An abundance of mohawks, piercings and dyed hair on the ‘L’ could only mean one thing — it’s Riot Fest weekend. The punk rock festival, which claims Chicago as one of its three homes (along with Toronto and Denver) kicked off Friday at its new home in Douglas Park in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood. The opening day featured great acts capped with astounding headliners, with No Doubt playing a legendary set, and Ice Cube bringing out Ren and Yella from N.W.A. for an epic reunion.

Against Me!

Unlike other rarities that play Riot Fest, Against Me! plays Chicago pretty frequently, but that doesn’t mean it still isn’t a treat every time the punk band plays live. Against Me! played a crowd-pleasing set of both old and new songs including 2002’s “Pints of Guinness Make You Strong” and “Walking is Still Honest” off of “Reinventing Ax Rose,” and “True Trans Soul Rebel” off of the band’s most recent release, last year’s “Transgender Dysphoria Blues,” and took time in between songs to mention what the song is about — most being political messages.

The band has always been political, but their politics have changed. From anarchism (which is addressed in the song that the band closed with, “I Was A Teenage Anarchist”) to transgender issues after front woman Laura Jane Grace came out as a transgender woman in 2012. Although originally from Gainesville, Fla., Grace now lives in Chicago, and played comfortably in front of the large crowd in her new hometown.

Flogging Molly

I have never been able to understand the appeal behind Celtic punk. Maybe it’s similar to how I feel on St. Patrick’s Day as an Irish-American, annoyed that my ancestral culture is adopted for a small amount of time by beer swilling, stereotype reinforcing, non-Irish people, or maybe it’s just because Celtic punk is a really bad genre (don’t get me wrong — I can totally get behind traditional Celtic music, and punk music, but putting them together is a horrible idea).

After watching it, I’m still not a fan, but I get it now. The massive, tightly-packed crowd danced throughout their set, including some notable failed Irish jigs, as the band played “The Likes of You Again” and “Screaming at the Wailing Wall.” In addition to being fun, they’re a good band, as each musician, including their fiddle and accordion players, are exceptionally talented. Despite this, I think I’ll continue to avoid Celtic punk, but Flogging Molly doesn’t have the bad reputation with me that it used to.

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Alkaline Trio

All of the members of Alkaline Trio have began other projects, most notably guitarist and vocalist Matt Skiba replacing Tom Delonge in Blink-182, and none of them live in Chicago anymore, but you’d never be able to tell after their hometown set on Friday. Right before they took the stage, their banner, which features their logo within the Chicago flag emerged from the stage, and then the band belted into “My Friend Peter,” off of 1998’s “Goddammit.” While the Chicago natives understandably played some of their newer material, including “I Wanna Be A Warhol,” off of 2013’s “My Shame Is True,” the band’s most recent album, which held up pretty well among the older crowd. Most of their set seemed to be for nostalgic purposes, though.

If attendees suspended the reality that they were in the middle of Douglas Park at a large festival, they could imagine being at The Fireside Bowl watching Alkaline Trio in their early days, as they tore threw classic songs including “Armageddon,” “This Could Be Love” and “Mr. Chainsaw.” Although it is important to not dwell in the past, Alkaline Trio’s set proved that it’s good to return to your roots occasionally, if only for an hour.

No Doubt

When the Riot Fest lineup was initially announced the first name to catch my eye was No Doubt. That might have been because it was the first band on the lineup, but I think it had more to do with the fact that No Doubt is a legendary band to many people, including myself. There was no denying the fact that people truly felt blessed to have been in the presence of the Anaheim band. I heard on more than one occasion people in the crowd saying they couldn’t believe they saw Gwen Stefani with their own eyes, and others questioning if the headlining performance was real or not, and for good reasons as well.

No Doubt’s performance not only blew every other performance on Friday away, but every other performance I have seen at Riot Fest in the past seven years of my attendance, as Stefani flawlessly belted out a collection of all of the band’s greatest songs, including “Don’t Speak,” “Spiderwebs,” “Just A Girl” and a beautifully performed acoustic rendition of “Excuse Me Mr.” Beyond her phenomenal singing, Stefani is the coolest frontwoman to watch live. Even though she’s one of the most famous people in the world, she stayed down to Earth with her fans, continuously thanking them throughout the crowd, and even going into the crowd to make out with someone who had a tattoo of her. While Friday was in general a great day for the festival, there was no doubt that this was the best set of the night.