CBGB Festival Stays On Brand With Phenomenal Performances By Iggy Pop, The Damned, Jack White, Cro-Mags, Lunachicks, More

It was a sad day when CBGBs, the iconic NYC dive bar/live music space with famously putrid bathrooms, shuttered in October of 2006 and ignominiously became a John Varvatos jeans emporium. Nearly twenty years later, it’s clear that CBGBs left an indelible mark on music. Opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal as CBGB-OMFUG (“Country, Bluegrass, Blues and Other Music For Uplifting Gourmandizers”), the list of out-of-the-box artists who broke out of CBs and helped form a multiverse substrate for subsequent iterations of punk, indie, noise, metal, hard rock, psych, goth and more is long as it is impressive. This includes: Television, Patti Smith, The Ramones, Richard Hell & the Voidoids, Blondie, Talking Heads, Dead Boys, Mink DeVille, the Cramps, The Beastie Boys, Lunachicks, The Dictators and Agnostic Front among many others. With CBGBs’ enduring musical legacy, is its brand, with its ubiquitous logo oseen on t-shirts and merch across the planet, which is similarly indelible.

With all this in mind, this year’s return of the fantastic CBGB Festival, last seen in 2014, was a welcomed boost to the legacy of both CB’GB’s music and brand. With 21 multi-generational bands on three different stages, the ambitious seven-hour festival left no doubt that punk rock in its many permutations is alive and well. Booked by Bowery Presents, an AEG Presents subsidiary, the fest was ideally situated at Under the K Bridge, an expansive 6.7 acre multi-use space that’s been used as an outdoor venue (capacity 10,000) since 2021. With its industrial setting, grit and cultural relevance, located between flourishing neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens, the fest attracted punks and rockers young and old and everything in between willing to plunk down a $179 for what was a well-curated festival that would be hard to find elsewhere.

The stacked lineup featured legends like Johnny Marr (The Smiths), the Lunachicks, Marky Ramone (The Ramones), the Damned, and the Melvins; as well as  CBGB-era hardcore staples Gorilla Biscuits, Murphy’s Law (who brought out fellow New Yorker Jesse Malin to the stage) and Cro-Mags; and current punk torchbearers including the Linda Lindas, Lambrini Girls, Destroy Boys, Angel Du$t, Scowl, Pinkshift, Teen Mortgage, YHWH Nailgun, Soul Glo, Lip Critic, and the Molotovs.

Harley Flanagan, the Cro-Mags bassist and a great singer, was a particularly stand-out figure and their song “World Peace” was monumental. The Lunachicks had a similar vibe, with self-effacing humor thrown in. Witnessing the younger generations sharing a mosh pit with the grizzled veterans of the old New York hardcore scene was tremendous. 

Judging by the crowd’s responses, solid performances by Ramone and Marr left their fans rabidly impressed. As the night went on and headliners took the stage, the jolt in energy was palpable. The Damned delivered a powerful, varied set, including a dramatic version of “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane. But the concert shifted into overdrive when Jack White appeared. His nonstop wall of melodic, loud guitar rock and roll, along with his tremendous showmanship, brought the crowd to the next level. “Seven Nation Army” has become a National Anthem of sorts.

And finally there was the legendary Iggy Pop. At 78 years old, he gave a riveting, Herculean performance that felt like one for the ages. Joined by Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner, Iggy played muscular and energetic versions of his classic Iggy/Stooges songs like “The Passenger,” “Raw Power” and “Lust for Life” and ended his set with a joyous version of “Louie Louie. “

In a statement, following the festival Cro-Mags’ Flanagan made it clear how much this festival meant to him: “I actually cried on stage after dedicating our song to Hilly and all my old friends from the hardcore punk scene that are no longer with us,” he said. “That’s how meaningful it was for me. It was a very emotional experience in more ways than I can explain.”

The fest most appropriately paid homage to the hallowed hovel at 315 Bowery with CBGB installations, including the iconic club’s actual scratched-up, long, graffitied wooden bar, a life-size replica of the original venue’s entrance and founder Hilly Kristal’s disorganized front office. Being underneath the Kosciuszko Bridge made for a surreal experience and it could be that the massive span of cement above all the stages contributed to the event’s great acoustics.

While music didn’t disappoint, some of the venue services did. There were only four food trucks available to the crowd of thousands, which made for wait times of up to an hour and a half. The supply of complimentary water ran dry pretty early in the evening. But who knows? Maybe these glitches were part of the authentic CBGB vibe the festival organizers were aiming for.