Storms Cut Riot Fest Day 2 Short, So Tool Played Their Debut Set in Daylight: ‘Let’s Do This S---’

Tool, a band built for the dark, headlined Riot Fest at 6 p.m. in broad daylight. Saturday’s second day at Chicago’s Douglass Park was ended hours early because of a forecast of “torrential downpours,” so organizers rushed the headliners forward and cancelled other sets, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

The National Weather Service put the greatest threat of heavy rain and flooding between 7 p.m. Saturday and 6 a.m. Sunday, on top of the previous day’s precipitation. Tool were moved from 8:40 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Nas, who sat down with New York’s mayor days later, from 9 p.m. to 6:20 p.m., per the festival’s original schedule published by Time Out. Afroman’s set was cut. Organizers said Sunday’s lineup, with Alanis Morissette and Pierce the Veil, remained unchanged for now.

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Retired meteorologist Tom Skilling gave the crowd a forecast from the stage. “It doesn’t work like that. We have no control over it,” he said, rejecting the idea that inviting a forecaster is “an insurance policy against rain.”

Tool made the most of it. “Flight delayed. Set moved up. Storms are rolling in,” singer Maynard James Keenan told the crowd. “Let’s do this s---.” The band opened with “Stinkfist,” with the song’s video on the screens, in the Sun-Times’ words a “hysterical level of volume that felt in competition with the coming thunder,” and finished with “Ænema.” Making its Riot Fest debut as Saturday’s headliner, Tool was the sole headliner of the three days to represent the ’90s generation, sandwiched between younger acts Twenty One Pilots and Pierce the Veil on the other nights.

If you’re wondering why I’m hobbling like a granny, it’s because I had a full hip replacement three weeks ago.

Maynard James Keenan, Chicago Sun-Times

Keenan skipped his usual costuming and stayed in the back of the stage, per the Sun-Times. “They wanted me to take things back to January, but I said f--- no man, Riot Fest!” he said. It was also a homecoming of sorts for guitarist Adam Jones, who grew up in Libertyville, Illinois, with Tom Morello.

Morrissey’s 50 minutes

Morrissey’s set was pushed to 5:10 p.m. and cut to 50 minutes, and it was shadowed by controversy. Local community groups had criticized the booking over the singer’s statements about immigration, and fencing around Douglass Park was spray-painted overnight with “racist Morrissey not welcome,” the Sun-Times reported. He opened with images of James Baldwin, and minutes earlier Social Distortion’s Mike Ness had told the crowd, “We believe immigrants make a country. White Christian nationalism isn’t going to fly.”

Morrissey played on time and leaned into the rush. “The rain, the mud, the thunder, the lightning! We’re all gonna die,” he said, and later joked, “Welcome to our soundcheck.” The set leaned on Smiths and solo songs, including “How Soon Is Now,” “Every Day Is Like Sunday” and “Billy Budd.”

Riot Fest’s 21st edition, with more than 100 punk, alternative and metal acts, wraps Sunday with Alanis Morissette, Pierce the Veil and Insane Clown Posse on the schedule. It is one of the last big festivals of the year before the 2027 circuit takes over.

Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.