Up the punx.
On Saturday, Sept. 27, hardcore and punk fans of all ages gathered in Brooklyn for the 2025 CBGB Music Festival — the first of its kind and not at all like the 2012 edition in Times Square and Central Park — at Brooklyn’s Under The K Bridge Park the with the illuminated Manhattan skyline serving as a hollow backdrop.
The trendy Greenpoint neighborhood is a far cry from the sacred cave of a bar on the Bowery, where music luminaries like Blondie, the Beastie Boys and the Misfits unleashed pioneering music that defined the burgeoning genre. Shuttered in 2006, the city icon was of a long-gone era; many, myself included, were skeptical that the heavily-sponsored event could honor the legacy of founder Hilly Kristal’s den of outsiders and geniuses.
(Spoiler: Aye, it did.)
My misgivings softened as I walked to the venue alongside a man in a plaid kilt. Down the thoroughway, we were spit out into a concrete waterfront park under the Kosciuszko Bridge. There was a crackling buzz in the air, although crazy long lines for food and merch threw a wet blanket on the excitement.
Among three stages in an impressively expansive area, sat three stages:
The CBGB Stage
where main acts like the Lunachicks, Iggy Pop and Jack White were scheduled to perform
The Young Punks Stage
for the rising next-gen, including the Linda Lindas and Scowl
and, lastly — and furthest from all else…
Hilly’s Stage
where the most authentic line-up of the original venue enraptured fans, including Marky Ramone
One challenge with the setup of near-constant unmissable music is that it’s nearly impossible to catch all the acts — so, I get fixes where I can — starting with the same hardcore sounds I’d venture to the hallowed venue for on Hilly’s Stage.
“Obviously, this is not CBGB, it’s a tribute,” Jimmy G. of Murphy’s Law howls from Hilly’s Stage. “Good times ain’t cheap, and cheap times ain’t good,” the consummate frontman continued before launching into classics like “Quest for Herb” and “Crucial BBQ.” He sprays the crowd with beer as they scream with joy.
Fans crowd surf over the top rails of the stage barrier, only to get pulled out and jump right back in again; the pit begins to circle like Modelo down a drain. Jimmy hangs a banner with a photo of Kristal on the stage rails. Later, he’s joined for a song by Lower East Side icon, D Generation’s Jesse Malin, still in recovery after a stroke. It’s a rousing, sentimental banger of a set.
Over on the Young Punks stage, the post-teenage Linda Lindas command attention from even the crustiest elders in transit to buy meat kabobs, who pause to admire the youthful energy and scathing guitar shreds.At one point, their fellow Californians Destroy Boys and Allison Wolfe join them on stage. The crowd bops along as they cover Talking Heads’ bouncy “Found a Job.”
Later, on the main stage, Jack White towers over throngs of his adoring admirers in the dark; he amasses a massive crowd for his set. Fans sway as the influential axeman effortlessly scales soulful tunes like “Old Scratch Blues” and covers, including Blind Willie Johnson’s “John the Revelator.” The newly-minted Rock and Roll Hall of Famer transitions so flawlessly between genres and sounds that the hour-plus fades into mere moments of musical perfection that haunt the air that surrounds us. As expected, the Detroit native performs many White Stripes’ favorites, including the pointed “Icky Thump,” before closing with a soul-moving, bass-heavy rendition of “Seven Nation Army.”
Headlining CBGB, serpentine deity Iggy Pop can’t let a barrier like a shirt muffle the sun-god energy radiating from his soul. Even to someone who has listened to his timeless anthems forever, the 78-year-old living legend’s live show is breathtakingly fresh, addictive and as vital as ever. His gifted guitarists shred through hits like “Lust for Life” and “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” as he spurts, “f—k, f—k, f—k,” between songs. The crowd bows to his glory.
Closing the night on Hilly’s Stage, NYHC icons the Gorilla Biscuits are raging, with frontman Anthony “Civ” Civarelli removing obstacles between himself and the crowd by skirting off stage — to the chagrin of security and delight of his rowdy fans.
Reaching into the night sky, the band bangs out favorites like “New Direction,” “Start Today,” and their cover of “Minor Threat,” while nodding to other scene legends — Sick of It All, Agnostic Front, Leeway and Killing Time (LES fixture and original AF singer John “Jayanta Das” Watson joins the enraptured crowd all night, in yet another moment of resonance).
Gorilla Biscuits guitarist Walter Schreifels told me it was “an honor” to close the fest, and that he was moved by “a connection to the CBGB ethos and energy.” The Quicksand founding member and NYC native was also thrilled that so many young people came out to experience the music — possibly for the first time — reflecting that he went to the original venue to “find out something about himself,” and how that same positive energy was now brought to a new, larger platform and audience.
“Hilly would have been psyched. He loved music, and by virtue of that, he loved people. This [fest] is a recognition of that, by the name — but in fact, it’s bigger than that,” Schreifels said.
Indeed, it was.
Final Take
The hardcore and punk music scene was born of unabashed individuality, rebellion and creativity. Spawning a subculture that spans fashion, film and art, it’s a collective divinity that supercedes other identities to bind us as one, united in anarchy.
Under Hilly Kristal’s watchful eye, the doorman let kids like us in — often without paying — because to him, the scene was an energy to itself, and, as one of its most influential curators, he wasn’t going to gatekeep our introduction to culture. The legendary CBGBs bathrooms, the band rooms, the walls — all told stories (quite literally, as every inch was covered in stickers and graffiti). “Punks never gonna die!” Jimmy G. bellowed at one point, and, on this day, he was right.
Punk is still inspiring an unapologetically authentic future for anyone who dares and the inaugural CBGB Festival is proof positive.
Huge punk rockers on tour in 2025
Missed the CBGB Festival and need to get to a show ASAP?
Here are. just five of the most iconic punk acts you won’t want to miss live these next few months.
Who else is on the road? Check out this list of all the biggest rockers on tour in 2025 to find the show for you.
