Sorry, Riot Fest Can't Even Reunite Dead Kennedys

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Feb 20, 2017

Over the years, multi-city music event Riot Fest has staged some pretty massive reunions, including those for the Replacements, the original Misfits and Naked Raygun. One reunion the festival won't be hosting, however, is one for Dead Kennedys, despite organizers' best efforts.

In a recent Facebook post, DK co-founder East Bay Ray came out to tell fans that the band were asked to play this fall's Riot Fest Chicago. According to him, though, original frontman Jello Biafra effectively killed the idea.

"Dead Kennedys had a sincere invitation to play a reunion show at Riot Fest in Chicago this fall," East Bay Ray wrote. "Jello Biafra turned it down. Klaus Flouride, DH Peligro and I were looking forward to doing it."



However, if you're at all familiar with your Dead Kennedys history, this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Following the band's breakup in 1986, Biafra and the rest of the group got involved in a very ugly legal battle over royalties in the '90s, and they've bitter enemies ever since.

That said, if Riot Fest could get Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only seeing eye-to-eye again, asking Dead Kennedys to do the same doesn't totally out of the question.

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