Archives:
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- Against Me! at Riot Fest by Katie Hovland
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- Against Me! at Riot Fest by Katie Hovland
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- Photo by Katie Hovland
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- Photo by Katie Hovland
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- Gwar by Katie Hovland
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- Jesse Hughes of Eagles of Death Metal
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- Psalm One by Katie Hovland
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- White Mystery by Katie Hovland
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- Pears by Katie Hovland
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- Skinny Lister by Katie Hovland
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- Eagles Of Death Metal by Katie Hovland
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- Elway by Katie Hovland
Riot Fest, 2015
For its inaugural year in Douglas Park, Riot Fest continued to grow and expand, while still retaining its formula of legacy acts mixed with eclectic and emerging artists. Despite the change of location, Riot Fest felt right at home in its new digs, taking advantage of an open layout that made for easy navigation from one stage to another. There was a little rain and a fair amount of mud, but those that weren’t deterred by the elements were treated to a surplus of memorable sets from a genuinely diverse collection of bands. We recapped some of our favorite moments and observations from what was an eventful, action-packed weekend. Written by Jamie Ludwig, (JL) and Bill Denker, (BD). Photos by Katie Hovland.
Death
Photo by Katie Hovland
I’ve been Jaded in Chicago for several years now but I was born in Detroit and raised on its music, so I was stoked to see the city that first brought you punk rock represented so prominently on this year’s Riot Fest bill with proto-punk trio Death taking the Riot Stage on Friday afternoon and the indefatigable Iggy Pop headlining the Rock Stage on Saturday night (plus a performance from Bootsy Collins, if we want to discuss his Parliament-Funkadelic years, which we most certainly do).
If you’re still unfamiliar with Death, not only are they an incredible band, they have one of the most incredible back stories in the history of rock music too. You can watch the award-winning documentary, A Band Called Death (here’s the trailer) to learn more, but here’s the short of it: Death was formed by brothers David, Dannis, and Bobby Hackney in Detroit in the mid-70s. As black teens playing raw, unbridled rock ‘n’ roll, the group was marginalized, overlooked, and misunderstood (they even turned down the chance for a recording deal with Clive Davis, who wanted them to change their name), before they finally disbanded out of frustration in 1977. David passed away due to illness in 2000 but not before giving his brothers Death’s master tapes and promising that someday the world would come looking for them. It may sound like something out of a fairytale, but a couple of years later that’s exactly what happened (seriously, watch the documentary). Bobby and Dannis reformed Death with guitarist Bobbie Duncan in 2009, and the trio has been going strong ever since. They’ve continued to celebrate David’s memory with a series of archival recordings and frequent touring and in April, 2015, they revealed the latest chapter of the Death story with an album of all new material, appropriately titled N.E.W.. Continue Reading…
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