Unquiet Riot

Once again, I won tickets to Riot Fest this year. So on Saturday, I headed north to Downsview Park just before noon. Instead of the hipster uniform, most guys and girls today wore primarily black with plenty of metal logos. There were still plenty of beard, though more unkempt than neatly trimmed.

I can't speak to the big names who played later on including Alexisonfire because I only stayed for a few bands. In generally though, I found the music pummelling and repetitive. For the "heavy stuff", I thought last night's Yamatanka show was more compelling. As such, I'll just make general observations.

The giant line-array speakers really do keep the sound concentrated with distance. No matter how far back you sit, the volume was about the same. But it was affected by air movement. Any gusts of wind will drastically mute the sound. These harder bands still often use the soft-loud-soft dynamics of pop but for the "loud" part they just have more growling (Safe To Say). The drummer is the primary driver of this genre. Without his heavy percussion, the vocal harmonies could belong to any boy-band (Bayside). In contrast, most bassists must be bored repeating root notes all the time. Perhaps that's why they tend to resort to playing "bass chords" for variety (Ritual). The lead singers love to do over-the-top poses and vocals (Die Mannequin).

Afterwards, I made my way to the ethnic bazaar for some fruit smoothies and a roti. This was dal puri style, with a double layer stuffed with grounded lentils. The older owner proudly stated that this was genuine roti à la Trinidad. He was right. It was rich and flavourful unlike shops downtown like Pam's Roti. The bone-in chicken was a bit surprising, but didn't detract from the meal.