2011 Riot Fest - Day 2 - October 6, 2011

We took the Red Line to the Blue Line and made it to the show in time for the opening band, Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band.  They were a husband and wife 3 piece band.  The husband sang and played the electric National Steel slide guitar, the wife played the washboard, and they had another guy playing a small drum kit.  I have read about them in an issue of Blues Revue.  They were an interesting hillbilly type band.  If I would have drank more before seeing them, I believe they would have been even more fun.  They had a song name "I Saw Your Cousin on Cops."  At the end of the set, the wife lit her washboard on fire and then smashed it on the stage ala Pete Townsend.  F***ing awesome!!!

Up next were Chicago's celtic punk band The Tossers.  I have seen them 2-3 times before and they usually have a very energetic show.  This time around they did not get energetic until the end of the set when they played "No Booze, No Loot, No Fun" and " Good Mornin Da."

To close out the night at the Congress, Social Distortion hit the stage.  They came out guns a blazin with some early career hits - Story of My Life, Mommy's Little Monster, and 1945.  They also played the hit song of the newest CD, "Machine Gun Blues".  It was great to get to see them again.  We left when they slowed down the set and brought out the female backing singers.  It was time to head back to the Bottom Lounge.

We got to the Bottom Lounge in time to catch Scott Reynolds of All fronting his other band The Pavers who have not played together for a few years.  It was good to catch them play live, but I am not sure I would be a regular listener of their songs.  Besides, we were there to see ALL (with Chad Price on vocals this evening).  I am glad we made it over to see this show.  They rocked beyond belief.  I had never seen Chad sing for them either so it made this evening special.

Earthdog managed to get his hands on the setlist for the evening.



We also got to hang out with Jeff Pezzati, Naked Raygun lead singer, after the show for about an hour.  Jeff let us in on why the last NR LP has not had the remaster vinyl treatment yet.  Apparently, he can't find the master tapes.  I offered to come to his house to help find them as the remaster vinyl treatment needs to be completed.  It made the remainder of the back catalog sound sooo much better than any other format released.

ALL did manage to get me to buy 2 new t-shirts.  We made another trip to the 7-Eleven near the hotel after the show.  They did not have the $0.99 buffalo chicken sticks though, and forced me into buying a more expensive less tasty substitute item instead.  It was a very late night, but we could rest the next day as our first show did not start until 10:15pm.

We also spent some time after the show talking with Stephen Egerton, the guitarist for ALL/Descendents.  Stephen is a really nice guy.  I remember chatting with him before a Descendents show at the New Daisy Theater in Memphis back on April 5, 1997 which was their last big tour in support of "Everything Sucks".