Searching for a massive hit of musical nostalgia? Look no further than the second annual Riot Fest Denver, which is set to bring your favorite niche bands from the nether decades back to the stage this weekend.
After getting the boot from the town of Byers, this year’s Riot Fest will call the parking lot at Mile High Stadium its home, a venue that took in a newly homeless Snowball earlier this year to . Riot Fest had no choice, but no one said they had to like it. Hence the festival’s snarky stage names, like “Byers General Store Stage,” “Opponents of Riot Fest Stage” and “May Farms Stage,” the plot of land the festival was supposed to be held on this year. In your face, or something.
See our full coverage of Riot Fest 2014 here.
But lest we forget: it’s about the music. The load of punk and emo acts they’ll bring to the lot at Mile High make it run the risk of being pegged as another . But bands like The National, Die Aantword and Wu-Tang Clan suggest the festival has more to offer for those who pass on power chords and mosh pits.
Below, find our rundown of five shows you should catch no matter this year’s Riot Fest, genre preferences aside. You can find the
Primus — Sept. 19, 9:30 p.m.
Les Claypool is probably as close as we’ll get to the next Frank Zappa (if you don’t count Dweezil, that is). But almost no one listens to Primus, or its sundry offshoots, because they’re just too weird for kids these days. In the early ’90s, when “Cotton-Eyed Joe” and “Tubthumping” could snatch places on the Billboard Top 10, that wasn’t the case, and Primus ruled. See them at Riot Fest, somewhere between a ride on the tilt-a-whirl and the .
Buzzcocks — Sept. 19, 5:30 p.m.
One of punk’s first and most influential names, seeing the Buzzcocks is as much about being able to say that you did as it is the quality of the music. It’s hard for such a highly-strung punk band to maintain their vigor after 40 years, and there’s no doubt they’re showing their age these days. But with a new album out, they might have a few tricks up their beer-stained sleeves.
Descendents — Sept. 20, 6:45 p.m.
Descendants were anti-establishment punk for armchair anarchists. They were pop-punk in the right ratio, before the kids with the anime haircuts took it over. The band’s seminal album “Milo Goes To College” is still (and probably always will be) fuel for rebellious adolescents’ flames, maybe excluding lead singer Milo Aukerman’s own brood.
The National — Sept. 21, 9:45 p.m.
Despite their confounding lyrics, the National are considered one of the essential indie rock bands of our generation. The band isn’t for the uninitiated, but if you want to check them out, listen to 2007’s “The Boxer” before you head over to their Sunday night set at Mile High this weekend. National fans will never reach a consensus, but the album is widely considered their masterpiece, and features their poppiest song, “Fake Empire.”
Wu-Tang Clan — Sept. 21, 10 p.m.
The Wu-Tang Clan haven’t released an album worth getting excited about since “Wu Tang Forever” (). They’ll try again with their sixth studio album, “A Better Tomorrow,” which has already been cast in doubt over yet another spat of in-fighting among the group. But through it all, there’s a reason fans have been willing to stick with them: in hip-hop, no collective can touch them.
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Dylan Owens is Reverb’s all-purpose news blogger and album reviewer. You can read more from him in Relix magazine and the comment sections of WORLDSTARHIPHOP.
