Some 50 years after its birth at CBGB, punk rock still reigns
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| Iggy Pop (photograph by Jenna Murray) |
The CBGB Legacy
For the sake of younger rock fans, a recap of the 2025 CBGB Festival begins with a brief historical overview. Founded in 1973 by the late Hilly Kristal, CBGB was a bar in downtown Manhattan that became ground central for New York City’s burgeoning punk and new wave scene in the late 1970s. Thousands of bands played CBGB over the course of more than 30 years, until a rent dispute forced the bar’s closing in 2006.
The Ramones, Blondie, the Talking Heads, the Beastie Boys and the Patti Smith Group were among the artists that honed their chops there in the 1970s before being discovered by mainstream audiences. AC/DC and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers were among the touring acts that played their first New York City shows there during those years. As the punk movement grew in the United Kingdom, British bands coming to the states also played at CBGB.
During the 1980s, CBGB became home to the hardcore punk Sunday matinees, with Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags, Murphy's Law, Gorilla Biscuits and the Beastie Boys (before the trio became a hip hop group) becoming regulars at the club. In the 1990s, the club welcomed the next generation of hard rock with Sum 41, Korn, Green Day, and Guns N' Roses playing the small club. The Patti Smith Group headlined the bar’s final night in 2006.
In 2011, entrepreneurs bought the name of the club and branded it for various enterprises in the New York area. These ventures included the CBGB Festival, which ran annually from 2012 to 2014. After a decade of silence, the CBGB Festival resurfaced in 2025.
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| Iggy Pop (photograph by Jenna Murray) |
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| Jack White (photograph by David James Swanson) |
CBGB Festival 2025
The original headliner for the CBGB Festival in 2025 was supposed to be the latest incarnation of the Sex Pistols, until the band canceled its tour. The rest of the one-day festival remained intact, with Iggy Pop, Jack White, the Damned and Johnny Marr of the Smiths among the main attractions. Twenty-one bands played across three stages at Under the K Bridge Park in Brooklyn. Several of the veteran artists, including Lunachicks, Cro-Mags and Gorilla Biscuits, shared with their audiences their random memories of performing at the original CBGB.
Iggy Pop, Jack White, the Damned, Johnny Marr, Lunachicks and the Melvins performed at the larger stage, the CBGB Stage. The Young Punks Stage featured bands whose members might not have been born yet when CBGB was in its prime – Destroy Boys, the Linda Lindas, Scowl, Teen Mortgage, Lambrini Girls, Pinkshift and the Molotovs. The smallest stage, the Hilly’s Stage, mixed older hardcore punk bands (Gorilla Biscuits, Marky Ramone, Murphy’s Law and Cro-Mags) with a younger generation of bands (Angel Du$t, Soul Glo, YHWH Nailgun and Lip Critic).
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| Jack White (photograph by David James Swanson) |
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| Fans outside the mock entrance to the original CBGB (photograph by @maggielndnphoto) |
Logistics
The music festival also featured a creative CBGB museum. Along the sides of the venue, attendees found photo opportunities with nostalgic CBGB installations. These included remakes of the club’s entrance, bathroom, bar and front office. These exhibits were roped off, so it was not entirely immersive.
On most counts, the music ran smoothly. The Hilly’s Stage saw delays immediately after the first act, Lip Critic, but the other two stages ran pretty much on schedule. Although CBGB had the best sound system available in its day, the sound at the festival was not consistently crystal clear.
The merch line was so long that determined customers were guaranteed to miss a couple of performances. The food situation was much worse; the variety of food was extremely limited, and four trucks and two stands were insufficient for serving thousands of hungry rockers. The bars did not serve non-alcohol beers. The water stations, where festival patrons usually refill their water bottles, was simply a table that by evening had exhausted its supply of 8 oz. plastic bottles of water. Travel was also a challenging, as no subways came anywhere near the venue.
The park was located directly under the Kosciusko Bridge, so most of the attendees remained dry when a drizzle fell during Iggy Pop’s set. Located in a mostly desolate and industrial area of Brooklyn, Gorilla Biscuits performed past the projected 11 p.m. curfew without a hassle from community residents. The deserted area, however, meant that thousands of departing fans leaving the park close to midnight found no restaurants or bodegas for a late snack. Busses and taxis were sparse in that neighborhood.
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| The Damned (photograph by @maggielndnphoto) |
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| The Damned (photograph by Jenna Murray) |
Testimonies
“It was so exciting to attend the CBGB Festival this weekend,” reflected Adam Burgman, CBGB founder Hilly Kristal’s grandson, after the event. “Getting to see Iggy Pop and Jack White was amazing! I know my grandpa would be happy to see the legacy of CBGB and his name continue with this festival.”
"I honestly really had an amazing time,” said Harley Flanagan of Cro-Mags. “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. That’s how meaningful it was for me. It was a very emotional experience in more ways than I can explain."
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| Johnny Marr (photograph by @maggielndnphoto) |
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| Scowl (photograph by @maggielndnphoto) |
Memorable Moments: The CBGB Stage
Iggy Pop rarely performs in the New York City area anymore. Over the past decade, the “Grandfather of Punk” performed a few songs at four Tibet House US concerts at Carnegie Hall and also performed with Jane Birkin at a symphonic concert at the Beacon Theatre in 2022. The CBGB Festival was his first full concert in the New York City area since his Post Pop Depression tour in 2016.
Pop’s first band, the Stooges, was a visionary proto-punk band in the 1960s and 1970s. His current band, which includes guitarist Nick Zimmer of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, is much larger and more polished than the Stooges, and even includes a horn section. Stooges songs comprised half of his set, but the 21st century interpretations were far more slick than the raw original recordings.
Now 78 years old, Pop’s performance was as energetic as in his youth, as he prowled the stage and reached out to fans by strolling through the photo pit. A security guard lifted him and placed Pop back on the stage, where he continued singing while crawling on his belly. Jack White watched Pop’s entire performance from the wings of the stage.
Jack White returned to New York City following three area shows this past February. Draped in his trademark blue lights, he and his band performed six songs from his solo catalog, while the rest of the set consisted of songs from his days with the White Stripes, the Raconteurs and the Dead Weather. A true blues aficionado, he crooned his lyrics and played raucous guitar licks that spellbound the audience.
The Damned played in Jersey City only this past May, but this was the seminal British punk band’s first concert in a while in New York City proper. Dave Vanian came on stage looking like Dracula in his long black cape; he sang well and Captain Sensible scorched on lead guitar. Highlights of the Damned’s 12-song set included “New Rose,” which in 1976 was Great Britain’s very first punk single, and an odd interpretation of Jefferson’s Airplane’s “White Rabbit.”
Johnny Marr’s solo career after the Smiths has not yet reached the mainstream heights of his former band mate Morrissey, but the CBGB Festival audience knew him well. For those who did not, he reminded them, as half of his set was Smiths songs. Halfway through his set he performed an acoustic version of the Smiths’ “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want.”
Lunachicks ruled New York punk clubs from 1987 to 2001. Upon reuniting in 2019, the band began headlining venues much larger than during the band's original run. This was the band's first gig since Riot Fest in 2022, and Lunachicks ruled again.
Placed on the stage that Jack White would appear later, Melvins showed how White’s guitar sound may have originated. Formed in 1983, Melvins played a chaotic-sounding guitar-rooted set that seemed like it was in the Jack White family. Melvins electrified the festival’s early arrivals.
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| Scowl (photograph by @maggielndnphoto) |
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| Lambrini Girls (photograph by @maggielndnphoto) |
Memorable Moments: The Young Punks Stage
Attendees who waited on the merch or food lines were near the Young Punks Stage and were able to listen to punk rock’s buzzy upstarts. Lambrini Girls and the Molotovs gave insight to the state of Britain’s current punk scene. The Linda Lindas, Destroy Boys and Scowl demonstrated the new California sound"; they demonstrated the California connection when Destroy Boys joined the Linda Lindas on stage for "Oh!." At various times, several of the Young Punk musicians temporarily left the stage to join the mosh pits.
Many of the musicians who performed at the Young Punks Stage took time to meet their fans. Several musicians signed items at the nearby Marshall tent. Others stood by the side stage rails after their performances. Some joined the mosh pits.
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| Pinkshift (photograph by @maggielndnphoto) |
Memorable Moments: The Hilly’s Stage
Murphy’s Law brought fellow New Yorker Jesse Malin onstage for a song. Malin, whose 2013 spinal stroke paralyzed him from the waist down, rolled his wheelchair to the center of the Hilly’s Stage and lifted himself to a microphone stand to join his good friend Jimmy G on a song.
Marky Ramone replaced drummer Tommy Ramone in the Ramones in 1978 and became the band’s longest-serving drummer, from 1978 to 1983 and 1987 to 1996. He and his band performed a remarkable 27 Ramones songs in a short set. The singing audience knew the Ramones songs as well as the band’s singer.
The Hilly’s Stage was all about old school CBGB, all grit and no polish. Gorilla Biscuits, Cro-Mags and Murphy’s Law revived the magic of CBGB’s Sunday matinees. Soul Glo and Angel Du$t demonstrated that today’s hardcore is still hardcore. YHWH Nailgun and Lip Critic introduced electronics to their punk roots.
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| Marky Ramone (photograph by @maggielndnphoto) |
Conclusion and Suggestions
The CBGB Festivals have been successful in bridging generations of punk fans, bringing veteran bands and young upstarts together to bond a community of underground music fans. Past CBGB Festivals were a different logistical model, sometimes taking place in various clubs and the most recent festival in 2014 concluding with a free concert in Times Square. If the CBGB Festival is to become an annual event, some aspects made need upgrading.
1. While the festival’s music aspect was well curated, compacting 21 bands into a one-day eight-hour span meant that attendees sometimes had to make difficult choices as to where to be. Doors opened at 3 p.m. and the first bands played at 3:15 p.m., meaning that the line of fans waiting to get in were hearing their bands from outside the park. If the CBGB Festival were to become an annual event again, a three-day festival with earlier start times would be more relaxed and enjoyable.
2. Bringing the festival to an isolated, industrial area of Brooklyn had some advantages and disadvantages. Future festivals could be relocated to areas more accessible to public transportation and taxis, and in areas where early arrivals and departing attendees can purchase food and drink.
3. New York City has no shortage of food establishments. Bring in a wider range of menus and more plentiful options.
4. Establish water refilling stations. Fans need to be hydrated.
5. Many punks have businesses that cater to other punks. Establish a vendors area that is not all about souvenir t-shirts.
6. Community services need representation. The voter registration table was not sufficient. The public needs more resources for mental health, substance use and suicide prevention, for example.
7. Part of the proceeds from future festivals can be dedicated to a charitable cause.
All in all, the CBGB Festival was New York’s best music festival in 2025. With certain improvements, this could be an even better festival in forthcoming years. We look forward to the next CBGB Festival!
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| Angel Du$t (photograph by @maggielndnphoto) |
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The Manhattan Beat regularly lists the best live music events coming to the New York City area. The twice-weekly guide also celebrates via photographs some of the musicians who have performed locally in the past few days.
Everynight Charley recommends the following 40+ concerts in the New York City area this week. Consult the web site or social media of the venue for more information about a show, including location and directions, parking, ticket availability, show times, age restrictions, and COVID compliance.
For a more complete listing of upcoming performances in the New York City area, visit The Manhattan Beat's September and October calendars.
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