Riot Fest & The Regrettes

Photo from the Johnny Marr Facebook page.

The first wave of acts scheduled to perform at this year’s Riot Fest on the weekend of September 14 through 16 in Douglas Park has been announced, and it includes Johnny Marr, Elvis Costello And The Imposters, Beck, Blondie, Liz Phair, Twin Peaks, Cypress Hill, Cat Power, Gary Numan, The Exploited, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Marr will likely be performing songs from his brand new album Call The Comet, which is due out on June 15. His previous two solo albums The Messenger and Playland placed first and second on my 2013 and 2014 Favorite Releases of Year lists, respectively.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow for an August 4 show with The Vaccines and The Regrettes at Schubas. It should be interesting to see if The Regrettes have come up with any new songs since their critically acclaimed Feel Your Feelings Fool came out last year. In other Regrettes news, the Los Angeles band has recorded a revved up and irresistible version of “Helpless” from the musical Hamilton. It’s part of Hamilton composer Lin-Manual Miranda’s #Hamildrop series. A video of their performance can be found on YouTube and various other sites, including Playbill.

Tickets also go on sale tomorrow for Chvrches and Sasha Sloan on August 1 at Metro; Alejandro Escovedo and Joe Ely at Old Town School Of Folk Music on August 24; Florence + The Machine and Perfume Genius at United Center on October 19; Franz Ferdinand at Park West on August 1; Houndmouth and Lewis Capaldi at Metro on August 3; Ziggy Marley at Thalia Hall on August 28; and Parquet Courts and Dream Wife at Thalia Hall on August 2.