Billy Idol will give the keynote interview and play a short acoustic set at CBGB Festival
Multiple venues in Brooklyn and downtown Manhattan
October 8-12
www.cbgbfest.com
Last year, the second CBGB Music & Film Festival spread throughout the city, glomming its brand name onto already scheduled shows in addition to hosting a series of cool free concerts in Times Square. This year is another haphazard affair that probably wouldn’t please Hilly Kristal and longtime CB devotees, as there’s still no information on when and where headliners Jane’s Addiction (performing Nothing’s Shocking) and Devo will be taking the stage. The keynote interview will feature Billy Idol talking with Timothy Sommer, followed by a brief acoustic set October 9 at Center 548 by the author of the new autobiography Dancing with Myself. There will also be discussions with Daniel Lanois, Duff McKagan, Dirty South, and others. Among the thirty film screenings are Chris Cheatham’s A Decade with an Unsigned Rock Band about August Christopher, Nick Hall’s I Need a Dodge! Joe Strummer on the Run, John Jeffcoat’s Big in Japan about Tennis Pro, Robert Zemeckis’s I Wanna Hold Your Hand, and Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke, presented by Beastie Boy Adam Horvitz. Bands participating in the festival include the Muffs, Murphy’s Law, Rocket & the Ghost, the Howl, Crazy Pills, Session 73, We Are Temporary, Echo Station, Boy Toy, and Emily Danger. Center 548 will also be home to the exhibition “From Bathroom Stalls to Gallery Walls: A Visual Tribute to CBGB & OMFUG.” But that doesn’t mean that this festival really has all that much to do with CBGB itself. [Ed. note: It has since been announced that Devo and Jane’s Addiction will be performing as part of Sunday’s free concert in Times Square, with two stages of live music that features Midnight Mob and Ex-Cops at 11:00, Face the King at 11:30, Cheeky Parade at 12 noon, We Are Scientists at 12:30, Surfer Blood at 1:15, Devo at 4:30, School of Rock and Robert Delong at 5:25, and Jane’s Addiction at 6:25.]