Riot Fest has announced the lineup for its upcoming 15th annual festival, taking place later this year. The festival is set to take place in Chicago, IL from September 13-15. This year, Riot Fest will be headlined by Blink-182, Slayer, Bikini Kill and The Flaming Lips. The festival will also include performances from a variety of other groups, making it an action packed weekend for those in attendance. Focusing mainly on punk and alternative music, Riot Fest has made a name for itself for being one of the best rock music festivals around.
One of the most exciting performances of the weekend is sure to The Flaming Lips’ set. The famed alternative rock band is scheduled to perform one of their most popular albums in its entirety. The Flaming Lips set is going to feature the band playing their career defining album, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robot. The Flaming Lips has been making music since the 1980s, but 2002’s Yoshimi is the band’s most famous work so far. Some of the hit singles from the project include the tracks “Do You Realize??” and “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Part 1.” Another band that is going to be playing one of their classic albums in its entirety is Ween. Ween is set to perform all of its album The Mollusk at Riot Fest, an album which includes the hit song “Ocean Man.”
A variety of other groups will also be performing their classic albums all the way through, including Dashboard Confessional performing The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most and Avail performing Over The James. Some of the other bands include Glassjaw, The Selecter, Against Me!, Bloc Party, Senses Fail and Taking Back Sunday. The Selecter and Bloc Party will each be performing their debut albums, which are Too Much Pressure and Silent Alarm respectively. Glassjaw will be performing their famous Worship and Tribute project, the band’s most famous album, supported by the song “Ape Dos Mil.”
Another group set to perform is the newly reunited Bikini Kill. Formed in the early 1990s, Bikini Kill was one of the most formative groups of the female punk scene. Knocking down barriers with their music, the band continued to be extremely popular until breaking up in 1997. Recently, however, the band has announced they will be reuniting for a small number of shows in 2019. One of those announced shows includes this year’s Riot Fest. The appearance will be a must see for long time fans of the band, as it is the only festival Bikini Kill has scheduled to perform at in the past two decades.
Slayer is another band performing at Riot Fest this year. The legendary metal and heavy rock band will be taking the stage in Chicago for what is set to be their final show ever in the city. The band is also going to do a show in Milwaukee during the festival, another city in which the band will be performing its final show. Any fans of classic metal need to make Slayer’s performance at Riot Fest one of their must see sets. One of the other headliners for this year’s Riot Fest is going to be Blink-182, who were supposed to headline the festival last year in 2018. Sadly the bad had to cancel last minute, but now are going back to Riot Fest this year in order to make it up to fans. Overall, Riot Fest 2019 is sure to be one of the biggest rock music events of the year.
UPDATE (8/21): Following a 2012 video being released that depicts members of Die Antwoord physically attacking and using homophobic slurs against another musician, Riot Fest has removed them from the 2019 lineup. Replacing the South African hip-hop/electronic duo is Wu-Tang Clan. Riot Fest joins Louder than Life and Life Is Beautiful Festivals in removing the group.
Photo Credit: Mauricio Alvarado
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