See Blink-182, Dashboard Confessional, and more from this year's Riot Fest

By Ben Trivett
September 17, 2019 at 07:08 PM EDT

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Blink 182

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Wu Tang Clan

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RZA and crew played Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) cover-to-cover during their set

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Against Me!

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From the band's after-party performance at the Metro, where they played "As The Eternal Cowboy" and "New Wave"

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Violent Femmes

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One thing in your tour bag:

Brian - "Well, one thing we don't bring is the set list, and that’s what makes us special... you've got to gauge the vibe, get on stage, see the audience and know what they're ready for, not ready for, what’s gonna work and what's not gonna work. And that’s the reason why, instead of what we bring, what we don't bring is a very crucial part of our show"

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Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional

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What is next for Dashboard?

“I don’t make my music by design, it just starts to come out, it’s starting to happen now. So I would say that’s on the horizon. I don’t know when, I don’t know how far out on the horizon, but songs are starting to come. I long ago stopped trying to push the songs... I've learned you can’t rush a record so you can go back on tour. The songs won’t be as good, and even if they are, you, I, won’t care about them as much.”

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Taking Back Sunday

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On performing two full albums at the fest:

Adam: “Well for us, 2019 marks 20 full years since we’ve been a band and so we wanted to celebrate that. I guess this is the only thing I’ve done consistently for 20 years in my life and to hit that milestone and be fortunate enough as we are to do that, it should be celebrated and we want to go celebrate with the people that made [it] possible.”

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The Hu

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Who are you guys excited to see at Riot Fest:

“SLAYER!!!!”

One thing always in your tour bag:

“Everywhere we go, we bring Mongolia energy, love, support, and our message: ‘Be united, be strong, and do something good for the world.’”

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Sincere Engineer

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On being a Chicago local playing Riot Fest:

“We have a lot of friends here so it’s going to be pretty cool but I’m definitely super nervous. I’ve come to this thing since it’s started — since I was 13 or something, before it was even a festival, when it was at the Congress theater — so it’s weird to be on this side of it now."

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Dave Hause and the Mermaid

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Advice for festival goers:

Dave – “Hydrate and wear sunscreen… also the ticket is, don’t wait in any line. If anything is a headache, there is some other thing you can do that you’re gonna have more fun at.”

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Drakulas

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On doing interviews out of character:

Zach — "We definitely have a character thing happening so when we’re doing interviews it’s 'should we be doing this in character?'"

Mike — "I prefer talking about it like a film or something and you know, we wrote this film and these are the characters in the film and the characters do this and that but I don’t have to BE in character to talk about or stay in character the whole time — which would be bad anyways."

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The Descendents

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How do you prep for such a high-energy performance?

Milo — "Coffee. Seriously, our drummer says if he didn't drink 12 espressos he wouldn't be able to play. It's the vagueries of age: as you get older it takes more and more caffeine to get up there. These are beats that we wrote when we were 17 years old and they still have to go the same speed. So we have to make use of our favorite drug."

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Hot Water Music

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Advice for veteran artists:

Chuck — "Pace yourself, you're only gonna get slower, it's only going to hurt more, it takes longer to heal, and it definitely takes longer for weight to fall off. You can't just eat and drink anything you want anymore."

Chris — "When I was coming up I was always getting to meet a lot of the vets. I'd say, 'just keep being cool to younger bands.' I've had this a lot where we got to meet bands that we always looked up to and they've been great, supportive, and always looked out for you."

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This Wild Life

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Who were you excited to see at Riot Fest this year:

Kevin — "We played at the same time as the Village People so I was pretty bummed about that. My joke when we first saw the lineup was that we’re going to play "YMCA" first and steal their thunder.”

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Teenage Bottlerocket

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Advice for new performers:

Miguel — “Try not to get run over by a fork lift”

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The Beaches

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On snacking:

Jordan — “Honestly, I’m more so taking the snacks that the festival provides. We got some really good, healthyish snacks that are those popcorn chips, pop corners I think? I have those in my bag ready for the ride back.”

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Avail

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Andrew W.K.

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