Festival Photos | Riot Fest Chicago 2013

Tweet

Joan Jett | All photos by Agatha Donkar

Have you ever stopped and thought to yourself, it's Friday night, I think I'll go see Bad Religion and Joan Jett? No? Well, let me tell you what: after attending Chicago's Riot Fest 2013, I can recommend thinking that as something to do on a Friday night. That's how I kicked off my photographing of Riot Fest, and it was a fitting opening to a festival that was full of loud guitars, louder guitars, badass rock and roll ladies -- Joan Jett! Exene Cervenka! Debbie Harry! -- badass rock and roll 20-something dudes and badass rock and roll 50-something dudes.

Saturday had perfect fall sunny weather; Sunday it poured on most of the day. Both days and Friday night I had fun at every set I shot: Bad Religion, Joan Jett, Fall Out Boy (now with extra Stanley Cup, as you may have seen), Surfer Blood, X, The Devil Wears Prada, Dinosaur Jr, Devotchka, Blondie, Violent Femmes, Chuck Ragan, Reggie & the Full Effect, Mission of Burma, & Against Me!. Riot Fest rocked hard; where Hopscotch has meticulously maintained mustaches, Riot Fest has meticulously curated mohawks.

I can't convey how much fun it was to spend the weekend photographing nothing but hard rocking bands full electric guitars. I love boys with banjos and girls with acoustic guitars; I love them a lot. I love rock and roll, too, turned up to 11, and that's what Riot Fest gave me in Humboldt Park this past weekend: rock and freaking roll.

Full set is here on Flickr, but scroll down to check out the highlights.

Reggie & the Full Effect

Bad Religion

Violent Femmes

Against Me!

Fall Out Boy

X

Dinosaur Jr

DeVotchKa

Blondie

Festival Preview | RiotFest Chicago

Tweet

Photo by Agatha Donkar

There's bands on the RiotFest Chicago -- in its 9th year -- that everyone is going to see; you don't need me to tell you about them. Pixies, The Dismemberment Plan, Bob Mould, Public Enemy, Blondie. The Replacements.

(And frankly, if you're not going to RF to see the Replacements, we have to have a long conversation, in which you can buy me whiskey, while I explain why you are going to see the Replacements at RiotFest. You are also probably 22 years old, and that's okay.)

But there are plenty of bands on the lineup that you might not be going to see, and this is the officially endorsed SiC Make Sure You See Them lineup for this weekend's outdoor festival of punks, grown-up punks, old punks, and people who like good music, with a bonus choice for each night's You Might Skip Them, But Don't.

Friday:

Dessa
Saul Williams
Andrew W.K.
Joan Jett
Danzig

You Might Skip Them, But Don't: Fall Out Boy. I know, you guys. I know. But I saw Fall Out Boy play DC's legendary, tiny 9:30 Club earlier this year, and whether or not you like their music, Pete Wentz, Pete Wentz's ex-wife, or the pop punk scene that built up around FOB, I can tell you this: they are a rock and roll band that rocks hard. I don't expect to see a bad live performance in Chicago this weekend, but Fall Out Boy, no matter what you think of their songs, puts on one of the best live shows I've ever have the pleasure of seeing. And to see them in their hometown? See it just to say you were there.

Saturday:

Kitten
Stars
Surfer Blood
The Lawrence Arms
DeVotchKa
Public Enemy
Blondie
Violent Femmes

You Might Skip Them, But Don't: Rancid. Their pop punk anthems are still ear-wormingly devastatingly catchy, and Tim Armstrong's abs are still incredible and he might take his shirt off.

Sunday:

Peelander-Z
Maps & Atlases
Mission of Burma
Peter Hook & the Light
Bob Mould
Best Coast
The Dismemberment Plan
Pixies
The Replacements

You Might Skip Them, But Don't: Chuck Ragan. Chuck has one of the earlier morning sets on Sunday, and you might be hungover and miserable, but you should get out for his punk rock folk song shout-back anthems. His solo stuff is as good as his Hot Water Music stuff, and it's worth seeing!

I'll be tweeting and Instagramming all weekend as @brandnewkindof, so follow along if you are a punk, a grown-up punk, an old punk, people who like good music, or just a Replacements fan.

Concert Photos | Fall Out Boy at the 9:30 Club, Washington, DC

Tweet

All photos by Agatha Donkar

Take off your judgey hats for a minute, Speakers In Code readers, and get past the band name in the subject line. Indulge me for a moment.

Has loving a band ever changed your life? Not loving the music, per se, or having a crush on that really smokin' lead singer, but simply the act of loving the band changed your life? Maybe you met your future spouse at one of their concerts. Maybe you wrote your first book to the sound of their second album. Maybe loving that band simply gave you something to focus on when nothing else in your life was good.

For me, that band was Fall Out Boy.

In 2007, I fell in love with their fourth record, Infinity On High. I was fresh out of grad school, under-employed, had recently ended a seven year long relationship. I was unmoored and more than a little lost in my life. I was significantly older than a lot of their fan base. But I fell in love with that album, and that fall, my roommate, my best friend from grad school and I drove three hours on a work night to see Fall Out Boy play a show in Roanoke on the Young Wild Things tour that followed Infinity's release. That night, surrounded by kids a decade younger than me, armed with only a several-years-old Nikon Coolpix, I took a photo of Pete Wentz at the edge of the crowd, surrounded by confetti and reaching hands. It isn't a technically brilliant photo, but it satisfied something in my heart that had been lacking for a long time.

So I started going to local shows. I got serious about taking photos. Getting serious about taking photos and going to shows eventually led me to Speakers In Code. And before Friday night, I hadn't seen Fall Out Boy live again.

Frankly, after they released their fifth album in 2009 and then went on hiatus, I assumed it was a break up. I assumed I would never get to see them, and never get to shoot them, much less see them playing new songs in one of the most venerable small clubs in the country.

On Friday night, I not only got to see them play the 9:30 Club along with 1199 other deliriously happy people, I had the privilege of wearing photo credentials around my neck and photographing the band from a proper pit, rather than the middle of the crowd. Save Rock And Roll is a danceable, catchy record, especially should-be-a-hit "Young Volcanoes", which set the crowd on fire, but the set included as much from their earlier catalog as the new record: long-time sing-alongs "Grand Theft Autumn", "Hum Hallelujah, and "Dance Dance". They've become a band who knows who they are, and embraces it, minus eyeliner and flat-irons and confessional journal entries: a band full of very talented people, making music that they love.

Their music isn't everybody's cup of tea. But I love them, and their music makes me very happy, and it brought me to concert photography, which is the love of my life. So I am grateful to Fall Out Boy, forever, for putting me on the right path.

That's what I mean by loving a band, which I think we can all agree on.

Full set from Friday is here. (Photo creds were courtesy Island Records, the band, and stellar day-of guy Joshua Scott. Thanks, y'all.)