Re: Riot Fest 2026

Don't know if anyone's seen the news, but this year has the festival's best line-up in years, and hilariously includes PiL and the Johnny-less Sex Pistols.

[riotfest.org]

I'm sure Mr. Lydon will have plenty to say onstage about the young Mr. Carter and his former bandmates.

If you judge by original members present, this line-up of the Pistols is much more credible than whatever Lydon is calling PiL these days. I'm not saying you should judge it that way (I don't), just that it's a perspective one could have.

Are Twenty One Pilots actually a credible and worthwhile band? I've always mentally filed them as the same ilk as Imagine Dragons, but admit I have no sound reason for doing so, as I can't think of a single instance of having knowingly heard their music. Except maybe did they play in place a band that didn't show up for their own induction in the RRHOF a year or two ago? If that's the case, I saw them there, but am still completely clueless about their own music.

I'm always kind of fascinated by the hierarchy of band listings on these festival posters. Okay, the big names at the top are the marquee headliners that I guess are going to be the closing acts on the various stages, then sundry other big names get the Hey! Look!!!! treatment in the next tier down. Then at the bottom you have all the poor saps who don't even rate getting a graphic treatment and are just tossed on a list like the pile of unmatched socks in my laundry room. I had thought Yard Act were a Next Big Thing a few years back, yet there they are down in the ...And the Rest section given the same treatment as Saturdays At Your Place, a band I had no clue existed until seeing their name here. And I know that Slothrust were a very buzzy act not that long ago despite my never knowing how to pronounce their name (Slow Thrust? Sloth Rust?), yet here they suffer the indignity of the smallest font size near the bottom. Oh, cruel life! But I have to wonder if Bratmobile or Melt-Banana feel disrespected being ranked lower than white boy rappers like Joey Valence & Brae, who I suspect are obnoxious based on nothing except that they're white boy rappers. My brother would be devastated to see Yard Act and the Chats relegated to the stage fillers at noon section, as they were two of his favorite new bands of the last few years.

Happy to see there's only one "We don't do vowels in our name" band on the list. Hopefully that stupid fucking trend is on the pop culture scrap heap.

"Happy to see there's only one "We don't do vowels in our name" band on the list. Hopefully that stupid fucking trend is on the pop culture scrap heap."

Ha, no sooner do I read this then I check my stations New Adds (digital) bin for the week and see we have a release by an artist named HWXXNG. So nope, not dead yet.

Delvin Wrote:
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> I'm sure Mr. Lydon will have plenty to say onstage
> about the young Mr. Carter and his former
> bandmates.

Judging by the posts he puts out, he seems to have really mellowed. I think he will just ignore it and perform. It is interesting that both play the 930 club in the fall one after the other. A little sense of humor with the bookers.

Truth be told, I wouldn't be going for the headliners, but the prospect of seeing Nas, the Descendents, Iggy Pop, Elvis Costello, the Pixies, Patti Smith, Sugar, Tricky, etc in one or two days is tempting. I've only been to Riot Fest once and from that experience, I know there's no way I'm going to be there the entire time - it's just too exhausting. There's only so many acts you can catch, but if the scheduling works out, it could be a lot of fun. And this is where mediocre bands become a necessary evil - you're going to miss a lot of sets, but otoh it could very well be painless depending on who you're missing! The one time I went, the band I regret missing was Killing Joke, but otherwise it worked out where I saw nearly everyone I wanted to see.