For me, it all began with an hour drive down Irving Park, with my friend Matt the banker at the wheel and his woman, Helene, in the front. Throughout the entire ride, we began discussing some punk politics and started talking about what days we would attend for Riot Fest, mainly about personal occasions between the two. None the less, we made it about 30 minutes late, missing Wax's opening set that evening. Never bummed, we didn't stop to cry our eyes out, but ventured on waiting mainly for Raygun.
The second band that opened were Chicago natives No Empathy, a band that I have been wanting to see for awhile now. If the name never crossed your mind or any sites you've been one, it is a necessity to check out. I started checking them out after I had seen singer Marc Ruvalo's other band, Das Kapital, at a local venue in my town named the Oasis cafe. An exceptional band, I had manage to strike a little conversation with Marc, asking him how it was opening for The Hanson Brothers in December. Good people they are, which went along with their good music.
Side track sorry, No Empathy went hell bent during their number with a little bit of aggressiveness, yet looking nonchalant on stage. Probably the only thing wrong with setting was the lack of crowd energy there, except for a few kids that boldly started pit in front. A highlight of theirs included a cover of AC/DC's "TNT" with Rights of the Accused singer Mike O'Connell doing the chorus. Other classic numbers included "Try not to hurt anyone", "Vitamin P", and "Ben Weasel don't like this".
After about a brief period of anticipation and a catchy Jazzy ensemble entrance, a man dressed in a Banana suit comes in and introduces the band, pumped as hell ready to blow people's mind away. So much hilarity ensued in their performance, including a man in a gorilla suit jumping around on stage, and Mike O'Connell's down right dirty jokes. The only thing disappointing about their set was the fact that the band played only one song off their out of print 7" inch Innocence, but none the less they were great and loads of fun to see. One line from Mike's joke referred to a close friend's birthday that night with Mike quote and I quote, "Had I knew about your birthday I would have baked you a cock instead." Priceless, Mike.
But of course, what truly made everyone come down to the Metro was Naked Raygun, Chicago's classic punk band. From the last two shows I happened to catch from them this year, they do not disappoint and that night was an exception. Once "Home of the Brave" was started, the place went nuts. The crowd went into a frenzy beginning a pit, Drunk's were almost thrown out due to fights almost occurring, and security struggling to hassle the crowd down and who can blame them. The Raygun continued on with their hour set playing a majority of their back catalog, including "Treason", "Wonderbeer", "The Strip", "Walk in Cold", and many others. A special treat involved a number of their newer songs ready to be released on 7" inches in the future, one song being about a lady in Germany vocalist Jeff Pezatti wrote. After completing their free shit ritual (Naked Raygun brand condoms to be exact) and finishing their set, the crowd begged for an encore, with some cases of the "I Lie" chants been heard. Jeff responded "I wasn't even part of writing that song. Some guy on the train actually wrote that." Surprisingly, they left that song out but played "Rat Patrol" and "Knock Me Down" instead. I'd argue about that but who cares, they played so damn well, and that's all that matters.
As for pictures of this event, I didn't bother to take, however, if you have a flickr account, you can access some of these by searching Riot Fest. I leave you all with a link posted at the bottom, if interested in purchasing the first of many 7" inches from the Raygun, along with a link to check some free MP3's of No Empathy and Marc Ruvalo's label Johanns face Records.
Till then, I leave you with this. Regardless of the many seminal bands coming from Chicago, Naked Raygun will always rule the wasteland. Cheers!
http://www.johannsface.com/tp1.php?pagename=main
http://store02.prostores.com/servlet/nakedraygunstore/Categories?category=Store+Catalog
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