Rose Bowl Pasadena, CA
Contact: info@cruelworldfest.com
Web: cruelworldfest.com
Players: Multiple bands on multiple stages
GoldenVoice’s premiere go-to for goth and new wave nostalgia, Cruel World festival, returned to Brookside at the Rose Bowl for its fourth year in May, this time bringing with it a gloomy rainy atmosphere that finally fit the music. In true summer festival fashion, a yearly staple for Cruel World attendees has been the inner struggle between an appropriately gothic outfit that inflicts suffering in the heat and a more minimal choice of look in exchange for comfort. As clouds and rain washed over Pasadena, there was an evident shift in ambiance compared to the previous years.
This year, headlining acts like New Order, Devo, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, OMD, and The Go-Gos were selected to delight elder goths who miss their youth and younger goths with a “born in the wrong generation complex.” As the night went on and the rain stopped, Shirley Manson of Garbage emerged like a punk rock peacock to blow the roof off the place. The band was tight and their energy even tighter, with grunge beats taking on an almost industrial nature when performed live. Devo went on at the same time as Garbage, highlighting one of the major pitfalls of festivals: you're always going to miss someone you want to see. Shirley herself even humorously echoed this statement, saying, “We are sorry, Devo, we love you!”
Later on, in a moment of sonically contrasting irony, The Go-Gos' set overlapped with that of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Both acts are trailblazers of their respective times and genres, both with killer performances, and if you're like us, you ran frantically between the stages to catch a bit of both. The day was also not over without addressing the rain jokes as The Buzzcocks smirked before singing “Manchester Rain,” fans chanted along to Garbage’s “I’m Only Happy When It Rains,” and The Go-Go's made sure to have us sing along to “Automatic Rainy Day.” At the end of the night, always comes the pilgrimage to the main stage along with the entire crowd, all clawing away at each other to get as close as possible. New Order, in their reign as the king of overplayed club songs, was sure to entice the crowd to be as impatient as possible. At the end of the day, the band isn’t what it used to be, but that's okay.
As the music industry becomes increasingly unstable, festivals will always be important to foster community.
