If the weather the day before was abysmal, the weather the morning of Sunday, September 17 was flat awful.

Anyone who had been lined up to enter the festival as soon as the gates opened at 11:00am were met with Tweets from the Riot Fest team announcing a rain delay. The festival would not open as planned and, in fact, I was concerned the fest just wouldn’t go on. The delay was put in place for safety reasons, as the flooding made Douglass Park unsafe to navigate.

Luckily, the weather cleared, the updated schedule was posted and gate finally opened at 2:00pm. Unfortunately, that also happened to be the exact time the first bands were rescheduled to begin. The line to enter the festival grounds stretched far down the sidewalk, which meant anyone closer to the back likely wouldn’t enter the festival for quite a while. With Thursday being scheduled to go on right at 2:00pm, I followed the line progression stressed and hoping I’d be able to catch a good chunk of their set. Luckily, it only took me about fifteen minutes to get past the gates and book it towards the Radical stage once more. Somehow, despite slipping on a patch of mud and nearly falling over, I was able to snag a spot not too far from the barricade.

Admittedly, I first tried to catch Thursday live when they played Riot Fest 2021. The issues I ran into when attempting to do so was drinking way too much, smoking weed on top of that and ending up half awake on a hill. In retrospect, it was such a waste. While I missed the first few songs due to the rain delay, watching Thursday sober was an incredible experience. Frontman Geoff Rickly, put simply, is a delight. Rickly has this really casual, comfortable vibe even when performing songs as devastating as “War All the Time” and “Understanding in a Car Crash.” Even if you aren’t super familiar with the band, I highly recommend seeing them live if you have the opportunity to. If you don’t, throw on their 2001 album Full Collapse. It’s worth a listen.

I remember Balance and Composure being a good live act, but I’ll admit I didn’t take too many notes during the performance. Songs like “Body Language” and “Savior Mode” were great live, but neither stuck with me as much as they should have. The crowd energy was great but I didn’t find them all that memorable. Two things I can say for sure is they seemed like great guys who were beyond stoked to be there, which is always awesome to see, and I caught some great photos:

L.S. Dunes may very well be one of the best supergroups to come out of the scene. Members of Circa Survive, Coheed and Cambria, Thursday, and My Chemical Romance came together to put a unique and fresh spin on hardcore. Frontman Anthony Green left it all on the stage, even when he was diving into and rolling all over the crowd. This was a particularly fun set for me because it was the third band including Frank Iero I got to see live, after frnkiero andthe cellabration and My Chemical Romance. Coming from different bands within the same scene, the members had an electric and dynamic chemistry as they tore through a setlist that included beloved tracks “Bombsquad” and “2022” as well as tracks from their debut album Past Lives. This is the only album they’ve put out so far, but this performance has me looking forward to what they put out next.

I’ll admit, going into Riot Fest, I didn’t have any experience with Finch. I’d heard of them, as any current-or-former emo likely would, but I never went out of my way to check them out. After seeing them live, let me tell you how much I was missing out on. Not only were Finch perfectly suited to my tastes in high school, but their live show is as engaging as it is excellent. Devoted fans, newbies like me and those in the middle were treated to performances of “Perfection Through Silence” and “Stay With Me,” and frontman Nate Barcalow frequently communicated with the audience between songs. While I struggle to find the words to properly express myself, the performance left a great impression.

As the sun began to set on Riot Fest, the stage crew began setting up facades covered with what looked like hundreds of pink roses. I couldn’t stop myself from shaking at the sight, as those roses were a visual reference to Toxic Positivity, released on May 19 by The Used. Here is where I need to admit this band was the primary reason I was so determined to get to the barricade. As much as I love them now, The Used meant absolutely everything to me as an angsty teenager. Songs like “The Taste of Ink” and “All That I’ve Got” made me feel seen at a time in my life I felt invisible, among many others of theirs. As much as I loved many of the other bands I saw that weekend, everything for me was leading up to The Used.

The band blasted onstage with “Pretty Handsome Awkward,” igniting a long-neglected rage in me and kicking off their set with white hot catharsis. Frontman Bert McCracken had a manic energy to him, constantly darting all over the stage and pulling wild facial expressions as he screamed lyrics like “I know you meant it/that’s fucking disgusting” and “help yourself/I hope you choke and die.” As I shrieked these long-since memorized lyrics with him, it felt as though I had expelled every negative thought or feeling I’d ever experienced.

After McCracken instructed everyone to throw their arms around each other, the band threw themselves into “I Caught Fire” from their iconic 2004 album In Love and Death. I was able to hold in my tears through the song, despite it being one of my favorite love songs of all time, but I couldn’t stop them when The Used directly followed it up with “All That I’ve Got.” Listening to a song hundreds of times in your bedroom is just fundamentally different from seeing it performed live, with the band only ten feet away and tears streaming down my face. I screamed lyrics long-since engraved somewhere deep in my psyche until my throat was raw. When that song was then followed with “The Taste of Ink,” I was left with no reprieve. It doesn’t feel like an exaggeration to say my soul left my body.

Whenever I unintentionally put a band on such a high pedestal, I’ll occasionally worry about how I would react if they fell off. I don’t think anyone wants to see a band they love in concert and be disappointed because they suck live. Luckily, that wasn’t anywhere near my experience with The Used. Even when shredding their hardest riffs or spouting their vilest lyrics, everyone from McCracken to bassist Jeph Howard, drummer Dan Whitesides and guitarist Joey Bradford were having a fantastic time onstage. Beyond being such excellent musicians and performers, seeing them put on such an incredible live show somehow made both my present self and my inner-angsty-teenager feel validated. Put simply, it was special beyond words and I’m grateful the weekend ended on this note for me.

As much as I wasn’t looking forward to the weekend being over already, I left the festival on light feet. I had nine hours of meandering in Union Station ahead of me, but the satisfaction of another successful and meaningful Riot Fest. Now, as the year is coming closer to an end, I’m shaking with anticipation on what Riot Fest 2024 will bring.