Garbage
Sept. 12, 2025
The Agora, Cleveland, Ohio
By Rob McCune
Two absolute goddesses of rock share the stage recently at Cleveland’s Agora for a rager that felt apocalyptic in both its energy and its context.
A stop on the Happy Endings Tour for Garbage, the band’s badass Scottish singer Shirley Manson announced that it’s also their final tour of North America. And Garbage was determined to make its goodbye to Cleveland, and the States, grand and glam.
Not only did Garbage give it their all, they brought along Starcrawler, L.A.’s glam-pop-punk rock band formed in 2015 with the manically energetic songstress Arrow de Wilde on the mic.
Sampling songs from their three studio albums, Starcrawler sparked and sizzled through a nine-song set that also drew from the Ramones, with a cover of “Pet Sematary.” Twenty-something De Wilde embraced the weird, writhing and thrashing in pure punk-rock rage.
Garbage’s Manson praised Arrow’s piercing performance, seemingly wistful for a time when she moved with that same youthful spark. But even some days after her 59th birthday and just a few years removed from a terrible hip injury suffered on stage, Manson had full and feisty command over the entire arena, hardly one to stand still.
In head-to-toe black—from thigh-high boots to a high-shouldered leather jacket fit for an ice queen—Shirley Manson looked ready to rule over Thunderdome.
Never shy to speak out, Shirley spoke with gratitude about her fans’ support, which has kept Garbage going for 30 years, well after mainstream radio had looked away. She was also outspoken about a political climate that otherizes and demonizes vulnerable, but nonetheless powerful, communities such as LGBTQIA+, as well as an economy that can’t support art, music and especially the young bands.
And let’s face it, words that some people should definitely never even try to say sound somehow cool coming from a Scottish femme fatale rockstar.
Garbage’s set drew from the band’s eight studio albums released since 1993, including their latest “Let All That We Imagine Be the Light,” which dropped in May.
Ranging from bleak bangers like “There’s No Future in Optimism,” a song that would fit right into a soundtrack for any apocalyptic action drama, to the sassy, slap-happy “Chinese Fire Horse” to the whisper-soft “The Day That I Met God,” the new record rocks the same range that rocketed Garbage to stardom with their self-titled 1995 release.
Of course, the Nineties hits featured into the set, as well – starting with “Vow” and “Not My Idea” early on, and finishing with “Stupid Girl” and their quintessential anthem, “Only Happy When It Rains.”
Like the weather, climates change, world orders shift, and one can only hope there’s still a little “Rain” and “Garbage” left for another North American tour someday.
But even if there isn’t, on this night in Cleveland and at stops everywhere on this tour, it’s never felt so good to feel so sad.
Rob McCune is Every_Thing_After_Photo on Instagram, where he shares his concert photography and reviews, as well as clips from his “Every.Thing.After” podcast, with interviews with musicians and bands.
