Dec 1973 - Oct 2006
Tonight Patti Smith sang the legendary punk club's swan song. Pics via AP...
"I'm thinking about tomorrow and the next day and the next day and going on to do more with CBGB's," owner Hilly Kristal told the press pre-show. Punk Photo snapped our favorite eulogy:
Posted at 10:12 PM in Concert
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SAD!!!!!! I'm so glad I got to go on my NYC trip in 2002
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saw Rooney there then-so very CBGB hahahaha
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Been there for dozens of shows since 88. God Bless. RIP It will never be the same.
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Forgive my lack of sentimentality, but CBGB really kind of petered out in the 80s. Most of the bands I followed from the 70s stopped playing there and the newer bands I liked never played there at all.
Perhaps if they upgraded just a wee bit, brought it up to spec with Irving Plaza or Bowery Ballroom, it would have hung in. Oh well. Hilly preferred the restrooms to retain the color, the texture and, face it, the scent of fecal matter. Even the punks have standards, ya know.
I will miss CBGB's only because that's where Ramones, Television and Talking Heads broke. For them, the place deserves gratitude and fond memories. For now, well, let's hope it doesn't turn into another McDonalds.
DwD
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yawn.
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mathamatic, you must be a huge music fan. please... name any single physical rock n roll landmark (still standing) that is more historically significant than CBs. Seriously. Think about it...
Highlights for me were the Replacements and Meat Puppets there in the 80s, and Jeff Buckley playing a spine-tingling unannounced show in front of about 35 people a couple weeks before Grace came out.
Walked by with some friends on Saturday afternoon--the door was open and they were letting people go inside to check it out, take pics, etc. Hilly was sat there at his desk, reading the paper and grunting. Classic.
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It's fine and all hearing about how great CBGBs was, but people have a good point about it hadn't been relevant for a long time. Yeah, it's be great as a museum piece, but for all the boosters, how often had you been by lately?
Sort of how I feel about the Whiskey here in LA.
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Excuse me for sounding cold, but the venue was a piece of shit. The sound was mediocre at best and it always had issues in the summer with the fucking heat. Am I wrong for wanting a venue that provides a certain amount of comfort? Am I just not punk enough? Somebody please fill me in.
in the end:
Mercury > CBGB
and especially Bowery > CBGB
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Patti Smith = Joey Ramone?
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I went tonight to pay my respects. I didn't have tickets, but I stuck around outside for a while.
A guy was playing "Blitzkreig Bop" on his acoustic guitar outside. A former punk drummer (now waste of space) was recalling old stories from his glory days. Bums were passed out near by. No one seemed to know each other, but the camaraderie was there. The end of CBGBs closed the book on a story that ended a long time ago. It's sad to see it go.
I wrote a little bit more about CBs. You can read it here:
http://www.freeindie.com/2006/10/the_end_of_cbgbs.html
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"please... name any single physical rock n roll landmark (still standing) that is more historically significant than CBs. Seriously. Think about it..."
Pretty sure the Filmore West is still open as well as Shea Stadium.
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"please... name any single physical rock n roll landmark (still standing) that is more historically significant than CBs. Seriously. Think about it..."
The Cavern Club is also still open. So is the Whiskey in L.A.
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The Stone Pony is still around but, much like CBGB's, doesn't really have a cogent purpose for doing so.
DwD
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Sun Records is still standing.
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Quote:
"mathamatic, you must be a huge music fan. please... name any single physical rock n roll landmark (still standing) that is more historically significant than CBs. Seriously. Think about it..."
Oh fuck off. There is nothing less punk than the deification of shit bars that played punk rock once. Urban Outfitters sells CBGBs shirts. It's a joke. Besides, it's New York, and that city is quickly becoming the most bullshit-poseur place on Earth.
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Awww... how sad that they didn't pay their rent for aeons and are now "forced" to move to Vegas. Boo frickin' hoo.
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in honor of the closoing of cbgb's i have the entire "Bad Brains - Live At CBGB 1982" DVD streaming over at my site.
http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2006/10/13/the-end-of-an-era/#respond
has anyone read any reviews of the bad brians shows last week? i understand HR was wearing a motorcycle helmut for some of the songs.
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Great, a bunch of 20-year old knowitalls.
Cavern Club: Razed to the ground by Liverpool City Council 30 years ago to make room for a new shopping center.
Fillmore: Historic, def, but in context did not revolutionize music in quite the same way (unless you're a Phish fan).
Shea Stadium: It's a fcking baseball stadium that only ever hosted two concerts (Beatles and Who/Clash) in its entire history.
Stone Pony: You're joking... what, because Springsteen played there?
Whiskey: Not bad. Did have the Doors and LA punk and, ahem, 80s metal...
CBs was never meant to compete with Mercury or Bowery (no, the hipster crowd didn't go there anymore--it was largley crap amateur cattle-call bills that few people bothered with. Which, when u think about it, is precisely what it was in 1975). Yes, it shoulda just been turned into a museum (and yes, Bloomberg is fucking up NYC bigtime). But lest you forget that what happened there 30 years ago directly or indirectly influenced every bit of music you listen to (and even the blogs you read) today, and still continues to do so. You can go back to wanking it to Death Cab for Rilo Kiley now...
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The police played shea stadium.
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Can we please never have to hear about this place ever again?
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Hey 'Duh',
Talk about not getting your facts straight. The Cavern Club is/was an underground club (hence the name)so there's no way it could have ever been razed. The original fruit warehouses that were above the club were tore down but the original club still remains to this day.
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The night was memorable, albeit flawed. You can see some of my pics/vids here: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=29926787&blogID=181268033&Mytoken=C2FF0B2A-0BC8-4AC1-AB11D71AF2DB3BB418341225
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Fred, sorry but you're wrong. The original Cavern Club was destroyed (it is now, technically, a parking lot). A new Cavern Club was reconstructed in close proximity to the original site (hey, even using some of the bricks from the original venue!) and made to resemble the original as closely as possible but it's not the Cavern Club where the Beatles played any more than the Birdland on 44th St is the one where Coltrane played...
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Hi,
I had a punk clothing store on St. Marks Pl. in the late 70’s & 80’s. I did clothing for Blondie made Joey Ramones leather jacket among others I was a regular at CBGB's, and now an era has ended. But all is not gone, I have just resurrected my look with a new website www.natashanyc.com, come view some old and new Natasha
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I don't know, I think there's a lot of better venues in New York. It does suck that a club that managaed to stay open so long is closing down, dont get me wrong. But the place was a dump. They didn't even have doors on the bathroom, and it was so hard to manuever in that place. I just wrote an article about it on my site, www.chaospunx.com
What I don't understand is why people say there should be a CBGB museum. If they could afford that, why wouldn't they just use that money to stay open? After all, it was a financial issue, wasn't it?
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HILLY HAS DIED AND MUSIC SHOULD MOURN THE LOSS.
WHAT HE DID FOR THE MUSIC SCENE WAS GIVE ORIGINAL BANDS A PLACE TO PLAY , BE HEARD AND BE SEEN. I LIKE MANY, MANY OTHERS PLAYED AT CBGB's MANY TIMES AND IT WAS ALWAYS A EXPERIENCE . I MET HIM THRU A GOOD FRIEND OF HIS AND MINE, HERB ABRAMSON, CO-FOUNDER AND ORIGINAL PRESIDENT OF ATLANTIC RECORDS WAY BACK IN THE MID 70'S. HILLY WAS ALSO A MUSICIAN WHO HAD A COUNTRY RECORD MAKE THE CHARTS BACK IN THE DAY. I FOR ONE WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HIM AND HIS PLACE,
C ountry B lue G rass B lues (CBGB ).
CATCH YOU LATER HILLY......R.I.P.
CUZIN KEVIN...(THE STREETKIDZ.. N.Y. TELEFONE..THE VISITORS..AND ON N ON N ON......)
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