Hours before My Chemical Romance headlined day one of Riot Fest, L.S. Dunes -- the new post-hardcore supergroup fronted by Circa Survive's Anthony Green that also features My Chemical Romance's Frank Iero and Coheed & Cambria's Travis Stever on guitar, along with Thursday's Tim Payne and Tucker Rule on bass and drums, respectively -- made their live debut at the festival.
Anthony Green joked that it was the biggest crowd that any of his bands ever played to at their first show, and even though this group's lineup truly is super, it still felt impressive to see such a large crowd come out at 1 PM for a band who only have one song out (the very killer "Permanent Rebellion"). They played that single and introduced the world to other songs off their upcoming Will Yip-produced debut album Past Lives, and they sounded as tight as you'd hope a band with this lineup would. Tim and Tucker were as locked-in as they are at all of Thursday's shows, as Frank and Travis worked in subtly technical guitar work. And at the forefront was Anthony Green, leading L.S. Dunes with all the energy and artistic stage presence that he brings to all of his bands, including jumping into the crowd multiple times through the 25-minute set. He really made the best of getting crowd involvement going for a band whose songs had never been heard before, and the crowd gave all that energy right back; you could tell there's already a lot of love for this band. And outside of "Permanent Rebellion," all the other songs L.S. Dunes sounded great too. Like that song, it scratches the same itch that all of the members' classic bands scratched in the early/mid 2000s, but it doesn't sound like any one band in particular and it never sounds retro or outdated. L.S. Dunes feels not just like a fun project, but like a great band in its own right, and I don't think I'm alone in saying I can't wait to see where they go from here.