CBGB FESTIVAL – MAIN STAGE
Iggy Pop // Jack White // The Damned
Johnny Marr // Lunachicks // Melvins
9/27/25 – Under the K Bridge – Brooklyn, NY
©M’Lou Elkins / Skip2Photography.com
CBGB was more than a club. It was a proving ground, a sweat-stained altar on the Bowery where punk, hardcore, and everything noisy and defiant took root. The Ramones, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Blondie, Television…they all cut their teeth there. Though the doors closed in 2006, the mythology lives on. The CBGB Festival is New York’s way of keeping that spirit alive, gathering the bands who were part of the story, or who carry its DNA forward, and unleashing them for one chaotic day.
On September 27, 2025, there were three stages set to pulse with noise planted in an unlikely spot: Under the K Bridge in Brooklyn. Concrete, steel, and city noise surrounded us, but that only made it feel more authentic…gritty, urban, and rough around the edges, the way CBGB always was. Nadine (my Partner in Rock) and I landed in NYC the morning of the fest, Ubered straight to the site, and staked our claim in the GA entrance line with two hours to spare. Whether by some stroke of fate or through Nadine’s keen sprinting ability, we scored the best spots in the house: center stage on the barricade at the CBGB Main Stage… front row, locked and loaded.
Melvins Crack Open the Chaos
At 3:30 sharp, the Melvins stormed the main stage. No introductions, no pleasantries, just a grinding launch straight into “Working the Ditch.” Buzz Osborne’s guitar tone was as heavy and weird as ever, sludgy enough to rattle the bridge above us.
Their 10-song set careened between dirges and bursts of noise, closing with the fan-favorite “Honey Bucket,” which detonated like dynamite in the pit. Melvins’ experimental sludge paved the way for the noise rockers and underground bands that followed the punk explosion. Their presence here felt like an extension of the club’s spirit: weird, uncompromising, and loud enough to peel the paint off the walls.
Check out the Melvins concert photo gallery below:
Lunachicks: NYC Punks Back in Their Element
Then came Lunachicks, local legends who did cut their teeth in New York’s punk underground. If Melvins were heavy, Lunachicks were pure, snarling fun. They kicked off their 14-song set with “Drop Dead,” and from there it was a barrage: “Bad Ass Bitch,” “Jerk of All Trades,” and more, each one spat out with venom and humor in equal measure.
Theo Kogan stalked the stage like a woman possessed, while Gina Volpe’s guitar sliced through the Brooklyn air. They closed with “Shut You Out,” leaving no doubt that they still rule the riot-grrrl corner of punk. This was CBGB DNA in its purest form…fierce, feminist, and filthy in all the right ways.
Johnny Marr: Elegance with Bite
Johnny Marr followed, dialing the distortion down just a hair but turning the nostalgia dial way up. His 9-song set leaned heavily on The Smiths, opening with ”Generate! Generate!” followed by “Panic” and later delivering a heart-stopping “How Soon Is Now?”
Marr himself has said he was shaped by the punk movement, and though his sound is more melodic than feral, his presence at CBGB Fest made perfect sense.
He gave the crowd guitar heroics without ego, closing with “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out,” which had thousands of voices singing along, arm in arm, under the bridge.
The Damned Light the Fuse
And then came The Damned. One of the first UK punk bands ever to cross the Atlantic, they played CBGB in the late ’70s when punk was still dangerous and new. Decades later, they still brought danger to Brooklyn.
Their 12-song set opened with “Love Song” and plowed through “Machine Gun Etiquette,” “Wait for the Blackout,” and more, before closing with the classic anthem “Smash It Up.” Dave Vanian was in rare form, at one point dangling off the side of the stage like a gothic acrobat.
This wasn’t nostalgia; it was survival. The Damned reminded everyone why they mattered then, and why they still matter now.
Check out The Damned concert photo gallery below:
Jack White: The Mad Scientist of Rock
Next up: Jack White. The man is part blues preacher, part garage-punk mad scientist, and his 16-song set was a highlight reel of everything he’s ever done. He opened with “Old Scratch Blues,” followed by “That’s How I’m Feeling,” dipping into solo material before unleashing the White Stripes hits that shook the rafters.
Even the security guards couldn’t resist dancing between catching crowd surfers. And watching from the photo pit? None other than The Damned frontman Dave Vanian himself, soaking it all in.
White closed with the juggernaut “Seven Nation Army,” the riff that refuses to die, and the crowd became a single, roaring choir.
Check out the Jack White concert photo gallery below:
Iggy Pop: The Godfather Returns to NYC
Finally, the godfather. Iggy Pop stepped onto a New York stage for the first time in ten years, and the crowd collectively lost its mind. He opened with “T.V. Eye,” one of The Stooges’ rawest blasts, and from there tore through a 17-song set: “The Passenger,” “Lust for Life,” “Search and Destroy,” and more, closing with his chaotic cover of “Louie Louie.”
The highlight for me was personal: during “Funtime,” when Iggy sang the lyric “lips,” he pointed at his lips, looking directly at me with my bright red lips, and then changed the next lyric from “pants” to “hair,” pointing at my bright red locks. Iggy Pop, the man himself, rewrote a line of his own song in my honor. Unbelievable.
Check out the Iggy Pop concert photo gallery below:
During “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” he walked the length of the photo pit, pressing his face to the crowd, singing inches away as surfers cascaded over our heads in nonstop waves. It felt dangerous, reckless, ecstatic…all the things punk was always supposed to be.
CBGB’s Heartbeat Lives On
By the end of the night, Nadine and I stumbled out from under the bridge, ears ringing, adrenaline still buzzing. Each band had a different relationship to CBGB’s legacy: whether they built it (The Damned, Lunachicks, Iggy), were influenced by it (Melvins, Marr), or carried its flame into the future (Jack White).
For one day in Brooklyn, CBGB wasn’t just a memory. It was alive, sweaty, and loud as hell. That night, as fans filtered out into Brooklyn’s cool air, the memory of those performances, and the riot of stories being swapped outside, felt like more than nostalgia. It was a living tribute. CBGB might be gone, but its pulse still beats in stages like this one. And on September 27, 2025, the Main Stage Under the K Bridge roared as one of its fiercest revivals yet.
