It’s easy to get a little cynical about the very concept of CBGB Fest. When one of the side stages — the Young Punks Stage — is presented by Ed Hardy, it’s even easier. Is corporate integration and brand licensing really “punk?” Surely someone else can write that dissertation. Besides, the idea of counter culture in 2025, where monoculture is so fragmented it barely even exists, is rarely decoupled from capitalism.
So, is gathering a bunch of punk fans something to really diminish because they’re taking pictures in front of a replica CBGB awning? Let them rock, we say. And hey, at least the original bar and wall segments on display were real.
For sure, the inaugural edition of the festival at Under the K Bridge in Brooklyn, New York, had its issues. Although beverage stands were abundant, the food options were insufficient; you cannot expect four food trucks and two little stands to comfortably feed a festival crowd, and just about everyone had to deal with brutal wait times. But if we’re judging on the music alone, CBGB Fest knocked it out of the park — and it was the Godfather of Punk himself who put an exclamation point on the daylong event with a phenomenal set.
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At 78 years old, Iggy Pop is still one of the greatest live acts on Earth, and he proved that tenfold with his headlining performance. Taking the main CBGB Stage at 9:30 p.m., Iggy and his band tore right into the Stooges classic “TV Eye” — just about 20 minutes North West from the Brooklyn venue named after the song. With his skin weathered and leathered, and a twisted spine from all the damage he’s done to himself onstage over the years, Iggy is punk personified.
More Stooges gems followed, like “Raw Power,” “Gimme Danger,” and “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” as well as solo favorites like “The Passenger,” eliciting a “la, la, la, la” sing-along from the packed crowd, and “Lust for Life,” with the audience soaking it all in under a light rain coming down in between the cover of the Kosciuszko Bridge above.
Backed by a very cool band, including the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner on guitar, Iggy sounded as great as ever. And seeing the greatest living punk headlining a festival honoring the most iconic punk venue of all time gave off a very historic vibe, even in real time.
The brief drizzle during Iggy’s set was the only wet weather on a day that was comfortably overcast and mild. Which is good thing, considering the festival’s biggest sin: The “water station” — that place every festival has to offer free refills to keep attendees hydrated and safe, usually while reducing waste — was no more than a table handing out 8 oz. plastic bottles of water and someone yelling, “One per person!” A lack of NA beers felt lazy; the water situation felt like an afterthought.
Thankfully, those waiting in the ridiculous food lines at least were right next to the Young Punks Stage, which featured many of the day’s best sets. Former CoSigns Pinkshift, buzzy British band Lambrini Girls, rising Cali punks Scowl, and everyone’s favorite kids-turned-pros The Linda Lindas all brought truly deafening energy to the small stage. Having it tucked in the smaller courtyard Under the K Bridge gave it a fittingly intimate feeling — not as intimate as a tiny Bowery bar, sure, but close enough that Pinkshift and Lambrini Girls were able to control the crowd into joyful moshing.
Many of those Young Punks either took part in signings at the nearby Marshall tent or met with fans waiting by the side stage rails after sets. That amplified the community feeling of the event, and true monoculture or not, punk has always been a community. Above all else — even above the transcendent Iggy Pop performance, the exhilarating Jack White set, The Damned’s UK punk classics, and Johnny Marr’s Smiths-friendly setlist — that’s what felt most CBGB about CBGB Fest. People were there to have a good time and catch some great music; while more care could have been given to the comfort of attendees, the fans brought enough positivity that the gathering was largely successful.
Not even the delay on the mini-amphitheater Hilly’s Stage (YNWH Nailgun’s set was at least 20 minutes late, pushing back much of the afternoon — but worth the wait for vocalist Zack Borzone’s bizarro energy and drummer Sam Pickard’s percussive creativity) could dampen the mood. It was over on that stage that fans witnessed throwback performances from such acts as Cro-Mags, Marky Ramone, and Murphy’s Law — whose set included a surprise appearance by Jesse Malin, recovering from a spinal stroke he suffered two years ago that left him paralyzed from the waist down — offering the most old-school CBGB vibes of any of the stages throughout the day.
If organizers can figure out how to throw a truly sturdy festival Under the K Bridge, which would include fixing a few sound issues and overhauling their approach to concessions, CBGB Fest could easily turn into a landmark annual gathering. The location is great (they certainly have the physical space to make those adjustments), the bookings were unimpeachable, and the audience was open to it all. Who knows if it will fall to the slop and licensing complexities that CBGB is infamous for, but for one day, the grimy spirit of the Bowery felt alive under a Brooklyn bridge.
