NOTE: All photos are copyright of Dean Keim 2025
90’s alternative rockers Garbage played a sold out show at Brooklyn Paramount on Saturday during which singer Shirley Manson recounted “A long, long time ago we were told we are not a Brooklyn band, and we’re not gonna put you on in Brooklyn, and I don’t wanna toot our own horn, but we sold out this show tonight. Who me? bitter? Vengeful? Never!” The band are on the road for the massive “Happy Endings” tour in support of their eighth studio album Let All That We Imagine Be the Light. This is their first headline tour of the US in almost ten years, and as the tour’s name may imply, this may very well be their last tour of this sort, and they have laid some of that blame on the record industry making it too difficult to do these tours. Shirley has recently been quoted saying they will stop touring the US “Thanks to the thievery of the record industry.” Despite the hopelessness of this messaging, the band was proudly defiant and powerful as they gave it all to the sold out crowd. This gorgeously renovated venue in downtown Brooklyn has been the stage for huge artists since the 1920’s, and has seen everyone from Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington to the Supremes and Ray Charles in its heyday, and seeing a band like Garbage here really gives you a sense of treasured nostalgia to their performance. The band that was started by super producer Butch Vig back in the early 90’s is still going strong for now, and the starting lineup is all still there, as he is still behind the drum kit driving the music along, and founding guitarists Duke Erikson and Steve Marker continue to rock out with absolute precision, but Shirley is the absolute punk goddess on stage and really steals the show. It was a big surprise for me to see former Smashing Pumpkins and Veruca Salt bassist Nicole Fiorentino backing the band, and I happen to be a big fan, so she made the show that much sweeter to witness.
Opening the show was LA band Starcrawler, and they definitely showed themselves to have the rock n’ roll swagger they need to rule a stage. Lead singer Arrow de Wilde was painted up like a classic hair metal frontwoman, and strutted around the stage like a true rock badass. I wasn’t sure at times whether they were in some ways mocking the whole 80’s glam metal schtick like Steel Panther, or they just love embracing the genre like the Darkness or The Struts, but they did rock hard enough to melt my face off, and that was enough to impress me. They have a real chaotic zeal about their onstage presence, and their high-octane guitar drive kept the songs propelling forward like a rocket heading to its ultimate explosive blast.
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Garbage came out to the Twin Peaks opening show theme called “Laura Palmer’s Theme,” and it proved to be the perfectly spooky mood to set the show to. Shirley was dressed in a beautifully quilted jacket and giant combat boots with her hair pulled back, being a total badass at 59, as she ruled the stage like a victorious Scottish knight relishing her victory over the oppressive powers that be. They started by playing a couple songs from their new album like the opener “There’s No Future in Optimism.” Then they played a couple from 2016’s Strange Little Birds, before they broke into some older classics like “I Think I’m Paranoid” and “Vow.” They did save their big hits “Stupid Girl” and “Only Happy When It Rains” for their encore, and the packed house went nuts for the romantic zeal of the kick ass feminist empowerment those songs reminded us all of, as it is an evocative appeal that we all need more than ever in this age of denigration of female empowerment in this country. I don’t know what the future holds for Garbage, as I gather they may still continue to do package tours like they had been doing, but after seeing them rock with such authority, I seriously hope they keep up the fight and never stop kicking ass.
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