen. It’s shockingly accessible. The hookier sounds present choruses that feel like a simple equation that even the most math-illiterate student could solve. This band makes sense. It’s their lack of recognition that is baffling.
With The Ben Gibbard Show taking over Saturday night, it was very nice of Riot Fest to present this Album Play in the early afternoon on Saturday.
I’m embarrassed by how much I like Danzig.
To me, there’s three camps that you can stand in when it comes to Evil Elvis. You can be in Group 1, a largely unself-aware group of people who think Danzig is cool. I do not think Danzig is cool. I think he rocks. It’s different. These people will be on the barricade when Danzig takes over the Aragon as a part of the Riot Fest Late Night series. Group 2 is full of people who take themselves too seriously. They think they are cool, thus they do not see that Danzig rocks. Then there’s Group 3. I call this place home. They acknowledge that Danzig is sort of a goofball, but he’s a goofball that’s fun to have around. I do not aspire to act like or look like Danzig, but I have the utmost appreciation for what he’s done. You’ll be able to find me at the back of the Aragon, stoically enjoying his performance.
Riot Mike is the Danzig Whisperer. He’s played every incarnation of this festival. In 2011, Danzig played a career-spanning set at the Congress Theater. In 2013, he was in Humboldt Park belting out tracks from Danzig 25th Anniversary Tour. In 2016, Riot Fest accomplished the impossible by reuniting The Original Misfits for the first time in 33 years. A year later, Danzig stormed Douglass Park with a thrilling set celebrating Danzig III. Then last year, The Original Misfits returned to headline Saturday night with a set celebrating 40 years of Walk Among Us.
Look, there’s been a lot of Danzig at Riot Fest, and we’re happy about it.
This year at the Aragon, he’s bringing Danzig, his demonic, bluesy debut, produced by Rick Rubin, with tracks like “Twist of Cain” and the eternal “Mother”.
Tickets are available here.
You simply cannot tell the story of punk rock without Start Today. A canonical entry into the hardcore scene, the mythical Walter Schreifels closes out his weekend on guitar (outspoken frontman Anthony “Civ” Civarelli does vocals for GB) for one of punk’s greatest records. From DJ Steve Aoki to Travis Barker (who can be spotted in the background of this live performance), this record has touched a who’s who in the alternative industry.
I can’t even remember the first time I heard Start Today. Once it entered my life, it never left. It’s everything that makes hardcore special. It’s wild, unpredictable, and poignant. There’s an urgency to this record that is unique to this genre, specifically. Even if the issues they are singing about (politics with the Washington DC scene, ethics of stage diving, etc.) are 30 years old, this album sounds like something real is happening and it’s happening now.
Far from the glossiest record, Start Today is still a studio masterpiece. In front of a rabid crowd, however, is where Gorilla Biscuits thrive. Very few punk bands age gracefully. It’s a young man’s game, and very few have what it takes to hang with the kids once they lose “it”. Gorilla Biscuits have never lost “it”. They still pack big rooms, get people rowdy, and crush it with every tour date that comes their way.
You have a chance to witness punk rock history with the Start Today set on Sunday, September 17.
