How do you sum up a 3-day weekend where you’ve spent approximately 36 hours watching live music and seen nearly 50 bands -- and also missed another 300?
The Fest is a wonderful beast where you venue hop to catch up-and-comers, watch headliners outside on the big stage, and stumble onto one-off side projects with some of your favorite musicians doing new things. It’s a unique experience where you get to choose how big a crowd you want to be part of, what vibe or venue, and who you’ll see. That is, with some schedule conflicts where you have to make a few inevitable and difficult decisions. Somehow, for example, despite digging the brand new Dopamines record, I essentially missed them twice this weekend. (Okay, I used the press pass to enjoy a solid 10 minutes on their Saturday set before running two blocks to see Houseghost.)
For the better part of the past 20 years I’ve been flying to Florida for The Fest. I’ve made friends, I’ve learned the city streets and, of course, I’ve also learned about dozens -- probably hundreds -- of bands through the event. FEST 22 continued that legacy, though I leaned toward small and mid-size venues over the larger grounds. I also caught a pre-Fest show at all ages venue The Ox, which helped me find even more new bands on Sunday since I could justify skipping a few official Fest sets after already seeing old favorites.
In the early years I wrote about specific highlights. In recent years I’ve tried a full rundown of my experience. This year I’m going somewhere in the middle. For every time I’ve made the “It’s supposed to be about the music” cliché in my life, Fest is an outlier to that. Fest isn’t just about the music. Fest is a community and a vibe. It’s certainly a party and I met more than one local who viewed it that way, but for travelers in tune with the culture, it’s a connected experience where we sing our voices raw, while forging friends that go far beyond those repeated and reformulated four chords.
FRIDAY
For me, FEST 22 officially began at First Magnitude Brewing, a slightly out of the way brewery that hosted a few shows in the early afternoon of Day 1. I tried some locally made beer and enjoyed what I heard of Dial Drive as I listened from the food truck. I would have liked more of the up-close experience, but between the need to eat and the need to get out of the sun, I mostly sipped inside with the long weekend ahead of me. Then, my party hiked back to Heartwood for Wolf-Face, a fitting start to FEST 22. The lycanthropic punk band has a new EP (and a new NES game!), both of which I need to check out. If you like your punk gruff, upbeat, and frothing with over-the-top metaphors about adolescence, listen to Wolf-Face now. The Florida band really fits the Fest mood: festive and silly, but still serious when it comes to the music and ethics. Later in the weekend they played an IDLES cover set that I missed. Speaking of Florida, local-ish bands were a theme for my Friday. Miller Lowlifes had a lot of familiar faces from my Thursday night Ox adventure and the band quickly won me over. Later, my evening ended with a punky set from Big Sad and an on-the-floor, fighting-the-broken-mic-stand set from The Tim Version. In between, I finally saw Broadway Calls live.
Highlights included watching American Steel rip it up. It would be inaccurate to call the band inactive, but they aren’t exactly putting out new material or touring, and it was a strong set filled with classics from over the years, timed with the 25th anniversary of Rogue’s March. This also means it’s been 25 years since I made a memorable drive to Des Moines, IA to see them play to a dozen people, but that’s another story… Riverboat Gamblers were also on the anniversary theme, with a weekend set that included Something To Crow About in-full. That was Saturday, though. The Friday set was a banger that covered all the hits. It was raucous and high energy, though with a little less climbing/swinging/madness than I’m used to from Mike Weibe (who also performed at the comedy showcase later).
The Friday highlight, though, was SPELLS. I’ve heaped praise on their records before, but live is another beast -- and I mean that word. With dual vocalists pacing the floor in a manner that’s somewhere between a bullfight and a hiphop hypeperson dynamic, it’s a show as much as it’s a concert. The catch, though, is their jingle-like choruses that enable even first-time listeners to sing along to catchy and barbed refrains like “80% Is Good Enough.” I’m sure SPELLS is great in smaller settings too, but the crowd at FEST seemingly gets what the band is about right away, making a club show feel like a basement show in all the right ways.
SATURDAY
If Day 1 was familiar faces, Day 2 (the biggest day) was a day for bouncing around. I saw a lot of partial sets, trying to make the most of my time while balancing bands I hadn’t seen along with some favorites, while also managing a balance of packed venues and more chill spaces. Sometimes you just need to sit down and find comfort, which led me to The Mizzerables to kick off my day, as you can grab a cocktail and sit down at Palomino if you time it right. While I definitely enjoyed the Chicago-style pop punk of Mizzerables, I took it in from across the room, with their bouncy beats giving me a caffeine-like boost to start the day. Then I sauntered to University Club, watching an Atom And His Package cover set by Pink Flamingos that brought back a lot of memories.
Throughout the day, Cursive, The Bollweevils, DFMK, Middle-Aged Queers, and Seagulls all delivered powerful and emotive sets that will stick with me, while a few more highlights were Sweat, The Eradicator, and Houseghost. Sweat were one of the few bands that were maybe put in the wrong room for their draw, but the spacious room also gave vocalist Tuna a chance to get everyone involved by hitting the floor for most of the set. It was aggressive and relentless, but also cheerful and inclusive in all the right ways. As she strutted amongst the crowd, the rest of the band was elevated on stage, which seems fitting for the powerful sound that drives Sweat’s brand of hardcore. There was separation, but not isolation. When the full band interacted you could see the chemistry (look at the photo gallery after this piece).
Houseghost was a band that topped my must-see list, to the point that I had to miss most of DFMK to go see them. The tight corner stage at Loosey’s was a perfect fit for their lo-fi, haunting pop punk and bassist Kayla Hamby’s gothic gown was probably the only dress I saw a performer wearing at Fest, but it also highlights what makes this band different.
And, of course, there was The Eradicator. What more can I say? It’s been fascinating to watch this project grow in popularity. Based on a somewhat random Kids In The Hall sketch, the band has evolved into a powerhouse hardcore punk celebration that’s all about individuality and letting out your demons while milking absurdism that’s best symbolized by how the masked vocalist screams into the mic whilst waving a squash racquet around. I also suspect that a sizable Chicago audience makes the trip to Fest and it’s a super energetic crowd who knows every lyric.
SUNDAY
If I had a theme for Day 3 it was new discoveries. I picked many of shows based on The Fest app’s descriptions, sometimes based on where the band was from, and sometimes just based on a name -- typically within an hour of showtime. And I found some cool stuff in the process. The day started with, to steal a phrase from their social media handle, “shoe gays” band Funeral Homes, with some great moody guitar rock. Then I watched Maura Weaver play solo with a mimosa by her side, which warmed up the crowd and got me ready for more venue hopping. I’m not going into depth about the Sunday sets I experienced because, for most of these bands, I’m going to be bandcamping them later for added perspective. But I’ll simply say that seeing bands like Funeral Homes, Curse Words, and Pangolin made we want to hear more.
There were definitely more highlights too. I’ve been into American Television’s last record for the past year and their live set matched the energy, which is tough to pull off with an early Day 3 stage time. Teens in Trouble delivered a great set with positive energy and a sound much bigger than you expect in a vintage store turned into a weekend venue. Joyce Manor finally clicked for me, seeing them live, and Ted Leo and The Pharmacists were playing Shake The Sheets in full, and it was as urgent as it was 20 years ago. Finally, on a whim halfway through watching Cocks, I decided I should see the finale at Bo Diddley Plaza, but I was wholly unprepared me for Matt and Kim’s close.
I approached to find flashing stage lights and flying sex dolls in the crowd, with a rhythmic, pulsing light show timed as partners Matt and Kim pounded furiously at their keyboards and drums: standing, running in circles, trading places and oozing pure joy. The energy was contagious and building. Giant beach balls hit the crowd, the band handed out Fest MVP awards to the audience, and the set felt simultaneous subversive and wholesome. The band captured the DIY vibe and brought it to the big stage. I saw tears in the front row and a sea of smiles behind it. I’ve been to probably 15 Fests at this point, and my takeaway based on a partial set, was that Matt and Kim should close it down every year.
Okay, FEST 22 kept going after Bo Diddley’s big outdoor stage shut down, but it was new bands (to me) and small venues. I actually crashed with two bands to go, missing my goal to end at Iron Spiders. That just gives me motivation to come back next year to see what I missed.
If I could do it all over again -- First, I’d do it in a heartbeat now that I’ve had a few days off my feet in between -- I'd maybe reverse the pattern of old favorites on night 1 with new bands on night 3, so I’d had a little more stamina or ambition left. But it was a great mix of classics, familiar modern bands, and brand new discoveries. I loved most of what I witnessed and you could build a world class compilation of bands I didn’t see. But, at Fest, you’re going to see about 50 of the 350 bands. Fortunately, although real life is full of hard choices with high stakes, at Fest, you tend to come out great whichever bands you see.
MY SCHEDULE
THURSDAY
(Not official Fest)
- The Lightworkers
- Too Many Daves
- Golf War
- Tiltwheel
- King Friday
- City Mouse
FRIDAY
- Dial Drive
- Wolf-Face
- Broadway Calls
- Miller Lowlifes
- Trash The Rental
- SPELLS
- Hot Water Music
- American Steel
- Riverboat Gamblers
- The Carolyn
- Big Sad
- The Tim Version
SATURDAY
- The Mizzerables
- Coody
- Ty Vaughn (Broadway Calls – acoustive)
- Plastic Flamingos (Atom And His Package – cover set)
- The Dopamines
- The Eradicator
- Sweat
- Cursive
- Dead Bars
- Miski (City Mouse – solo)
- The Bollweevils
- Debt Neglector
- Bouncing Souls (Hopeless Romantic set)
- Seagulls
- DFMK
- Houseghost
- Middle-Aged Queers
SUNDAY
- Funeral Homes
- Maura Weaver
- American Television
- Brendan Kelly
- Teens in Trouble
- Talking Props
- Joyce Manor
- Ted Leo and the Pharmacists (Shake The Sheets set)
- Payphones
- The Super High-Tech Jet Fighters
- Curse Words
- Cocks
- Matt and Kim
- Whiskey & Co
- Career Day
- Plastic Flamingos
- Pangolin
