Hello! This is a bit of a new post that I’m making, and I’m excited to share it with you guys. I’m going to be choosing a few bands in the Riot Fest 2022 lineup that I haven’t listened to yet to review. I’m not sure how well this is going to go, but I am looking forward to actually reviewing these bands.
This also gives me a chance to listen to some new bands that I haven’t listened to, especially since I will have the chance to see them live soon. I really like to know music by heart of bands that I’m going to see live, but since there are so many bands at this festival, I will settle for just knowing how each band generally sounds and what their genre is.
Bauhaus
My only knowledge of this band comes from the Blink-182 song that mentions a girl has Bauhaus stuck in her head. It’s the song called She’s Out of Her Mind, and I really like that song. Anyways, just based off of that, I had no idea what kind of music it was and I was actually surprised.
Wikipedia classifies Bauhaus as an English rock band that formed in England in 1978. I’m not sure I agree with them being a rock band, since a lot of their music seems a little bit more experimental than just rock, I might classify them as experimental rock instead.
Anyways, onto what I thought about the music. I wrote some notes while listening to the first few popular songs and I think those three songs pretty much sum up their entire vibe. The three songs that I first listened to were Bela Lugosi’s Dead, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, and Dark Entries.
Bela Lugosi’s Dead seemed very experimental, it was also very long. When first listening to this, I was wondering if all of their songs were going to be this long, but that was incorrect. This song reminded me a little bit of Depeche Mode, Molchat Doma, and Pink Floyd. I did like it, but only certain parts. I didn’t really like the weird experimental parts of this song, but I can appreciate the effort that went into it and that it is art.
That song also reminded me of scenes like dancing in a dark club in the middle of France, or dricing along a hgihway along the beach at night with someone you love and you’re coming back from an amazing trip together and it’s going to be a long drive home but you’re both looking forward to it and there’s unconditional love in the air.
The second song I listened to had a really sad vibe to it and I didn’t really want to listen to the words because I didn’t want to be sad at the time. The next song I listened to was more upbeat and definitely more my speed, so that was exciting. I think that this band does make a lot of different kinds of music inside of the “rock genre” and I definitely want to listen to them some more in the future.
The set times for Riot Fest came out recently, and I am very upset that GWAR, my favorite band ever, and Bauhaus have the exact same set time on the same day. I will have to choose between them, and I’ll probably choose GWAR, but I do really want to see Bauhaus.
Alkaline Trio
According to Wikipedia, this band is classified as an American punk rock band formed in Chicago in 1996. I guess I would classify it as punk rock, but loosely. It’s not super punk and it’s not super rock, but I’m not sure what else to call them.
They’re fine. Not really my type of music. In my opinion, it’s pretty normal music. I don’t really have a lot to say about them, nothing bad, and nothing particularly bad either.
I wouldn’t really listen to them all the time, but they’re fine for every once in a while. I don’t think I’m going to make much of an effort to see them at Riot Fest, but I will if I’m at that stage already for some other band.
Bleachers
I actually found out that I had listened to several of this band’s songs before. It was a surprise to click on the first song on Spotify and recognize it haha. I really do like them. I probably wouldn’t listen to them every day, but I do really like their music.
Most of their songs that I had heard before were more upbeat, but some of the songs I haven’t heard before were a lot slower and more like ballads, which isn’t really my thing. I don’t dislike them at all, but I wouldn’t really choose to listen to that kind of music on my own.
Bleachers are classified as an American rock band formed in New Jersey in 2013. They have actually won an award recently, which is very good for them. I didn’t realize that they were so popular, but I am not surprised haha. I think the classification of bands as rock is a very loose term, since something like AC/DC is considered rock, and then The Beatles are also considered rock.
I think there should be some better classification for these bands, but I doubt that will ever happen. I also definitely think that this band is on the softer side of rock. If the set times allow, I will definitely be seeing this band at Riot Fest.
The Menzingers
This is another band that I thought I had never listened to before, but when I started listening to them, I realized I had heard a few of their songs before. Their most popular song, according to Spotify, was the first one that I listened to and recognized. This song is called I Don’t Wanna Be An Asshole Anymore, and I really like that song.
The Menzingers are considered an American punk rock band from Scranton, Pennsylvania and were formed in 2006. I think this is a pretty accurate classification, even if they are a little softer than a lot of the punk rock bands that I am familiar with.
I don’t think I will be listening to this band daily, but I do really like their music. It’s mostly pretty upbeat and a lot of the songs are pretty catchy. I do want to get more into this band, especially since I’m going to possibly be seeing them live in the very near future, and I do like their music anyways.
I was pretty surprised that I had listened to that song from this band and not recognzied the band name. It’s a pretty unique name and I would’ve thought that I would remember that haha. This also isn’t super hard punk rock, so I would suggest them to people who want to listen to some new music.
If I do have the chance to see them at Riot Fest, I would really like to. I have to check the set times again to see if I actually can see any of these bands, besides Bauhaus haha. I remember that set time because I was upset about it.
Lunachicks
This band is an American punk rock band from New York City, formed in 1987, but went on hiatus from 2000 until 2019 when they got back together. I agree with this classificiation the most out of all of the bands I’ve talked about in this post. They’re definitely a lot harder than the other punk rock bands in this post as well.
This band has actually not been very active in recent years, only doing a couple of shows and not coming out with any music. They have said that they are working on a book though, so that is interesting. This is an all woman band, which is also a lot of fun.
I liked a lot of songs that I listened to from this band, and they are definitely more my speed based off of what I have recently been listening to. Some of them even seem like they would fit very well on a Halloween playlist, which is super exciting. I love music that sounds like Halloween type music, since I absolutely love Halloween.
I didn’t expect this band to sound like this at all based off of their name, but I didn’t even realize that their name was lunatics spelled differently. It would’ve made a little more sense if I had realized that a little earlier haha. I really like the music that they make though, and I’d love to see them and listen to them more often.
These are all of the bands that I’m going to review right now! I will be reviewing more in the future, and talking about some bands that I like, and I’m super excited for that. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions of new music to listen to, please leave a comment down below! I love reading your comments and I make sure to reply to every one.
Thank you all so much for reading my blog post and supporting my journey! I really do appreciate every single one of you and I hope I can continue to entertain for years to come. I’ll see you guys in the next one!
VitalVan 