Q&A: Punk Veterans Bad Religion Ignite Riot Fest with Full ‘Suffer’ Set
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
Photo Credit: Alina Pawl-Castanon
BAD RELIGION BRINGS SUFFER BACK TO RIOT FEST IN FULL FORCE — Punk rock veterans Bad Religion returned to Riot Fest on Sunday, September 21, and reminded the crowd why they remain one of the most enduring forces in the genre. The band delivered a powerhouse set that spanned their decades-long career, highlighted by a complete performance of their seminal 1988 album Suffer in the second half of the night.
From the opening chords of “You Are (the Government)” to the closing shouts of “Pessimistic Lines,” Suffer came alive on stage with the same urgency that first established Bad Religion as pioneers of modern punk. For fans both seasoned and new, hearing the album front to back was a rare chance to experience a cornerstone of punk history in real time.
Earlier in the set, Bad Religion charged through staples like “Recipe for Hate,” “Sorrow,” and “American Jesus” — songs that sparked immediate sing-alongs from the sprawling festival crowd. Thousands packed the festival grounds, their voices rising above the late summer heat as they danced, shouted and moshed to the band’s blistering performance.
Bad Religion’s Riot Fest appearance was a reaffirmation of the timelessness of their message and the vitality of their music. Nearly four decades after Suffer first reshaped the punk scene, the band’s sharp lyrics and relentless energy still hit with striking relevance.
Closing out Sunday’s performances with a defiant roar, Bad Religion proved that punk’s spirit doesn’t age — it evolves, adapts and continues to inspire. For Riot Fest 2025, their set was a reminder of both where punk has been and where it’s still capable of going.
Before storming the Riot Fest stage to perform their landmark album Suffer in full, Bad Religion’s Jamie Miller (drums) and Jay Bentley (bass) sat down with Luna for an exclusive backstage conversation. The two reflected on the band’s enduring legacy, their advice for the next wave of punk hopefuls and what it really means to “keep it terrifying.”
Photo Credit: Alina Pawl-Castanon
LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. After decades of playing together, what continues to fuel your fire as a band?
JAY: Literally waking up every day and saying, “now what?”
JAMIE: We've been a band so long. Now it's more about going to see your friends again. It's like coming back to the tour, but it's just hanging out your buds and having a good time. There's no goal now. Just stay alive and have fun.
LUNA: Touring and performing at festivals can be physically and mentally exhausting. How do you stay grounded and maintain a sense of balance while on the road?
JAY: We do not. We’re insane.
JAMIE: I think a lot of times just heading away from this to go for a walk. Literally, just go for a walk for an hour in one direction and then turn around and walk back. Jay spends a lot of time in museums, so he gets away from the rock n’ roll. I think the idea of us as a band in particular is that we get to spend 90 minutes being really angry, so it's not really helpful to spend the other 22 and a half hours a day angry. It's an unhealthy prospect. You're better off finding the beauty in life and the humor in life, so that's how we keep our focus in being able to pinpoint our frustrations.
LUNA: You’ve built a solid reputation for your live shows. How do you keep your performances fresh and engaging for both longtime fans and new listeners seeing you for the first time?
JAY: Never practice. Every day is terrifying.
JAMIE: This jerk comes up with a new set list every show, and we're like, ‘do we even know these songs?’ So we keep it fresh for ourselves. Also never practice. Keep it terrifying.
LUNA: Have you noticed new generations of fans showing up to the shows, and how does that shape the energy in the room?
JAY: Mostly what I see are younger children on their father's shoulders, and that's a cool sign. I know there are younger people coming and discovering punk rock for the first time, whether they're coming here from another band, another larger band, and kind of finding the more underground part of punk rock. There used to be an idea that if you were 15 and had a skateboard, you knew who Bad Religion was. I think that's coming around to being true again, for a lot of bands, for a lot of those older Warped Tour punk rock bands that were part of that second wave. It's a great time to be us.
LUNA: As veterans of the punk scene, what advice would you give to young bands trying to navigate the music industry today, particularly in the punk and DIY scenes, who look up to the legacy you’ve built?
JAY: It’s gross. The business is business and it will eat you up. And the further away you can stay from that, the better you'll be. There's never been a better time to get your material out into the world. The problem with that is there's never been a worse time to get paid for that. You're not going to get paid to reheat music. That's just the art. The work is getting out on the road and playing live, because the one thing that you can't download is a ticket or a t- shirt. So when people come to experience your live show, that's really where you need to start focusing your time on being professional and concise and really trying to connect with the people that are coming to see you. I think that that's a more important part of what we do.
Making records was great. It's still great to make that art. You just can't have expectations up. ‘We're going to get signed to a major label and make a lot of money.’ Don't even bother with that. Just write the best songs you can, don't break up, make the best live show that you've ever seen, make the show that you want to see that no one else is doing.
LUNA: Which songs still feel the most electric to perform, no matter how many times you’ve played them?
JAMIE: We don’t practice any of them which makes it really exciting.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would love to share with Luna?
JAMIE: I have a strange affinity for Riot Fest, and I think maybe the reason is there were a lot of years where we weren't playing Riot Fest, for whatever reason. When Mike started asking us to play it, it just turned into a fun place to be, because we do have a lot of friends here, and it is such an event. It's such a Chicago event that to feel a part of that is sort of the Revenge of the Nerds kind of thing. We're now a part of this, and I like being part of this.
Photo Credit: Alina Pawl-Castanon
