RIOT V – Time To Rock 2025 (Festival Blog)

**This is my story. My personal journal account of time at the festival, my thoughts and feelings. This is not a technical review of gigs, but more of a story telling my experiences and activities of attending Time To Rock Festival 2025. Hopefully, this will help inspire your attendance in 2026. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions.**

Now, I’m not really gonna entertain the whole “band with no original members” fight here. Donnie Van Stavern has been a part of Riot, playing with founder Mark Reale since 1986. Guitarist Mike Flyntz since 1989. Good enough for me! Plus, the band now flies under the banner of Riot V (V the Roman Numeral for 5, the band’s fifth singer). So they recognize all this in the name IMO. And to top it all off, the most recent Riot V record, Mean Streets, featuring the awesome “Feel The Fire“, is a fantastic album all around. And if you still want more, the current band absolutely destroys on stage! They were a highlight in 2024 at Sweden Rock and again here at Time To Rock. So put that in your pipe and smoke it as far as I’m concerned…..is now when I type “Rant Over”?

MEISTER’S FIRE DOWN UNDER

It was well after release, but once I finally did get to hear Fire Down Under, I fell in love! What a record! Riot has undergone many changes, many sounds during their tenure and I love that the band is carrying the torch for that back catalogue at the same time as surging forward with great new albums too. I’ve caught the band live several times, including Time To Rock 2025 and Sweden Rock 2024. They also, some years back, made a visit to Toronto’s Rockpile Night Club and I was there. The band also filmed a DVD documentary that night in Toronto, which I haven’t seen yet, but I am told I am seen in it several times rocking in the front row of the concert!

FIRE DOWN UNDER

Here today, the band’s setlist heavily concentrated on Fire Down Under! Entering the stage, Donnie Van Stavern hoisted high a bottle of Jose Cuervo Gold. A little drop on the stage, a little drop for Donnie, all in salute to Mark Reale, original driving force of Riot. They launched off right into the thick of it with the absolute anthem “Swords & Tequila“. Fuck yeah! It’s damn hard to photograph when all I want to do is rock out fist in the air headbanging….lol. I did notice that Todd Michael Hall (or is it Kevin Peter Hall? I always get those names backwards. One guy is fronting Riot V with some great solo albums. The other played the Predator in the Arnie flick…lol) was growing back his hair. At SRF last year, it was quite a bit shorter. And now a beard as well, wait, did he have that last year too? Who cares, his voice was strong and clear and he really does justice to these classic tunes from the different vocalists of Riot‘s time. The title track from that seminal album followed before Todd addressed the audience, stating, “We will be doing a lot from Fire Down Under today!”

True to that, “Outlaw” was next up, followed by “Don’t Hold Back” and “The Altar Of The King“. Well, there’s half the album right there and I am ok with that! Again, I noted that Riot V‘s sound was fantastic! They really have that part down pat. Everything clear in the mix and of course, playing so tight all complete the package. Time to recognize the 1987 album, Thundersteel, now with “Fight Or Fall” ahead of the awesome new album track “Feel The Fire” before returning to Thundersteel with “Flight Of The Warrior“.

…AND MORE

We were treated to “Road Racin’” from the early Riot album Narita, during which we had a little hiccup. The drummer lost a cymbal right off his kit. Seeing it, Todd picked up the projectile and pretended to frisbee toss it out into the crowd before attempting to re-attach it. The futile attempt was soon abandoned as the song moved on. At the completion of “Road Racin’“, Todd remarked that he was not a good drum tech. Also proclaiming that he couldn’t fix it because he had no nuts…lol. “Bloodstreets” took us through to “Love Beyond The Grave” which led to “Warrior“.

Thoroughly worn out from this awesome gig, I knew the end was near. A cheers to Mark Reale was tasteful as always and served as the intro to today’s closer of “Thundersteel“. Absolutely one of the best of the fest and such a great live act. Thanks, guys, for all the music and especially for this set so early in the day here at Time To Rock 2025.

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Cheers,