After a low-key "preview" on Thursday, Riot Fest 2021 got underway in earnest on Friday, with five stages of acts. Hometown heros Smashing Pumpkins and Lupe Fiasco headlined, alongside NOFX, and Friday also included performances from Circle Jerks, Coheed and Cambria, Motion City Soundtrack, The Lawrence Arms, Thrice, Living Colour, Circa Survive, Anti-Flag, Eyedress, Fishbone, Kississippi, Radkey, girlpuppy, The Sounds, Meet Me @ the Altar, Pinegrove and lots more. Pictures from Friday are in this post.
Billy Corgan, draped in a long jacket, wondered aloud if he should indulge his "artsy fuckside," but Smashing Pumpkins stuck mainly to the hits, giving the Douglass Park crowd "1979," "Cherub Rock," "Zero," "Tonight, Tonish," "Bullet With Butterfly Wings," "Drown," "Disarm," "Ava Adore," the first performance of Siamese Dream's "Quiet" since 1994, and more, over the course of nearly two hours. They also brought out Meg Myers, who played her own Riot Fest set earlier in the day, for "Eye" from the Lost Highway soundtrack, and Nitro guitarist Michael Angelo Batio joined them to close the night with "United States." Setlist and video of "Eye" are below.