The SOLD-OUT festival is now in its second year and entertained a crowd of thousands of hard-core music lovers with a taste for punk, proto-punk, Goth, Industrial, Electronica, Rock, and Alternative Rock, all looking to dance the humidity away on a Saturday and depending on your age relive some teenage memories. Given the performers, it was no coincidence that this was casually referred to, as the Gen X lineup. This year's electric lineup featured mostly artists and bands from the late 70s and the 80s, with some sounds from today that echo a similar hauntingly chaotic vibe. The festival is in Pasadena's Brookside Park, located south of the Rose Bowl Stadium, and showcases the best Goth/Punk/Alt culture, fashion, and music. A niche subculture that's quickly growing in the mainstream culture or media space. You guys can debate the merits or negatives of that. While fashion, with its roots in freedom of expression, was a focal point and was more than spot-on artistically and sartorially. So as much as everyone had come dressed to impress in black with fishnet, lace, leather, or mesh that perfectly accented their ensemble. Cruel World was still a music festival, and music was the hallmark of Goth culture. After the festival had to overcome two fan favorites dropping out, The Motels and Adam Ant. They continued with new additions, Squeeze, and one of last year's highlights, Berlin. Now to talk about the best of the festival and well that ending ...
I'm pretty sure by now everyone has heard about what happened towards the end of the Cruel World Festival. It wasn't until the end of the festival when Iggy was playing we got word of a lighting storm headed our way, so we needed to evacuate safely, quickly, and calmly. There were many signs, including flashes of lighting and even some actual strikes (I even saw a few lightning flashes). How close was it? I'm not sure exactly, but you can never hedge a bet with something like that. It's always better to be safe than sorry. So you won't wind up dealing with potentially horrific repercussions afterward. Anyway, I am very thankful that the storm never made it and petered out. It's also worth noting that Iggy Pop still slayed even through potential danger, and I finally got to hear one of my favorite songs from childhood, The Passenger.
Many festival-goers (including other musicians and ones sharing the bill) made it known that Goth Punk icon Siouxsie Sioux was who they had trekked out to the festival to see. Siouxsie was playing her first show in over fifteen years, and this would be her only show in the Americas. So when the evacuation happened that killed her set, disappointment was an absolute understatement, but Goldenvoice (the festival promoter) came through and went above and beyond by creating a second-day mini-fest with a re-do of both hers' and Iggy Pop sets, adding Gary Numan, and a DJ set from the Club Dooms' Dave. Iggy Pops' expanded second set had twelve songs closing out with tracks from his time with two epic Stooges tracks, the blistering Search and Destroy, and sleazy pop stump, I Wanna Be Your Dog. Siouxsie closed the night out in a disco lamé jumpsuit to a roaring and adoring crowd of thousands playing through her classics, solo work, and fan favorites. You can check out her entire setlist below.
Some other highlights include the soulful British Pop band ABC who got the crowd going and pumped in the mid-afternoon. Lead Singer and showman Martin Fry held a captive audience as they sang along to every word to hits like Poison Arrow, The Look of Love, and When Smokey Sings. Billy Idol's rebel rock energy brought us into the dusk with an energetic 80s Rock revival as he flexed through hits like Dancing With Myself, Flesh For Fantasy, Rebel Yell, White Wedding, his cover of the Tommy James & the Shondells classic, Mony Mony and so many more. The crowd even sang Happy Birthday to his Granddaughter, Poppy, who turned three. I was shocked at the size of the audience that came to see and hear him on the Sad Girls stage. It was massive! Billy Idol fans are still hard-core to this day, and I bet he picked up so many new ones with his Cruel World debut.
ABC “The Look of Love”#CruelWorldFestival #CruelWorldFest#cruelworld2023#CruelWorld@ABCFRY pic.twitter.com/d0FdCn2Obh — Jake (the ‘80s never ended in my world) Rudh (@JakeRudh) May 21, 2023 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Berlin, Modern English, Echo And the Bunnymen, and Gary Numan were all clear fan favorites with packed sets and brought top-tier electronic and synth music and vibes to the festival. For me, Gary Numan stole the show with his vibrant and electric mix of avant-garde Industrial electronica. Once again, as in many of the artists mentioned before, Numan's power was in his stage presence and comfortability. He played through a mix of old and new work and, of course, played Cars, the song (or one of the songs) that inevitably changed the landscape of Electronic music. It was a treat for not only fans but anyone who's a fan of the genre or makes music within it.
Lastly, the Cruel World Festival also highlighted newer artists that carried the torch of the various genres and ethos. Ela Minus is a Columbian singer whose DIY electro-punk aesthetic and synthesizer made a big splash at the festival. Then there was Riki, who brought strong vocals set against spiked bubblegum synth-wave sounds, and the duo of Boy Harsher, whose darkwave and EBM sound filled the air with a sense of foreboding as you danced. Molchat Doma, a Belarusian post-punk band whose mournful sound was another rare offering, fell in line with the tradition of the festival highlighting niche overseas bands. The high point for me out of the newer bands had to be Texas' Urban Heat their music was an electric mix of post-punk and darkwave. The trio, led by captivating frontman Jonathan Horstmann gathered a large crowd around the Lost Boy stage at the hottest time of the day, enduring the heat and humidity. I also got to interview and take some portraits of Jonathan, so please stay tuned for that. It was quite the wild ride at this year's festival, and it seems that Adam Ant, as the Bunnymen had in the previous year, has been rescheduled to next year. Adam is the reason why skull rings are a jewelry staple for me. So, I'd like to thank Goldenvoice for everything, and I'll see you all at Cruel World 2024 with my 'Goody Two Shoes' on.
Check out the festival gallery below!
