Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner Joins Sugarcult Onstage At D.C.'s Chili Cook-Off

NEW YORK (Top40 Charts) - Logistically, the 23rd annual DC101 Chili Cook-Off in Washington D.C., on Saturday (May 18) was a mess.

For an event that has outgrown its block party roots, the crowd was packed between chain link fences that had all the charm of Camp X-Ray, and confronted hour-long lines for beverages. Adding insult to injury, no one bothered to distribute schedules, so fans didn't know when their favorite bands were playing (the roster included Something Corporate, Puddle of Mudd, Remy Zero, Pete Yorn, 2 Skinnee J's, Carbon Leaf, and local band competition winners Welbilt.)

But musically, the nine-hour food-and-music fest ended on a high note when Santa Barbara, Calif., pop-punks Sugarcult performed the day's final set. Booked to appear after Puddle of Mudd, perhaps as wind-down music for the thinning crowd, the quartet instead wound them up with a raucous finale, inviting fans, friends, backstage hangers-on, and Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner onstage for a loud and liberating sing-along of the Ramones hit "I Wanna Be Sedated."

Soul Asylum had played a strong hits-oriented set earlier in the day and its scruffy frontman -- baggy jeans exposing his bright blue and green boxers -- is due for a solo CD on July 16 on Ultimatum Music (allstar, April 18) (not coincidentally, that's Sugarcult's label, too.