MPF2025: THE COVER BANDS
The wildest aftershow is always at Rebellion, where this year we’re hosting three full nights of spectacular one-off tribute sets. The bands begged us to add an extra night. Each ‘cover’ set is a tribute act put together by punk bands and (often) members of the MPF team. Every single cover band puts a ludicrous amount of effort into half an hour masquerading as their favourite band.
Friday’s kicks off with the triumphant return of Chunderwall, perfectly timed to cash in on Oasis’s money-grabbing return. Chunderwall’s 2025 incarnation features members of Blagged, Sadaxe, Vitriolic Response and, erm, MPF. It’s basically the same as Oasis, but funnier and a foot taller across the board.
Later, The Menstrual Cramps will deliver their homage to the woman who invented punk: Avril Lavigne. Emilia begged us to allow this to happen. This isn’t the first time she’s resorted to such desperation, but we enjoy teasing them so much that we let her make herself hysterical before, of course, enthusiastically agreeing.
Crostpaths will close Friday with a Papa Roach set that we are unbelievably excited for because, deep down, we are all just teenage moshers. Expect an Infest-focused set…or at least it better be, otherwise they just won’t get paid.
Saturday’s after-party begins with the obvious and completely mandatory return of Grafteoke, an absolute stand-out highlight every year. The North East doesn’t have a lot to shout about, not since Big Alan retired, but they do have the best wedding/party band of all time.
Following that, we have members of Modern Baseball and The Menzingers playing in the world’s greatest The Pogues covers band, Bar Dust. How insane is that?! No sarcastic description required.
Finally, after their show-stealing tribute to The Hives last year, we had to insist that Grotbags and friends return. They will be donning leather jackets and silly haircuts, transforming Rebellion into CBGBs as The Ramones.
On Sunday, we’ve only gone and bloody booked The Prodigy. Get your glowsticks ready for a 35-minute medley, featuring 17 tracks that span the band’s career, from rave to punk and everything in between. Members of Nosebleed, Knife Club, Electric Press and MPF have put a genuinely silly amount of effort into putting this party together. One of them bought a lighting rig for it. Don’t they have jobs?
Who could top The Prodigy, other than the mighty Slipknot? Or LipSknot, as they keep calling themselves. We can’t tell you who’s in this supergroup, but we can tell you that two of them have appeared in headline slots in recent years. Or, at least, we assume it’s them–it could just be wristband blaggers in masks and boiler suits. Don’t be left behind–if you maggots miss this, all hope is gone.
Closing out the weekend’s tribute acts are punk legends, NOFX. They’ll be played by members of Old Chase–who played MPF last year–and Making Friends, who haven’t played MPF yet…but they have moaned about it so much that we decided to book them for a cover set, rather than their own tunes, just to really annoy them.
We’re rapidly approaching only 100 tickets left for MPF2025. Make sure you grab yours here.