![]() John Lydon, who as Johnny Rotten upended pop culture with his band the Sex Pistols, took the stage at Cruel World in an oversized blue and white plaid suit and clashing plaid tie. In a scene straight out of a Gregg Araki movie, Havok led the angstiest day rave Pasadena’s ever seen. This weekend, band members Davey Havok and Jade Puget rolled out their industrial dance-pop project Blqck Audio for a rare performance. Remember AFI? If you floated between the punk and goth tables in your high school cafeteria, you probably do. Absent Captain Sensible, who was unable to travel because he remains unvaccinated, Vanian, drummer Will Taylor and guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen tore through the band’s classic punk songs like the intervening decades had been mere hours. The Damned’s Dave Vanian looks sharp and ageless, like a GQ vampire, and commanded the stage like he’d just sucked Johnny Rotten’s blood. Both were confessions wrapped in obfuscation, and were delivered by the two lead singers who, in 1976 London, recorded back to back punk hits “Neat Neat Neat” (the Damned) and “Anarchy in the U.K.” (Sex Pistols). had played their equally cheeky hit “This Is Not a Love Song” on the other side of the festival. When the Damned broke into “Love Song,” their snarky, self-aware hit about the demands of the pop-music machine, it occurred not long after Public Image Ltd. To hear Butler and band roll through cavernous songs like “India” and wry odes like “Love My Way” felt comfortably, wonderfully normal.Īs the latter song was starting, one couple seemingly done with the Furs and on their way to the beer tent stopped mid-track as the first melody rang, turned back to face the stage and started slow dancing, eagerly embracing the moment. For many of us, this is the first time we’ve been in a crowded music festival in more than two years. A smile crept across Psychedelic Furs singer Richard Butler‘s face as he was singing their classic song, “The Ghost in You.” Facing a crowd who knew all the words, he looked awestruck - it was hard to tell because he was wearing sunglasses at dusk - stared down at the stage as if overwhelmed and then continued singing. members John Crawford and David Diamond, blazed between dancefloor cuts like “The Metro” and ballads like their 1986 “Top Gun” smash “Take My Breath Away.” The band closed with a punky rendition of Nunn’s anthemic “Sex (I’m A…),” a punchy, sex-positive missive that feels radical during a time when women’s bodily autonomy is under attack. ![]() ![]() ![]() Fronted by a fiery Terri Nunn, the band, which included O.G. Over at the Lost Boys stage, Berlin, who fleetingly reunited for its 40th anniversary, several months before the pandemic hit, returned to the stage for a spirited run through their greatest hits. His ghostly vibrato captured the crowd until the very end of his one-hour set, when the punk sneer of the Smiths’ “Sweet and Tender Hooligan” rocketed the headlining set to a close. As the king faced his court, dressed in a black suit and bow tie like a host at the Oscars, Morrissey stood defiant in front of the Cruel World crowd bellowing the lyrics of “Irish Blood, English Heart,” and we believed him when he said “there is no one on earth I’m afraid of.” Though he thankfully didn’t share any of his conservative political opinions from stage, he did nearly give late-coming fans a heart attack when he said “good night and thank you” after just two songs, only to come back moments later to continue on with the strutting pop beat of “Knockabout World.” He also gave us a handful of classics many young Moz fans may never have heard him sing live, such as “Suedehead” and “Everyday Is Like Sunday.” Perennial lyrics of youthful angst and self-discovery rang true with all generations of Moz fans, from the gray-haired goths to the kids who just bought their first Smiths t-shirt at Hot Topic. ![]()
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