Hot Water Music (photo: Kaitlyn Laurel McGann)
Do you know how fucking hard it is to narrow down a list of 350+ bands to 10 must-see picks? You might as well have asked the Rice and Bread team to each pick their favourite Skittle out of a 10-gallon bucket of beautiful, punk rock Skittles. Wait, Skittles aren’t punk rock, but the three-day non-stop barrage of punk bands at The Fest in Gainesville, Florida definitely is. We’ve already given you round one and round two or our Fest (and Pre-Fest in Tampa) picks, now here are our final 10 to chew on.
Warning: If we didn’t pick your favourite Skittle because it was way in the bottom of that bucket, we thoroughly endorse dumping all those Skittles all over the floor and playing a huge game of Skittle scramble. (This is a Skittle-fisted analogy for choosing to ignore all of our picks and just run around Fest and Pre-Fest like a mad-person, trying to see more bands than anyone else. And just so you know, my Fest record so far is 73 bands in five days.)
Hot Water Music
Why not start at the top? Hot Water Music, already proclaimed as my favourite band of all-time on a rather drunken Facebook post (to which my friend quipped: “I’ll be sure to break the news to Fugazi that they didn’t make the cut”), are celebrating their 20th anniversary with a tour that kicks off at Fest. A 90-minute set in Fest’s new outdoor venue, the Bo Diddley Plaza in downtown Gainesville, should satisfy our need to keep this band close to our hearts and always in our heads. Sure, we still can’t sing anywhere past the first two lines of “Trusty Chords” in our drunken, 3 am, Fest hotel lobby sing-alongs, but this is still, always, our favourite band. And, for us, Fest 13 revolves around this set. And when I say “us” and “we,” I mean “me” and “I” and you are always more than welcome to join us.
Fest set time: Sunday, November 2, 8-9:30 pm @ Bo Diddley Plaza
Nothing in the Dark (Nomeansno cover set)
This might seem like a strange jump, but I’m Canadian, so I can do that, and this is Fest, so all bets are off. The reason why this curiosity makes my must-see list is because it’s impossibly awesome that a thrash-punk band from Spring Hill, FL would even know who Nomeansno are, let along contemplate, consider and presumably execute a friggin’ cover set of perhaps the world’s most un-coverable punk band ever. I hope Nothing in the Dark’s bass player has been limbering up his plucking fingers for, like, the past two years. Which leads us to my next pick…
Fest Nomeansno cover set: Saturday, November 1, 5:40-6:10 pm @ 1982
Regular Fest set: Sunday, November 2, 7-7:30 pm @1982
Protected Left (Propagandhi cover set)
Don’t know much about Protected Left, other than they are a fast, melodic punk band from the Bay Area that have been around since 2011, but I know enough about the band and album that they are covering that I’ll definitely be at this set, front and centre, screaming out the lyrics of my youth. Yep, that’s right, a cover set of Propagandhi’s How to Clean Everything album is the thing that legends and Fests are made of. Plus, get drunk enough and you might even hallucinate that ol’ Jordy boy is back there pounding the skins. Expect at least one hilarious run-through of “Ska Sucks,” possibly more if the mood is right.
Fest Propagandhi cover set: Friday, October 31, 6:20-6:50 pm @ Durty Nelly’s
Regular Fest set: Sunday, November 2, midnight-12:30 am @1982
Paint It Black
Okay, enough drunken cover sets for the time being, because there are enough A-list hardcore and punk bands playing Fest this year to fill up the whole internet (oh, and also some band called the Descendents). Philly’s Paint It Black are Fest vets and among the best hardcore bands on this planet right now (don’t believe me, watch their set from last year’s Fest). Led by the unrelenting screams and lyrical head-checks of Dan Yemin (Lifetime, Kid Dynamite), a Paint It Black set is never to be missed, especially in Gainesville.
Fest set: Friday, October 31, 8:40-9:20 pm @ 1982
The Menzingers
Remember when these Scranton, PA guys were just one of the Fest baby bands? Now they are playing headlining slots at both Pre-Fest in Tampa and the main Fest in Gainesville for the second year in a row. And we’re all there with them (and by “we,” I mean we), singing along to every word to every song. One of the best melodic punk bands going, be sure to save your voice for their two sets on back-to-back nights. Last year, The Menzingers were a highlight of the whole Fest week, and with a new album under their belts in Rented World, expect them to once again be an amazing smile-and-sing-along-a-thon of epic proportions.
Pre-Fest set time: Thursday, October 30, 11:40 pm-12:20 am @ Orpheum
Fest set time: Friday, October 31, 9:20-1o pm @ Bo Diddley Plaza
Post Teens
What’s a music festival without shit-hot local bands, and what’s a Fest without Post Teens? Labelled simply as “local vets” on The Fest’s website, Post Teens are the best combo of garage rock, ’80s hardcore, punk rock and fast-core that Gainesville has ever shat out. Expect danceable fury and a lead singer on top of your head within seconds of their first 45-second song. And, hey, do me a favour this year, pal, whoever you were… don’t bring your backpack with an X-Acto knife blade poking out of it into the pit this year, K? That shit hurts. #Festscars
Fest set time: Friday, October 31, 6:40-7:20 pm @ 8 Seconds
Sunshine State
Let’s face it; choosing who to see at Fest takes a ton of research. With 350+ bands, it can all get a little overwhelming. Luckily for me, my job requires constantly listening to music, and one of the bands that came across my desk this year were Sunshine State. Another Gainesville-bred band, Sunshine State are the melodic punk band to win over the hearts of anyone who takes the time to come and check them out, or listen to their debut album, Pour. They definitely jumped to the top of my must-see list this year after I heard this amazing album, which I am currently listening to right now and thinking, “Goddamn, this is good!” Add in an acoustic Misfits covers set for best measure. And look at that, I didn’t even say “ex-drummer of Against Me!” Aw, fuck….
Fest acoustic Misfits cover set: Friday, October 31, 8:50-9:20 pm @ Civic Media Centre
Fest regular set time: Sunday, November 2, 9:30-10 pm @ 1982
The Smith Street Band
We’ve all had that experience where we see a band and think they are pretty damn good, but we wish we knew some more of their songs so we could sing along and generally act a lot more foolish. Because we can identify, man… That was Aussie folky punks The Smith Street Band for me at last year’s Fest. Definitely a great live band, but I wanted to know more songs so I could feel that connection. (This is getting deep.) Now that I’ve practically memorized their new album, Throw Me in the River, which comes out October 28, I’ll be at Fest singing along to songs that barely anyone else knows, while still being practically oblivious to their back catalog. Fortunately, these are problems that can be fixed, and I’ve got some listening to do.
Pre-Fest set time: Thursday, October 30, 8:50-9:20 pm @ Crowbar
Fest set time: Sunday, November 2, 9:30-10:10 pm @ High Dive
Coliseum
Fest is also all about tragic schedule clashes, and my first chance to see Louisville, Kentucky runaway rock train Coliseum (well, unless you count them cancelling on Fest 11) looks to have been thwarted by a certain 20th anniversary set by a certain favourite band of all-time’s set at practically the same time. If I jet at the end of a hot and watery set of music, I can catch 10 minutes of Coliseum’s barrel-rolls, which just seems like even more torture, but will probably still be worth it (as a far-reaching aside, I once cabbed across the city of Toronto to see a Quicksand encore, AND IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT). Ah, Fest clashes. Aaargh!
Fest set time: Sunday, November 2, 9-9:40 pm @ The Wooly
Dave Hause
Oh, Dave Hause, you spark plug, you! The only time I’ve seen this punk rock champ is when he stole the show at Chuck Ragan’s Revival Tour (Chuck is also on the Fest bill, by the way, so there’s another reason out of hundreds to get stoked). Hause is sure to steal the show at Fest as well, as he dips into his two stellar solo albums and material from his much-missed The Loved Ones. Rumours abound that he might just show up at the Philly band Ma Jolie’s cover set of The Loved Ones, which would be way beyond rad, and probably should definitely, maybe, probably, definitely happen. But, really, all kidding aside, it “should” happen.
Fest set time: Sunday, November 2, 4:30-5 pm @High Dive
Ma Jolie’s The Loved Ones cover set time (just in case): Saturday, November 1, 1:20-1:50 pm @ Loosey’s
And, really, this band list doesn’t even scratch the Skittle-bucket surface…
The Fest takes place in Gainesville, Florida on October 31-November 2.
Pre-Fest takes place in Tampa, Florida on October 29-30.
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