Screeching Weasel reunited Sunday night, October 11, at The Congress to play the sort of show that reminds you what it was like to be a happy 16-year-old punk rock loving kid.

Beer cans were thrown to the stage, fists pumped in the air and kids in Chuck Taylors slammed into each other in the pit. Ben Weasel proved he hasn’t lost a step over the years as he opened up with the fast paced “Cindy’s On Methadone.” The band has broken up many times since their formation in 1986, but as Weasel said near the end of the set “this band never breaks up for very long.”

Guitarist (and recent newlywed) Danny Vapid’s guitar playing was sharp during classics “It’s All in My Head” and “Teenage Freakshow.” They also covered the soft rock staple “I Can See Clearly Now” and the old country tune “You Are My Sunshine.”

 Weasel didn’t insult the crowd by taking any sort of break for an encore and kept the between song chit chat to a minimal, and instead packing in song after song. The Weasel crowd was absolutely massive, and it was rumored that the venue was at capacity. “Cool Club,” and “The Edge of the World,” helped close out a really solid set from a classic punk rock band.

Chicago natives Alkaline Trio played a really tight and solid set featuring many classics and premiering two new songs Sunday night.

Front man Matt Skiba announced at the beginning of the set that they finished their new album on Sunday. The set opened with the “We’ve Had Enough” off of 2003’s “Good Mourning,” and quickly transitioned into “Fatally Yours.” The new songs “Dine Dine my Darling” and “This Addiction” flow well between older songs like “Private Eye” and “In Vein.” Considering the vastness of Alk3’s catalog it isn’t surprising that some fan favorites like “Radio.”

For the first time in a while, Skiba seemed to have remembered more of the lyrics at Sunday’s show than most of the crowd. Alk3 closed with “Blue In the Face,” bringing a hard close to Riot Fest at The Congress.

The band’s past performances have set the bar pretty low as far as expectations of them go, but they exceeded them this time around.

If the Boston working class punk band Street Dogs do anything well, its play anthems that cause fists to pump in the air, and encourage circle pits that take up most of the floor.

The band opened the set with the class war inciting “Not Without a Purpose,” and singer Mike McColgan spent the beginning portion of the set jumping off monitors in front of the stage.

They slowed things down with the prayerful “Final Transmission,” which McColgan dedicated, as always, to the men and women in the Armed Forces. McColgan declared mid set that a travesty of justice had been committed by the International Olympic Committee when they gave the 2016 Olympic games to Rio.

“I’ve never been to Brazil,” McColgan said. “But Chicago is the greatest American city.”

Circle pits became fast, strong and huge during party anthems like “Tobe’s Got a Drinking Problem” and “In Defense of Dorchester,” McColgan’s tribute to the neighborhood where he grew up. They closed out the show with “Drink Tonight” and McColgan jumped into the crowd at the finish of the song and people carried him to the far back of The Congress.

L.A. based NOFX closed out Saturday night at The Congress with a good mix of old and new songs, starting off with “Linoleum,” off their break though album “Punk in Drublic.”

Lead vocalist Fat Mike spent the entirety of the show dressed as a grease painted, dirty and mildly terrifying clown. NOFX played a few new songs including “Cokie The Clown” which Mike said was the first time they played it live.

Video, shot by Alternative Press. 

Midway through the set Alkaline Trio front man Matt Skiba stormed the stage brandishing a novelty lapel flower and attempted, but failed, to douse Mike. A second attempt minutes later yielded success. Alkaline Trio closed Riot Fest on Sunday night at The Congress.

NOFX made sure to throw in a few classics like “Rico” and “Kill All The White Man.”

The band finished their set by dancing to “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” from the adult-themed puppet musical “Avenue Q.” Closing out with someone else’s song and dance was a ballsy move, but an encore would have been nice.

"I see a lot of girls in the crowd...unprecedented,"  said Butthole Surfers frontman Gibby Haynes midway through his band's set, as they headlined the first night of Chicago's Riot Fest, bastion of all things punk rock, at The Metro on Wednesday night. 

And he was right. There were a good number of girls at the show, something the maniacal singer may not have seen much of in his band's youth. But nearly three decades into their career, a demographic shift was inevitable. And that goes not just for The Buttholes, but for punk rock in general.

Individual tastes in music have broadened beyond what anyone could have conceived possible 30 years ago. It's not just crusty punks headbutting each other at these shows anymore. Yes, I spotted more than a handful of mohawks, studded jackets, sewn patches, and facial piercings. I even spotted a gaggle of hippies, the diametric opposite of punks, matching tie-dye outfits, dreadlocks and all.

But there were also many more "normal" "average Joe" types wandering about. And this diversity was not just taking place in the crowd but onstage as well. Three very different bands took the stage this evening, only one of which could possibly fall under the classic definition of "punk". 

The House That Gloria Vanderbilt (a band name nearly as sublimely stupid as the night's headliner) started things off at 7:15. Before the band came on, there were about 10 people on stage setting up and messing with the gear. My immediate thought was "Wow.  That's way too many roadies." 

Once THTGV (as they will henceforth be referred to) started, I realized they were actually all members of the band. I had to count three times just to make sure I was seeing things correctly, but there were in fact 10 band members (with FOUR percussionists!!!) playing at all times. 

For a band with so many members, though, their sound was fairly straightforward, with a kind of doom-and-gloom mid-tempo momentum.  Lead singer Todd Pot has a great deep, full-bodied voice. The dude could be a crooner if he really wanted to. By his side was a female co-vocalist wearing a black dress and long black veil over her face. She didn't add much musically, as it was hard to hear her over Pot and the clattering of the band, but she added a slinky, sexy visual presence that was pretty damn eye-catching. 

Next up were The Bomb, a band I was not remotely familiar with.  My fear that they were named after the usage of "bomb" as in "This band is the bomb!" was quickly dispelled when singer Jeff Pezzati said "I don't think I've been on this stage in 19 years." 

After the show, I checked the band's MySpace page, and came to realize that Pezzati is the singer in Naked Raygun, Chicago punk legends who would be playing their own headlining set later in the week. That cleared things up a bit. As for their set, the four-piece band played hard-charging rock and punk at a fast clip, even throwing in an "oh ay oh" shout-along chorus to one of their songs. 

The band was good-natured throughout and seemed to be having a blast onstage, which percolated into the crowd. Guitarist Jeff Dean flew himself around his side of the stage as he laid out solos and riffs with abandon, hamming it up for the cameras. Nothing new to see here folks, but when a band does rock riffage this well, there's no need to reinvent the wheel.  

I'm no expert on the music of the Butthole Surfers. In fact, my relationship with the band can be boiled down to a couple of very specific and very different memories.

The first is my driving instructor and me totally grooving on "Pepper" when it popped on Q101 during the middle of a driving lesson back in 1996. I thought we had bonded that day.  Then he yelled at me for going too fast around a turn or something. The second is getting a hand cramp while playing "Who Was in My Room Last Night?" on Guitar Hero II. 

And that's it. I've never owned an album or heard any of the band's music outside of those two songs. I did, however, read Michael Azerrad's book "Our Band Could Be Your Life" a while back and knew that they're completely off their rockers. In a book absolutely full of accounts of on-and off-stage insanity by legendary debaucherers including The Replacements and Black Flag, The Butthole Surfers have hands-down the most nutso chapter. Such antics include setting fire to a club they were playing at, having sex with a woman mid-performance onstage, and the requisite intake of massive quantities of drugs, which might go without saying. (Seriously, read this book.)  But these shenanigans were 20 plus years ago. What to expect now?  Were they still as bonkers as they once were?   

Well, not quite.   

Alas, there was no setting of fire or onstage groupie-fucking. The band relied more on their three projection screens to provide the shock value. In fact, on numerous occasions it completely overwhelmed the music.  The screens played a wide variety of images to disturb and titillate, including but not limited to surgery footage, zombie attacks, writhing naked women, upside-down American flags, and an evil clown montage, which contained scenes from the all-time terrible classic Killer Klowns From Outer Space. 

The music itself was full-on at all times. The Butthole Surfers do not do quiet. Every song, whether it be a quick blast of riffy punk energy or a slow, sludgy psychedelic freak-out, was loud as hell.  Many of the songs were augmented with skronky sax playing by frontman Gibby Haynes, who also used his patented "Gibbytronix" voice modulator to affect the pitch of his voice throughout, going from high-pitched squeal to monster-movie growl at his whim. 

Haynes himself was a fairly genial presence. None of the antagonistic habits of his band's early years remained. He even made some fairly banal comments about how Chicago's pizza and baseball were totally better than New York's.

The band ended it's main set with the aforementioned "Who Was in My Room Last Night?" but didn't stay gone for long. The band came back after only a couple of obligatory minutes and played an 18-minute, mostly instrumental monster of a song that featuring much guitar soloing and ended with about 8 minutes of ear-splitting, headache inducing feedback, backed the entire time by the projectors playing a marathon video montage of exploding-head scenes from a wide variety of horror movies (think: money shot in opening scene of "Scanners" repeated ad nauseum 100+ times for nearly 20 minutes). 

So, The Butthole Surfers still had some of that antagonistic spirit in them. And punk rock lived to fight another day.

The night ride to the Abbey Pub August 22 was one I could never recreate nor the
show that I would see in the later hours of the night. The all-star
electronic magicians were set as Members Only AV, Kid Color, Vapor
Eyes, and the Brit Electronic group Does it Offend You, Yeah? Now I
knew this would be a great show but did not expect for it to be a
filled house of dance freaks and banging bass's.

Before the show
started I got a chance to talk to a soon-to-be-famous Chicago Dj known
as Kid Color about the in's and out's of the Chicago electronic scene. We met out on the chilly summer night in
front of the pub to discuss what was what in music.

He
told me that he moved out here from California to really grasp the
great electronic scene here. Kid Color has accomplished nothing less
than that with help from names like Steve Aoki, Dark Wave Disco and of
course the group he's in right now, Yello Fever

Q: Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?

KC: "Everybody
know's Chicago for creating House music. Theres such a great electronic
scene here". Chicago is no doubt an Iconic city for dance music and
will always be remebered as the heat of house music. Which became
popular around the Mid-80's by guys like M & M and Frankie Knuckles.

Q: How did you get into Djing?

KC: "Well
it started when I saw Steve Aoki live and I wanted that kind of fun
music. I became somewhat of a fanboy of his. He actually was the guy
who got me connected with Dark Wave Disco. It's funny I herd that Steve
was going to be at a garage sale so I got there really early and just
waited. I told him that I was going to be moving to Chicago soon and he
simply told me to contact Dark Wave Disco. Everything kind of worked
out form there."  Dark Wave Disco being of course the the Chicago based
trio that hold massive parties at all the hot clubs in town.

Q: How was playing Lolla? You seemed like you guys were having fun.

KC: "
It was fun but we had some technical problems and we did play the
starting show. See we played in the peak hours of the sun with no cover
over our heads so our computers were becoming over heated and the only
thing that would work is the mouse. We also had only about a 15 minute
period of play for each of us. But hey I got to meet Perry Farrell."
Now I did see them at Lolla and they got the weak hand unfortuntly.
Playing the first show on Sunday which was the hottest of all three
days. But they played it out beatuifully. The crowd did seem to get
into it as well.

Q: Your music seems to really have fun dancy feeling to it. Would you ever go into whole different direction like dubstep?

KC: "I
don't think so, I mean I like some dubstep and my roomate can do some
pretty great dubstep but I never really got into it. I will be playing
a lot more bangers tonight though. The reason I don't really put out a
whole lot of music is because I'm a bit self contious of my music and
want to make it perfect." He did tell me he is planning on releasing an
album in the future but that he just wants it to be perfect. I'm sure
know one would want less than that from him.

Q: Does it seem like the Chicago crowd is getting back into electronic music or has it never left?

KC: "It's
definitly getting a bigger audiance but I don't think it left since
this is the birthplace of House Music. People have always been dancing
to something". I talked to him about where he thought electronic is
heading to and he told me this " I wouldn't be surprised if in a few
years from now it will be in the top charts and taken as more of a main
stream genre. I mean if you look at whose on the top 40 right now you
can hear dance music in most of them." I agreed with him on this and
how guys like Mstrkrft are putting electronic on the map once again
with songs like "Hearbreaker" who have John Legend on the mic.

Q: What was your craziest moment at Lolla as a fan?

KC: "Hmm,
well I came to Lolla from California to see Daft Punk and their show
was much more than I expected. What a great show. But seeing Rage
Against the Machine play was pretty crazy too". Daft Punk of course
being the french techno masters who played at Lolla two years back in a
massive multicolored Pyramid.

Q: For someone who is just starting out to dj what words of advice would you give them?

KC: "Make
sure the crowd likes what your playing, interact with them. Oh and
getting your college to like your Djing is a big help. Of course make
sure you have an audience in the first place."

We discussed on how
it is so important to interact with the crowd to show that the dj does
care to be here and wants you to dance. Looped Noises can only go so
far.

Q: What was your first "holy shit" moment as dj?

KC: "Oh man I
would have to say back when I went to Columbia University I packed the
dorms when I played. I would write my own flyers saying No Beer No
Drugs Just Music. We would put these under all the dorm doors and I
remember Djing in my dorm for over 60 people with actually people in a
line outside my door. Columbia got attention of this and actually liked
it which really helped getting my name out".

Q: I must ask, what musican is your guilty pleasure to listen to?

KC: "Ha,
it has to be Kyle Minouge. Shes like 46, still hot, and making good
music." I shared with him my secret love of listening to trance Dj
Kaskade. Music aimed for the women but I still enjoy it.

Once
the show started Members Only Av came out for one of their last shows.
They pulled out some pretty insane tricks including two guys on
turntables while one was playing guitar to Daft Punk's Human After All.
The whole bunch seemed to be having fun and there was a part of me that
would miss the group. But I do know for a fact that they are just
seperating to do their own things.

The Des Plains Dj, Vapor eyes
did a phenominal job of keeping the crowd on their feet in the
transition times on the stage. Unfortuntly most of the people didn't
even know where he was playing at since he was in a nook on the
upperlevel at the Abbey Pub.

Kid Color came on next and thats
when the real party started! He kept his mix very diverse with
retro-funk to keep you happy and still dancing, begging for more
auditorial gold. Then all of a sudden he would throw a banger beat on
the floor to make the crowd jump for minutes a time. By the end of this
set the crowd felt stuffed with good music and didn't seem to have that
please come back feeling. What I noticed from the crowd during Kid
Color's set was that people seemed to become a lot more comfortable
with just dancing to the music.

"Does it Offend You, Yeah?" was
up after and to my surprise is only one man playing from the entire
band. But in no way did that stop the party from continuing. He had a
much more edgy frigit noise to his mixes. He also really wanted the
crowd to get excited. So much so that at one point he brought the crowd
up on stage and I was included in on this. Us dance freaks only had
about 30 seconds on the stage but it just showed how much fun we were
having. He did have a somewhat odd ways of ending his set by joking and
leaving then coming back. This happend about three times. The one good
thing I can say about this is that he would played fantastic ending
songs. I never thought I would dance to Rage Against the Machine at an
electronic show.

By the end of the night my group and I were all
exhausted and agreed it was one of the best show's we've seen in
awhile. Every set brought something new to the table in dance music. It
was somewhat crusie through different genres of electronic music.

To see where these guys are going to be at soon check their sites.
http://vaporeyesdj.com/
http://www.myspace.com/kidcolormusic
http://www.myspace.com/doesitoffendyou