Overheard at Riot Fest 2014

Maybe it's the punk rock origins of Riot Fest that brought out the funny and the ridiculous in various performers and attendees at Riot Fest. It was mostly the usual self-deprecating and/or sarcastic commentary one expects out of musicians but there were a handful of gems both inspired and just...

By Tom Murphy

September 22, 2014

Audio By Carbonatix

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Maybe it's the punk rock origins of Riot Fest that brought out the funny and the ridiculous in various performers and attendees at Riot Fest. It was mostly the usual self-deprecating and/or sarcastic commentary one expects out of musicians but there were a handful of gems both inspired and just funny. Here are a few of our favorites.

"Don't drink and drive. Or if you do, take out a couple of cops." - Sole at the end of his set. There were no cops present but this is the man who told some police officers at the UMS, "Thank you officers for not killing anyone today."

"Warning. You are in the wrong place. Slayer is playing over there." - Les Claypool of Primus after one song into the set as Slayer was starting up.

"Thank you to Riot Fest for having a festival like this with real music instead of music over disco beats." - Jordan Pundik of New Found Glory. Apparently Big Freedia and Die Antwoord don't make real music. Who knew?

"It could be the New World Order. Or is that a weird thing to say one song into the set?" - El Hefe of NOFX on Fat Mike saying the band was playing Punk in Drublic in its entirety but not in order. "I want you to go crazy. Crazier than you have in your entire life." - Bert McCracken of The Used.

"The Expendables...Is that a movie?" - Time, Denver hip-hop artist who attended but did not perform, reacting to the Riot Fest schedule.

• BACKBEAT'S GREATEST HITS • - Failure's Ken Andrews On the Absurdity of Hair Metal - The Radkey May Be the Best Band at Riot Fest Not Playing the Main Stage - The Denver Public Library Is Now One of the Best Places to Find Local Music - The ten best jazz drummers of all time

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If you'd like to contact me, Tom Murphy, on Twitter, my handle is @simianthinker.

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Tom Murphy is a writer, visual artist and musician from Aurora, Colorado. He was a prolific music writer for Westword and a documenter of the Denver music scene.

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Twitter: @simianthinker