Overcast weather and fleeting sprinkles didn’t deter many from coming to Douglass Park for Riot Fest this weekend, including for headliners Weezer on Saturday and Green Day on Sunday — along with the one person nearly everyone wanted to see, actor and musician John Stamos, as well as the rebellious, anti-establishment spirit at the heart of the festival.
Much of the day Saturday belonged to Riot Fest’s deepest lore and its most persistent campaign finally coming to fruition: John Stamos taking the stage 12 years after the festival first invited his fictitious band Jesse and The Rippers from the sitcom “Full House” to play. Saturday was unofficially-officially Stamos Day, also marked by the return of the Butter Stamos bust, a new standing statue and a look-alike contest.
“It’s great to be at Riot Fest after a decade of you guys ripping me,” Stamos said on the Riot Stage, joining his beloved Beach Boys (who didn’t even mention the death of musical leader and co-founder Brian Wilson in June). “You’ve been ripping me all these years, but you’ve kept me humble and you’ve let me be part of this family, and I’m so grateful to you and the great crew at Riot Fart, I call it,” he joked. “Discord is at an all-time high and decency at an all-time low, but thank god we have The Beach Boys’ music and Riot Fest to get us through, huh?”
As for Day 2’s headlining acts, goth punks The Damned were overshadowed by the one-two punch of Jack White and Weezer holding down the larger Riot and Roots stages — where barely anyone moved between the two sets.
For what it’s worth, if you’re going to book Jack White, let him headline. A rock ‘n’ roll festival should have the guy who is so electric he’s co-opted the lightning bolt and introduced himself as “Johnny Guitar” closing the night. OK, that last bit was cringe. But yes, despite the unrelenting air of pretension and the bizarre intonation of a Baptist minister that he insists on using as his stage voice, White left the masses absolutely dizzy ahead of a set from Weezer that, though it was space themed, did not, in fact, blast off.
White allotted majority of his time to what people wanted to hear — The White Stripes songs “Ball and Biscuit,” “Black Math,” “Hotel Yorba,” “Icky Thump,” and of course “Seven Nation Army,” as well as The Raconteurs’ “Broken Boy Soldiers” and “Steady as She Goes,” complete with enough squealing solos to shatter the most plugged of ears.
White, who was recently singled out by the Trump Administration as a “has-been loser’ after he insulted the president’s Oval Office redesign, was also the first main stage headliner to explicitly acknowledge the current political climate, saying, “Ain’t no MAGA fascists in control tonight. Ain’t no ICE gestapo in control tonight. Rock ‘n’ roll is in control tonight.”
Riot Fest opens with Blink-182 and spectacular sets from Sparks and ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic
That sentiment was further shared on Sunday by the Lambrini Girls, who dared to ask, “As Americans, do you feel like you have free speech? Would you like to test it?” before launching into “Bad Apple” from their furious and delicious debut “Who Let the Dogs Out.”
Whoever suggested you can’t shake something to proletariat proto-punk has never been to an Idles show (“I’m Scum,” “Divide and Conquer”) or the Joe Talbot School of Dance, which almost demands it. An onslaught of unabashed, fearless chants of “Viva Palestina!” and feminist ideologies driving songs like “Mother” and “Gift Horse” from the U.K. band lifted voices, middle fingers, and crowd surfers as Talbot and company stomped and shimmied. Jack White returned to join them for “Never Fight a Man with a Perm,” turning up the “stank” factor on everyone’s air-guitar faces, while Isaac Holman and Laurie Vincent of Soft Play (formerly known as Slaves) hit the stage for “Rottweiler.”
Sunday also marked 21 years to the day since the release of “American Idiot,” an album that revived Green Day’s career, selling over 12 million copies worldwide and encouraging a new generation of young minds to question the world in which they live. The sociopolitical impact of that album and its core themes — including Bush-era disillusionment — continues to resonate.
“It’s not like Green Day told me to hate George W. Bush,” laughed festival-goer Dan Condon, 37. “With that album, it was a call to really take a look at what was going on. At 15 or 16, you’re not totally getting it politically, but ‘American Idiot’ definitely lit a spark.”
Ameera Wallice, 35, more fully felt the weight of the album after seeing the Broadway musical adaptation of the title. Being often “othered” in performance spaces as a Black woman, seeing the female lead in the musical be a strong, Black punk reframed many of the songs for her, she said. “It can be weird, let me say. It’s like ‘really, you still think I can’t like this music?’ … So it becomes this thing you have for yourself. Similarly to how musical theater was for me. The ‘American Idiot’ play brought the two together. I think it helped me feel less defensive, that defensiveness you hold when you’re young.”
By the end of the day, Jawbreaker deserved an A+ for effort, knowing that by their set time, pretty much everyone except their diehard fans was simply waiting for Green Day, exemplified hilariously by a too-bored-to-be-bothered fan caught by a Riot Fest cameraman as the clock ticked down.
Sing-alongs to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and The Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop” primed the hungry audience for what would be an hour and 50-minute set from Bay Area pop-punk royalty.
From the opening notes of “American Idiot,” it was clear Green Day was in fighting form regardless of singer Billie Joe Armstrong’s confessed chest cold.
“Now is the most important time to speak your (expletive) mind,” Armstrong exclaimed. “Right now is the most important of our (expletive) lives. (Expletive) the FCC!”
With a 23-song setlist that surprised with “Going to Pasalacqua” from the band’s 1991 album “1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours,” Green Day’s undeniable staying power and three-chord-progression supremacy was full-throttle. Barely skimming their latest album “Saviors,” the band that was once crucified as “sell-outs” was celebrated as heroes of pop-punk.
Songs from their major label breakthrough “Dookie” — and the fears you may only admit to when singing along to “Basket Case,” and familiar, resigned romantic detachment at the heart of “When I Come Around” — evoked things you only understand more keenly as you get older. The coupling of the fan favorite “Brain Stew/Jaded” had the latter replaced with rocket number “St. Jimmy” from “American Idiot” and nine-minute epic “Jesus of Suburbia” that basked in its full glory with the crowd filling in Armstrong’s vocal cracks — as did the crackle of fireworks and flame cannons.
Pyro, power chords, and politics — it’s the Green Day live show trifecta.
The frontman also dedicated “Bobby Sox” to the LGBTQ+ community because “they’re all of us,” Armstrong said. “(Expletive) anyone who demonizes someone else for being different.”
As dates for Riot Fest 2026 (Sept. 18-20, kids) were announced, and the official Riot Fest app sent a notification that the City of Chicago had declared Sept. 21 as “Riot Fest Day,” one thing was for certain. There’s much to be said for increased diversity and deeper investment in more substantially highlighting Chicago’s vibrant music scenes, but after 20 years, if it ain’t broke, if it’s leaving people with smiling faces, if it’s allowing for free expression, if attendees and community members feel safe, don’t fix it.
Even when the lineup isn’t exactly who you want, when you want them.
Jessi Roti is a freelance writer.