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It’s a good thing Pasadena’s Cruel World festival sells black parasols — normally they’re used to keep the sun off ghost-faced goths. At Saturday’s show at Brookside at the Rose Bowl, they were put to good use as a steady drizzle dampened the first few hours of Goldenvoice’s yearly event.
“What the hell is with this British weather?” asked Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s Andy McCluskey, who was careful not to slip on the rain-dampened stage as he executed some new wave dance moves.
Cool weather is actually preferable for sporting the leather, velvet and other finery that many audience members favored, so it was probably a relief it wasn’t still 100 degrees, like at last week’s Just Like Heaven festival on the same grounds. And it could have been worse — at least there was no lightning, as in 2023 when the venue was evacuated before Siouxsie could play.
New wave and goth fans, many of whom have been following these acts for four decades, are nothing if not devoted. One music lover said he traveled all the way from Georgia and met up with a buddy from Oregon. Another couple got hitched in front of the golf course’s water feature in their finest deathrock garb.
On the cheekily titled Sad Girls stage, the Go-Go’s did anything but live up to that area’s name, providing a truly cruelty-free zone with the festival’s sunniest music. After not doing any shows in three years — and singer Belinda Carlisle having claimed the group was done, in the interim — the original fivesome was back together and wrapping up a six-show reunion mini-tour that early included both weekends of Coachella. (Goldenvoice did not take getting them back together for granted; they were the only band the promoter booked at both ‘chella and Cruel World.) Carlile noted that it was 47 years since they started out, and just how fit they were to take things up again nearly a half-century on was exemplifed by Kathy Valentine still being able to rock her vintage gold-lame catsuit for the occasion, as well as a thunderous bass.
At one point, drummer Gina Schock interrupted a count-off to demand that Carlisle hand her the mic, which the singer finally did; Schock thenceforth demanded the crowd show more energy because “I’m working my fucking ass off up here!” (Wasn’t it enough for her that the Go-Go’s had the fastest merch sellout of the day, early in the afternoon?) Things got demonstrative enough for everyone’s taste by the time the still-robust quintet finished off with an “Our Lips Are Sealed” that featured an interpolation of Chappell Roan’s “Hot to Go.” It was a rousing enough wrap-up for the Rock Hall of Famers that it’s hard to imagine Carlisle would again say it’s time to call it quits, even though no further plans have been announced. “To my sisters, I love you so much,” the singer wrote on her Instagram afterward, “…til we meet again.”
Speaking of “’til…” Goldenvoice has occasionally pulled off some reunions of long-lost bands at Coachella, but this year they reserved that for Cruel World, coaxing ‘Til Tuesday to reunite for the first time since 1992. Aimee Mann actually rounded up, saying it was the group’s first gig in nearly 40 years — however you were counting, it was an epic-length layoff that had the original quartet doing their bid to make up for lost time. Mann had said in a Variety interview prior to the festival that she had some nerves about getting all the rust out, and her own ability to sing as high as had seemed like a good idea in the 1980s. (“I’m really regretting some of those choices now,” she said.) But apart from one false start in which she said the band started off in different keys, there were no audible hitches to this reunion, and her threat to lower the keys was pulled off subliminally — rest assured she still got high, and still didn’t “keep it down.”
Til Tuesday’s 45-minute set included a cover of the Cars’ “Drive,” a nod to “our new wave heroes” from their shared hometown of Boston. A few songs from the end of the set, Mann quipped that the next two songs were exceptionally melodramatic, because drama was what you went for in the ‘80s. With that remark, you might’ve thought she was referring to “Voices Carry” — but no, “No More Crying” and “Don’t Watch Me Bleed” counted as even more dramatic than that.
When they did get to the inevitable finale of their lone top 10 hit, though, there was a snag. Earlier, Mann had asked for the time, making sure they weren’t running late because “we don’t want to get spun around. Or do we want to get spun around?” she added, as if that sounded like fun — referring to the revolving stage that allowed one group to immediately follow the next with no breaks. Well, she got her wish, or prophecy. At 5:11 p.m., they were one minute overtime and still about a minute from finishing “Voices Carry,” so the stage indeed started taking them back to the rear, and Mann got to the “He said, shut up!” coda just as they were hitting the backstage.
This left the audience to hear the most emotionally climactic moment of any song performed during the whole day while looking at OMD’s equipment. Maybe the house could have held off on spinning the band off for another 30 seconds, given the magnitude of the moment, but they do like to make the trains run on time… but at least give them credit for not cutting the sound on the climax. And, of course, give them credit for financing a reunion fans were sure they’d never get in the first place… So, how about a short tour where we can actually watch Mann sing those final words?
Among the other rare appearances were Blancmange, who returned to the U.S. for the first time in 39 years, charming the crowd with the likes of “Living on the Ceiling” and “Don’t Tell Me.”
The Buzzcocks’ performance fell at the wettest part of the afternoon, and their sound seemed a bit muffled by damp air — or maybe it’s just been hard to recover since Pete Shelley died in 2018 at just 63.
As evening fell, the drizzle let up and the creatures of the night were able to shed their unfashionable plastic ponchos. OMD were in good form with hits including “Electricity” (slightly ominous given the damp stage), “Enola Gay” and “If You Leave,” which McCluskey introed as being from “that movie” — for this audience, it goes without saying that the hit was heard in “Pretty in Pink.”
Who knew that Devo’s signature red energy dome plastic hats would turn out to be the perfect accessory for a rainy day? The Akron, Ohio pioneers showed that they have long since left behind the “novelty band” label that has always pigeonholed them. As the elder statesman of new wave — they have been performing since at least 1973 — their musicianship and showmanship put them in the top echelon of the acts that burst on to the scene in the ’70s and obliterated the dinosaurs of stadium rock. With kinetic videos, costume changes and irrepressible energy, Mark Mothersbaugh and company had the crowd shouting “We are DEVO” as they threw hats into the crowd, in one of the most crowd-pleasing sets of the day.
Projected in black and white on the giant video screens, Nick Cave was a force of nature, sounding Bowie-esque on his first emotional song, “Frogs.” He growl-muttered “Tupelo” and other favorites with the Bad Seeds featuring the wildly bearded Warren Ellis on violin, and the overall effect reached peak desolation by the last song, the 2018 “Hollywood.” Though it was written around the time of Malibu’s Woolsey fire, the 14-minute long dirge that encompasses flames in Malibu and a cougar that roams the hills took on a new and sinister meaning in the aftermath of the more recent fires. “Everybody’s losing someone… And I’m just waiting now for my time to come,” sings Cave, and while he’s undeniably compelling, it’s all very, very dark.
After a somewhat disappointing Buzzcocks set, diehard Anglophiles were looking forward to headliners New Order, but the sound was subpar and Bernard Sumner’s vocals seemed undercooked, especially on Joy Division songs “Isolation” and “Transmission.” Despite boasting several original members, including able keyboardist Gillian Gilbert, the flashy strobes and lasers weren’t quite enough to cap the evening with the punch that past headliners have provided. Come on guys, it’s time to bury the hatchet with Peter Hook and get the gang back together again — maybe for next year’s Cruel World?
English (US) ·