Tonight would be the final night of the 2011 Riot Fest. We started the day watching the Chicago Marathon on TV, and watching some cool TV shows on the what I think may have been the discovery channel - "Cuff Me If You Can" and "I Almost Got Away with It". Earthdog went to have lunch with some local Chicago cousins of his while I watched the Steelers kick the shit out of the Tennessee Titans while resting in bed.
Off we went back on the train to the Bottom Lounge again. We got there and had a small dinner - soft pretzels with hot mustard, chicken wings, and a caeser salad.
Up first was Dan Vapid and the Cheats. I have seen Dan front the Methadones several times and have seen him front the reunited Sludgeworth a few times too. He has always put on a good show. I don't know many of the songs titles off the top of my head, but he was once again very entertaining. I would check them out again. Dan told a story about his first punk rock show and his first stage dive. Ironically, it was at a 7 Seconds show, the band who he opened for this evening.
I first saw 7 Seconds at the Antenna Club in Memphis back in the day on the Out the Shizzy Tour. I spent the show in front of the stage singing and yelling for songs while my friend stood at the back in awe of his first punk rock show. I have seen them a few times at Riot Fest shows. The last time was at the Beat Kitchen which was a great show. Even WWE's CM Punk and his then girlfriend Lita were in attendence at that show. The set list was very similar - "Here's Your Warning", "Not Just Boys Fun", "You Lose", "Definite Choice", "Young Til I Die", "Trust", "New Wind", "If the Kids Are United", "Regress No Way", "99 Red Balloons", "Walk Together, Rock Together", and a few newer tunes. Kevin still rocks at the age of 50. I would see these guys everytime they come to town. Jeff Pezzati and Eric Spicer of Naked Raygun were in attendance with their significant others. I am not sure they saw each other though.
After the show ended, we headed to the AAA for our first SECRET SHOW. After spending about 10-20 minutes in line, we made it into the venue. Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg played most if not all of their standard 32 song Ramones set. At first, I was sour on the vocals, but it grew on me as the set went on. The rest of the band played the songs to a T. We bumped into Bill in the audience as he was able to make it over after the Weezer show at the Congress. Apparently, MXV made it there too although we did not see him. You can check out his reviews and pics of Riot Fest at http://www.punkvinyl.com/. After some Ramones songs, Michael Graves, former Misfits vocalist, played some solo acoustic songs. That was then followed up by a few encores by the band of "Dig Up Her Bones", "When We Were Angels", " Have You Ever Seen the Rain", "Wonderful World", and "Blitzkrieg Bop". At that time, we were uncertain if they would play more. I told Earthdog that I wanted to leave on the high of "Blitzkrieg Bop" before it could be potentially ruined by anything else for the evening. I had my reservations about coming to this show, but I am very glad I was talked into it as this is the closest I have ever come or will come to a Ramones show.
Good night, Riot Fest!
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