Bad Copy

Day 3 began abruptly with my wake up call AKA my puppy doing another kamikaze flop onto my stomach WAY before my alarm was set to go off. I did all my responsible morning dog owner tasks and then moved to the couch for another pre-festival nap. No matter the age, no matter if I’m drunk or sober, Day 3 of a festival feels exactly the same every single time. I hydrated. I caffeinated. And I headed down to grab Mat for a final day of secret parking and more bands.

As we entered the festival, I ran over to catch our pals in Weakened Friends open up the day. We had done round of Bad Libs with them yesterday and just clicked. It was great to see them play and, honestly, they owned that giant stage. The turnout was great too! I watched a few songs and then scampered over to catch some of The Effigies‘ set. I had never seen them before (mostly because they have been on hiatus for the majority of the time I’ve been an adult in Chicago) but they were great. They’re one of those Chicago punk staples, like Naked Raygun. And now that they’re playing again, I hope I can catch them at other shows.

It was Bad Libs time and we had just as many planned for today as yesterday! I caught up with two of the members of Dance Hall Crashers before their afternoon set. I also got to chat with Dune Rats who had a great turnout at their set earlier in the day. In between, I was able to run out to catch some of Chase Petra before meeting them back in the press area for a game of Libs. The Long Beach-based bane released their latest album, Lullabies for Dogs, earlier this year and it’s SO good!

I had a little break in my schedule here, so I walked over to talk to my new press friend, Ben. Little did I know when my friend Maria introduced us on Friday, that Ben is kiiiiinda a big deal. He shoots for People, he also is main photographer of Punk Rock Bowling, and he knows everyone. We had bonded and laughed over the fact that, back in 2023, I swore he hated me. That year, we had gotten our brand spankin’ new Bad Copy banner to conduct our interviews in front of. It was a big deal for us and I was super excited that we looked so legit. While I was walking out of the press area with Matt of Broke Ass Stuart, I saw that People Magazine had a printed out 8.5″ X 11 white paper taped to the fence of the press area. I laughed and I said “I guess People is here,” being a total shit about how we had our big banner and they had their little paper. As we turned the corner, Ben was coming to the press area and heard us. “What about People being here?” he asked. I was horrified. He caught me talking shit! I responded something about how I was just stoked to see all the people here or something… blah blah… and basically skipped out into the crowd. Luckily, Ben had no memory of this happening AND he is such a great guy, he just shrugged it off.

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, over the course of the weekend, we chatted and became press friends. So, he had told me earlier in the day, that if I showed up around 2:30PM, I could be part of a surprise. That surprise… MEETING HANSON! While some of you may roll your eyes and wonder why tf Hanson was even at Riot Fest, I must confess that I was a Hanson fanatic when I was a kid. If you’ve followed us on Instagram or read Day 1’s write up, you may have noticed that I have carried my Bad Libs and interview notes for Riot Fest around in a vintage 1996 Hanson Middle of Nowhere album cover photo folder for the last seven years. My mom got me 5 of them almost 30 years ago and I saved a few of them, keeping them in mint condition. So… meeting Hanson is a big deal bucket list item that I did not even know was on my list until today.

Ben & Co. all walked to the back of the tent and into the ultra secret, mega posh “backrooms” of Riot Fest. It’s where all the artists hang out and where their trailers are parked. There was a bit of waiting, but then all three members of the band were there and Ben was snapping their photos with ease. I waited until all the other press people were done with their photos and hand shakes and I – hopefully not too awkwardly – walked up and introduced myself. I told them about my fandom and showed them my folder. They were more than happy to sign it AND Isaac (that’s the oldest Hanson brother for all of you newbs) suggested we take a selfie. It was one of those surreal Riot Fest moments where I never could have dreamt that my Sunday would go that way, but it also meant a lot and is something that I will remember forever. Thanks Ben!

I skipped out of the press area and into the crowd to catch the remainder of Lambrini Girls. Look, if you don’t know this band yet and you’re a fan of punk music, get on it. They’re getting bigger by the second and soon, I won’t be able to get into their shows anymore. I had never seen them live, but their live show is just as good and carries just as much energy as their recordings. Get into them now!

I skipped back to the press area while watching The Linda Lindas grace the big stage. It’s been such a pleasure watching this band grow over the years. I remember seeing them at Riot Fest just a few years ago and I was shocked how they commanded attention and took up space on a stage that is about a long as a house. They have only gotten better with age and, like Lambrini Girls, they’re just going to get bigger.

Back to the Libs! I met up with The Effigies and gushed about how much I loved their set from earlier. I also got a chance to meet up with The Paradox. They had opened their stage earlier today and, like Rico Nasty from Day 1, were one of the sets that everyone was talking about. The band formed only last year, in June, but sonically it sounds like they’ve been doing this forever. They crank out catchy, upbeat, true to form pop punk. Plus they were really silly while playing Bad Libs; I just loved them!

I had JUST enough time to run across the park and catch maybe two songs of Hanson before I had to run back and complete my last Bad Libs of the day. And that’s just what I did. I caught up with Aaron from Bearded Gentleman over at the barricade. But no one was on stage… so we stood and talked… and no one was on stage. Riot Fest runs on a pretty tight schedule, so it was shocking that Hanson was over 10 minutes late. I was torn up about the fact that I was going to miss their whole set; they were going to get onstage the moment I walked away, I just knew it! But I had to get to my interview!

I ran back to the press area to find Mike Odd, the ‘tour manager’ of Mac Sabbath. I was dying to get an interview with the band, but because they have to protect their anonymity, their ‘tour manager’ does their interviews instead. Mike was in the middle of another interview when I got there. The perfect time to slam another Ghost energy drink (exactly what I needed as my hands were shaking like an earthquake)! I was a ball of nerves; I couldn’t believe I was missing Hanson! But when Mike came over and we started to chat, all of that washed away. We were cracking each other up talking about music, LA, and eventually doing a game of Bad Libs.

When we were done and he wandered off to another interview, I put away my things and sprinted back across the park to the stage. They STILL hadn’t made it onstage. I MADE IT! I wandered around and found an open pocket to tuck into close to the stage. Their set was short yet mighty, only six songs. But they hit on some of my old skool favorites like “Where’s the Love,” “A Minute Without You,” and of fucking course they played “MMMBop.” It’s what the crowd was there for! But instead of putting that at the end of their set, it was right in the middle and I noticed that most people stayed until the end, which was pretty cool.

As I walked back to the press area to catch up with the friends and check on what was left on everyone’s schedules, I listened to Bad Religion playing their way through Suffer. They sounded great. There was just enough time to grab a drink and head over with everyone to catch IDLES. I feel like, similar to Turnstile, this is everyone’s favorite band. Am I wrong? I know SO many people who are obsessed with IDLES recently, even though they’ve been around since 2009. I mean, I get it! They’re great. And their live set was epic. They also snuck in a cover of Mariah Carey’s (in)famous Christmas tune, “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”

We all met back up in the press area to decompress and prepare for the final leg of the festival. We started packing up and making dinner plans (Handlebar, of course!). As the crowd got thicker and thicker waiting for Green Day to take the stage, I started to reflect on Riot Fest and the 20 years they were celebrating.

While I haven’t attended the festival for 20 years (I was in college on the other side of the country when it all started), I know so many people and bands that have. I thought about how, in 2012, I flew back home from LA to go to Riot Fest and spend time with my family. A week later, my dad suddenly passed away… but I had just seen him because of Riot Fest. I thought about how I hosted people at my apartment in past years, people I don’t even talk to or see anymore and how we had such adventurous weekends at Riot Fest together. I remembered the year that it poured rain in Humboldt Park and I fell into a mudhole so deep that my one leg was up to my knee and my friend had to pull me out. One year I met Kesha. Another year, I worked a tent for a site that I used to write for. In 2017, Bad Copy got coverage for our first year in existence as a site. It was also the first year Mat and I met Curtis from Broke Ass Stuart. In 2023, Curtis couldn’t make it so he sent Matt, who now also shoots for Bad Copy and is one of my favorite people.

While Riot Fest is only a few days every year, it’s changed my life a lot over the course of the decades. Even seeing Blink-182, a band that helped to get me into punk, on Friday and then meeting Hanson on Sunday is such a truly Riot Fest experience. While there’s been controversy and upset over the years, the festival marches on, changing form and size and genres. I thought about all of this as our press crew marched out through the thick crowd of beer and cigarettes and kids and blanket people. Mat and I dragged everything to my car and said bye to secret parking for another year and headed – for one more time – over to Handlebar for dinner with a group of photographers and contributors that I look up to and admire. And, before I let you go, I want to specifically shot out Mat, Bad Copy photographer extraordinaire. Not only did he crush it this year and all the years before, but he covered more bands at Riot Fest this year than he has ever before. 52! Check out his Day 3 photos below!