Festival Review: Riot Fest 2014 Brought Toronto Music Festivals To The Next Level

By: Daniel Gerichter (@ZenDonut) –

The Flaming Lips. (Photo: Angelo Marchini/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto)

Think of Riot Fest Toronto 2014 as a training exercise.

Coming from last year’s two-day, one-stage affair, the nine-year-old festival literally quadrupled its game, ballooning its traditional, punk-focused lineup across four stages to include indie, metal, folk and… well, Die Antwoord. This lineup was as engineered towards Gen-X/Y’ers as much as it was to millennials, which meant a lot of “… HUGE back in the day” and “…I wasn’t even BORN then”. At one point, a couple near me lamented leaving their molly at home while another discussed the logistics of making a quick Costco run during some downtime.

Beyond the headlining acts, it made no logistical sense to see a full set at Riot Fest. The days had several must-see acts playing at the same time, prompting much soul-searching, but this is a musical buffet: You don’t fill your plate with one thing – you separate it into quadrants and pile as much stuff onto there as possible. In a stroke of genius, the two main stages (Roots & Riot) were literally side-by-side, separated by a metal barrier. That meant that while one band played, crews scrambled to get the next stage ready. So as the last, crashing power chords ended on one, intro feedback and amp noise sounded on the other, and so on. Fans had a great vantage point no matter which stage they were at, meaning you could check out Death From Above 1979 while waiting for the Flaming Lips. It was astonishingly well-organized and executed.

In that spirit, here are snapshots of the Riot Fest Toronto 2014 experience.

Saturday – 11:30 am
After a Friday night of torrential downpour, the gates have opened and fans trickle into what can only be described as a swamp full of screaming. Sprawling stretches of mud – thick and shoe-ruining – separated the stages and truly, the first part of the day’s entertainment came from watching people negotiate their way through the muck.

Saturday –  Roots Stage – 12:40 pm
The Mounties, the Cancon supergroup of Hawksley Workman, Steve Bays of Hot HotHeat and Ryan Dahle of Limblifter performed high-energy selections from their Polaris Music Prize long-listed album Thrash Rock Legacy. Bays tells a quick tale about ripping off the Flaming Lips, but (as would be the standard for every act over the weekend) banter would be kept to a minimum.

Saturday – Media Tent – 3 pm
After interviewing AWOLnation’s Aaron Bruno (coming soon!), I ran into Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips. Coyne is wearing wildly coloured clothing and his entire facewas bedazzled. I realize for the first time that he’s just like that all the time.

Saturday – Roots Stage – 3:20 pm
The Afghan Whigs are back after a 16-year hiatus and performed as if they’d taken no time off at all. Their short set included a partial cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk”, which received an emphatic reaction from some (Gen X) and no reaction whatsoever from others (millennials).

The Afghan Whigs. (Photo: Angelo Marchini/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto)

Saturday – Roots Stage – 4:30 pm
Aaron Bruno and the boys from AWOLnation brought their synth-infused noise rock party to the now-sunkissed crowd. Bruno was intent on making us dance HARDER, mostly by pushing through cuts from their breakthrough Megalithic Symphony – including their colossal hit ”Sail”.

Saturday – Roots Stage – 6 pm
Long-standing emo icons Brand New played for an unusually small crowd. The mysterywas solved as people around me said “holy shit! Rise Against is playing up there!” An exodus of fans rushed towards the Rock Stage.

Saturday – Riot Stage – 7 pm
Death From Above 1979 are BACK. Sebastien Grainger and Jesse F. Keeler absolutely smoked through a 14-song set, but somehow Grainger found time to taunt the crowd. “I bet half of you are from like, Barrie or Orillia or some shit.” The crowd was so frothed up, they can neither confirm or deny this. Welcome back, boys.

Saturday – Roots Stage – 8 pm
Once again, the crowd felt kind of sparse. Billy Talent was playing up the hill and there are thousands of people who’d rather hear their tortured screams than pass a grown man around in a giant plastic ball while being showered with confetti. What a bunch of weirdos. The Flaming Lips filled the stage and crowd with colour and spectacle, mostly sticking to selections from Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots but also throwing in a cover the Chemical Brothers’ “The Golden Path” and finishing up with a monumental rendition of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.  Giant cartoony mushrooms, rainbows and woodland critters filled the stage for various songs before frontman Wayne Coyne came out in his now-classic transparent plastic ball for every single smartphone to behold.

Saturday – Riot Stage – 9 pm
Robert Smith was the last man standing on day one. The Cure got nearly two hours to roll through 30 years worth of material, including ”Just Like Heaven”, “Fascination Street”, and the classic “In Between Days”. Smith politely asked the tired, mud-caked crowd how they’re doing and thanked them for sticking around. The day’s heat is nowhere to be found as the crowd shivered and sang along to “Boys Don’t Cry”. The 55 year-old goth icon hit high notes as if it was 1982, I and numerous others) reflect on our ‘advancing’ age. Thirty thousand people streamed out of Downsview Park, ready to pass out, wake up and do it all again the next day.

The Cure. (Photo: Angelo Marchini/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto)

Sunday – 12 pm
The baking sun did an excellent job drying out the great mud lakes. This boded well.

Sunday – Roots Stage – 2:55 pm
Bob Mould, he of Hüsker Dü, Sugar and general punk rock royalty owned the early day crowd, as he rocked tunes from all three of his bands, including “Makes no Sense at All”, “Changes” and “I apologize”. The hipsters who awaited the New Pornographers acknowledged that despite his age, he is important to the genetic makeup of punk.

Sunday – Riot Stage – 3:35 pm
Indie rock’s Wu Tang Clan the New Pornographers arrive sans-Neko Case to play cuts from their new album Brill Bruisers. A.C. Newman and co. ran through a set that included plenty of classics like “War on the East Coast” and “Mass Romantic”.

Sunday – Rock Stage – 4:40 pm
For those who find Mindless Self Indulgence too nuanced, there’s Die Antwoord – a South African techno/hip hop/dubstep/performance art monstrosity. Their song titles include “Fatty Boom Boom”, “Cookie Thumper!”, ”I Fink U Freaky” and “Here we GoSucky Fucky”. It’s as though ADHD took human form and got a record deal.

Sunday – Roots Stage – 5:45 pm
Dropkick Murphys frontman (and Boston ambassador) Al Barr reminded us of the time the Leafs blew a three-goal lead in game seven of the Stanley Cup playoffs against theBruins.

Sunday – Riot Stage – 6:40 pm
Social Distortion wrapped up their set with a singalong to Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”, which prompted the arrival of Death Cab for Cutie and Ben Gibbard’s bangs. Many girls scream.

Sunday – Roots Stage – 7:40 pm
In stark contrast to a weekend of circle pits and crowd surfing, The National helped wind the festival down with their slew of breakup and post-breakup songs including “Graceless”, “Sea of Love” and a sweet nod to Sufjan Stevens’ “Chicago” at the end of “Aja”.

Die Antwoord. (Photo: Angelo Marchini/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto)

Sunday – Riot Stage – 8:40 pm
A blur of adorable, frantic, honey-voiced energy, Emily Haines led Metric through an hour of hits, including “Help I’m Alive” and “Dead Disco”. It’s notable that even with the wealth of globally established bands over that weekend, Metric drew one of the biggest crowds of all. Haines ended the show by dedicating “Breathing Under Water” to a family member who’d overcome an ailment. Not that their set wasn’t personal enough as a homecoming – it felt special for both band and fan alike.

Sunday – Roots Stage – 9:40
And finally, as if to put an end to festival and summer alike, City and Colour – festival headliner  and Toronto staple – thanked us for sticking around. It’s notable that the band played the 3:30pm slot at Coachella’s main stage earlier this year, only to triumphantly headline their own hometown’s biggest music festival. Wrapped in blankets and hoodies, those who did stick around sang in step with every word Dallas Green sang. In the spirit of fests like Coachella, it would have been quite something for the band to have brought Gord Downie out for as a surprise for “Sleeping Sickness”, but twas not meant to be.

Riot Fest was an incredibly ambitious weekend that was well-organized enough to deal with anything. For example: After a few hours, staff built plywood walkways for the massive crowd across the muddier areas. The crowd even observed flow-of-traffic rules with them, only going in one direction or the other.

I mentioned that this was a training exercise, and for good reason. Rumour has it that Toronto’s the site for another Lollapalooza expansion in 2015. That means bigger acts, MUCH bigger crowds and a need for this same kind of civility – but on a massive scale. Riot Fest proved we were born ready for this kind of weekend.

Check out our Riot Fest Toronto 2014 Day 1 & 2 photos here.