Chicago Riot Fest 2014...

I have been out of town. At a big rock festival. Word filtered to me second hand "What's he doing, he's not writing in the blog about it." I was recently informed by someone that they really identified with something I had written about music in the blog. So now I am back and I have a little time to write and I am going to write, through my own filters, about this big, mostly punk rock music festival that I went to in Chicago. Even though Riot Fest takes place in several cities around the country Chicago is where it started and remains the biggest event with the most bands. It was extremely convenient for us since it was held in the Humboldt Park Neighborhood of Chicago where our daughter Katie and husband Peter own a house and was just a few blocks walk for us old folk. Say hi to the PK in their festival dress. 

Of course we dressed for the festival also. Note the boots. It rained the first day of the fest. I had worn boots to Chicago but it took a quick visit to the Salvation Army where we found big rubber boots for Everyone else. 

Here's our feet in the mud. Considering the compass my boot is roughly south, Peter is west, Katie in north, Cathy is east and that's an unknown person slipping in at NNE. 

I got some fair photos of GoGol Bordello the band that named this blog. They used to be Cathy's favorite but have fallen. More on that later but they played in the pouring rain. Before they came on the crew used big squeegee brooms to push water from the stage.  

I have been taught that you don't stand in water while playing electric instruments but then maybe there are things that the big stars know that I don't. That's why they are the big stars I guess. 

On the left of the photo friend Dan, Katie and Peter tromp the mud. The morning news from Chicago reports that last year's fest where it rained the last day racked up 50,000 bucks damage to the park. It rained the first day this year and the show was in a bigger area of the park.  

View of the crowd with the city in the back ground. This is just one stage in a photo Cathy took  from the ferris wheel. It was a really well behaved crowd. It was a little rough up front at the stages with incoming crowd surfers but I only noticed about three people requiring a bit of help due to over indulgence and one security issue.  

There was a lot of color to the festival. Check the stage set up for the Flaming Lips set. You will see more on them later. 

And of course there is Cathy's new favorite Die Antewoord. They are a South African group. The name means the answer. 

On yeah, if you are at work don't you tube this group and play it out loud. They are incorrigible purveyors of profanity. I must confess I did not make that phrase up. I got it out of a book I am reading on the roots of country music. It was used in reference to the great country guitarist and Nashville producer Chet Atkins. So even though this is punk not as much about music has changed as you might think. It just depends on your filter.