Friday, September 25, 2026

Thrice — September 18, 2026 — Bottom Lounge

September 25, 2026 No comments

Thrice — September 18, 2026 — Bottom Lounge

Before Thrice took the Riot Fest stage Saturday afternoon, they packed into Chicago’s Bottom Lounge for a much longer Friday night that ran well past midnight.

Riot Fest hadn't even finished its first day when people started leaving Douglass Park for another round of shows.

Friday night had a full slate of Riot Fest Late Night shows scattered around Chicago. I ended up at Bottom Lounge for Thrice.

Doors were at 10 p.m. The show started at 11.

At that hour, after spending an entire day at a festival, you start questioning some of the decisions you've made.

Then Thrice walks out.

The strange part was knowing we were going to see them again the next afternoon at Riot Fest. That Saturday festival appearance would be shorter, louder and surrounded by thousands of people outside at Douglass Park.

This was Friday night in a club.

And Thrice had time.

Hot Rod Circuit

Hot Rod Circuit opened the night.

Having them on this particular show made sense historically. Hot Rod Circuit and Thrice both came out of that early-2000s period where punk, emo and post-hardcore were moving in several directions at once, and both are still here more than two decades later.

By the time their set wrapped up, Bottom Lounge was packed in tight for Thrice.

It was already late.

Thrice hadn't even started yet.

Thrice

"Hurricane" came first.

Then "Silhouette."

That second song changed the room immediately.

There are songs that stay attached to a specific period of a band's career, and then there are songs that somehow keep following them. "Silhouette" came out on The Artist in the Ambulance in 2003. More than twenty years later, Dustin Kensrue barely had to get through a line alone.

"Albatross" came next, pulling the set all the way forward to Horizons/West.

That became one of the interesting parts of the Bottom Lounge show. Thrice wasn't treating the late-night slot as a quick festival warmup or an excuse to run through the obvious songs before doing it again Saturday.

They were playing a Thrice show.

"Black Honey."

"In Exile."

"Red Sky."

"Stay With Me."

The room was small enough that everything felt close. Dustin Kensrue was a few feet away. Teppei Teranishi, Eddie Breckenridge and Riley Breckenridge were packed onto a stage that felt even smaller once all four of them started playing.

There isn't much separation at Bottom Lounge.

That's especially apparent when Thrice gets loud.

"The Dark Glow" and "Gnash" brought the set back into Horizons/West, then the opening of "Stare at the Sun" sent the room backward more than two decades again.

It was one of those songs where I stopped paying attention to whatever I was doing with my camera for a minute.

I've heard "Stare at the Sun" countless times.

Standing a few feet away from Thrice at midnight in Chicago is a pretty good place to hear it again.

"Holding On" followed.

Then came "The Artist in the Ambulance."

You could hear the audience over the band in spots.

By then, it was hard to remember that this was technically an aftershow for a festival that still had two full days left.

Thrice had one more newer song, "Vesper Light," before leaving the stage.

Nobody moved.

There was still one song hanging over the room.

They came back.

"Deadbolt."

Of course it was "Deadbolt."

The song has been following Thrice around for more than twenty years, surviving every change the band has made along the way. The records got stranger. The guitars changed. The band grew older. So did everybody who first heard the song on The Illusion of Safety.

At Bottom Lounge, none of that mattered much once that riff started.

The place exploded.

Then it was over.

Fourteen songs at a club in Chicago in the middle of the night.

A few hours later, people would wake up and head straight back to Douglass Park.

Thrice would be there too.

Their Riot Fest set Saturday afternoon would run only eight songs. "Silhouette," "Gnash," "The Artist in the Ambulance" and "Deadbolt" would all show up again, this time outside on the Rebel Stage. The festival crowd would also get "Under a Killing Moon," "Of Dust and Nations," "Paper Tigers" and "The Earth Will Shake."

But Friday night belonged to Bottom Lounge.

It was late.

It was packed.

And for fourteen songs, Thrice got a room instead of a field.

Show Information

Thrice
with Hot Rod Circuit
Riot Fest Late Night
September 18, 2026
Bottom Lounge
Chicago, Illinois

Artist & Event Links

Thrice — Official Website

Riot Fest — Official Website

Bottom Lounge — Official Website

Hot Rod Circuit — Instagram

Setlist

Thrice — Bottom Lounge Setlist

Thrice — Bottom Lounge, September 18, 2026

Hurricane
Silhouette
Albatross
Black Honey
In Exile
Red Sky
Stay With Me
The Dark Glow
Gnash
Stare at the Sun
Holding On
The Artist in the Ambulance
Vesper Light

Encore: Deadbolt

WORDPRESS / SEO

SEO Title:
Thrice at Bottom Lounge — Riot Fest Late Night Chicago 2026

Focus Keyphrase:
Thrice Bottom Lounge Chicago

Secondary Keyphrases:
Thrice Riot Fest 2026, Thrice Chicago, Thrice Riot Fest Late Night, Thrice Bottom Lounge, Riot Fest aftershow, Riot Fest Late Night 2026, Hot Rod Circuit Chicago

URL Slug:
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Meta Description:
Thrice packed Chicago's Bottom Lounge for a 14-song Riot Fest Late Night show with Hot Rod Circuit before playing Riot Fest the following afternoon.

Excerpt:
Before taking the Riot Fest stage Saturday afternoon, Thrice spent Friday night inside Chicago's Bottom Lounge for a 14-song late-night set that stretched across more than two decades of the band's music.

Featured Image Alt Text

Thrice performing at Bottom Lounge during Riot Fest Late Night in Chicago on September 18, 2026.

Thrice Gallery Alt Text

Thrice performing during the Riot Fest Late Night show at Bottom Lounge in Chicago, Illinois, on September 18, 2026.

Hot Rod Circuit Gallery Alt Text

Hot Rod Circuit opening for Thrice at Bottom Lounge during Riot Fest Late Night in Chicago on September 18, 2026.

Suggested Photo Caption

Thrice performs at Bottom Lounge in Chicago during Riot Fest Late Night on September 18, 2026, ahead of the band's Riot Fest appearance the following afternoon.

Photos: Kris West / Spiral Out Network

Motion City Soundtrack & Bayside — September 19, 2026 — Concord Music Hall

September 25, 2026 No comments

Motion City Soundtrack & Bayside — September 19, 2026 — Concord Music Hall

After a rain-soaked day at Riot Fest, Motion City Soundtrack and Bayside kept the weekend going with two hours inside Concord Music Hall that stretched well past midnight.

There was probably enough of Douglass Park stuck to the floor of Concord Music Hall to start a small garden.

Saturday at Riot Fest had been a mess. Rain turned parts of Douglass Park into mud, the schedule got shuffled around and the festival shut down early with heavier storms headed toward Chicago. Tool got pushed up more than two hours and played an hour instead of their originally scheduled headlining slot.

A few hours later, people were lining up for another show.

Bayside and Motion City Soundtrack had both played Riot Fest the day before. Saturday night they were back for one of the festival's Late Night shows, this time inside Concord Music Hall.

I spent practically the entire show sitting off to the side of the stage.

After walking through Riot Fest mud all day, I wasn't complaining.

It also gave me a completely different view of the show.

From the side, you're watching the band while also looking straight out at everyone watching them. You see a song register across the room. A few notes come through the monitors, faces change, somebody grabs the person next to them and suddenly hundreds of people are screaming the same words back toward the stage.

Bayside

Bayside went first.

"Sick, Sick, Sick" opened their hour, followed by "Montauk" and "Already Gone."

From where I was sitting, Anthony Raneri was only part of what I was watching. I kept looking past the band and out onto the floor.

People knew every fucking word.

Bayside bounced around more than two decades of music over the next hour. "Masterpiece" went all the way back to Sirens and Condolences. "Duality" came from The Walking Wounded. Newer material like "Go to Hell" sat in the same hour as "Blame It on Bad Luck."

It was after midnight on a weekend where most of the people in the room had already spent hours standing in a field watching bands.

Nobody looked particularly interested in slowing down.

Bayside finished with "Devotion and Desire," and after eleven songs their part of the night was over.

Motion City Soundtrack still had another hour to go.

Motion City Soundtrack

"Capital H" started it.

"When 'You're' Around" followed, then "Make Out Kids."

Motion City Soundtrack had played a shorter festival set Friday afternoon, but Concord gave them room for much more. They pulled songs from across their records and mixed new material from The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World into a set full of songs that have been around long enough to have grown up alongside a lot of the people screaming them.

"My Favorite Accident" was one of the moments where sitting on the side of the stage became especially fun.

You could actually watch recognition move through the room.

A couple notes.

Then everybody knew.

The floor erupted.

"This Is for Real" got another huge response. "Her Words Destroyed My Planet" followed, then "A Lifeless Ordinary (Need a Little Help)." Later came "Even If It Kills Me," "Point of Extinction" and "Better Open the Door."

Then "L.G. FUAD."

At some point I stopped paying attention to what time it was.

Usually I'm in a photo pit for three songs. I'm watching the clock, changing lenses, trying to find an angle and knowing security is going to start moving photographers out as soon as that third song ends.

This wasn't that.

I could put the camera down.

I could sit there.

I could actually watch Motion City Soundtrack play.

Nearly the whole damn thing.

That became one of my favorite parts of the night.

Eventually they walked off and came back for three more.

"Attractive Today."

"Everything Is Alright."

"The Future Freaks Me Out."

There was something pretty funny about "Everything Is Alright" being the song everybody was screaming together at that particular moment.

Because we looked like shit.

Mud was dried onto shoes and pants. Some people had spent almost the entire day outside. Riot Fest had been pushed around by Chicago weather, and instead of calling it a night afterward, we had crossed the city and packed ourselves into Concord for another two hours of music.

Now the whole place was yelling along to "Everything Is Alright."

I mostly watched the crowd.

For a few minutes, the view from the side of the stage was better than anything I could have photographed.

Then came "The Future Freaks Me Out."

One last song.

One last room full of people yelling every word back at the band.

Motion City Soundtrack finished. The house lights came up. Everybody finally started moving toward the doors.

Outside was Chicago in the middle of the night.

In a few hours, Riot Fest started all over again.