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After what seems like decades of dragging its feet, it really is going to happen. After tonight's performance by Patti Smith, CBGB's will close its doors on the Bowery for the last time.
CBGB's & OMFUG (Country, BlueGrass, Blues & Other Music for Urban Gormandizers) opened its doors to the Bowery back when the Bowery was the last place on earth most people would go voluntarily. Since then it helped usher in some truly great bands (some biggies being the Talking Heads, Ramones, and Blondie) and has sat unchanged as its surrounding neighborhood has 'revitalized,' its population shifting from drunken Irish and Bowery Bums to NYU undergrads and postgrad yuppies.
And now, after an excruciatingly protracted battle with the club's landlord, the Bowery Resident's Committee, CB's will be gone. But not necessarily for good. Rumor has it that owner Hilly Kristal wants to move the whole club to Las Vegas.
At least it was fun while it lasted.
Blondie performing one last time at CBGB's yesterday by Wayne's New York via Contribute.
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i think it's "uplifting" instead of "urban," but i could, of course, be on crack.
joshua, I think you may be right about the uplifting v. urban thing.
however, when i was little i was raised to believe it was urban, so i slipped it in there. c'est la vie.
and caring would be like so not punk, too, right? i'm ashamed i brought it up. ... and being ashamed isn't punk either. i'm screwed.
Let's see, this is probably the most popular new york blog out there and there's only 3 comments on the closing of CBGB's... Yep, New York is f--king dead.
According to the history page on the CBGB site, it's "uplifting."
I'm clearly the least punk of all now that I actually took the time to check that out.
face it, most of us were in diapers when the place was hot.
as I said here once...
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/tix/220610465.html
I just walked by this sunday evening, crowd is a it older more true, then again it was the crowd hanging outside.
f***in bouncers were telling everyone to go home and watch it on the news. in the old days that was blood on the floor right there and then. nowadays its turn around and walk away.
hint, things change.
The truth about CBGB's:
Hilly makes more than enough $$ from t-shirts to pay his rent, but he wants to keep making it and he know's that turning his long-irrelevant rock club into Vegas simulacrum of itself will up his revenue.
CBGB's landlord is a homeless shelter. Why do all these news stories neglect to mention that?
Why should anyone give a damn that this is gone? With a few exceptions, it's hosted nothing but shit music for the past few decades.
That crowd sure looks punk rock.
#8 – couldn't agree more
this is from cnn.com:
"Die hard followers... complain that the New York icon is another casualty of gentrification, which they say is filling the Lower East Side with high-priced condos and chain store retailers."
these "die hard followers" are lemmings – clinging to the tired old anti-gentrification angle when the truth is the guy didn't pay his rent. and he didn't not pay his rent to some mega real estate corp... he stiffed a freaking homeless shelter.
good bye and good riddance.
donald, get real. the fact that new york doesn't give a shit about this is proof that new yorkers are as real and gritty as usual. cbgb hasn't been anything to write home about since the late 80's.
I agree. To tell you the truth, I just don't care that the place is gone. I haven't had a good experience there in ages. If I wanted to overpay for entry/drinks - I will go a few blocks east...
Donald: you're an ass. you're statement proves you're a new kid on the block, or are just as ignorant as a newbie. new yorkers, do and do not care, but seriously, who fucking cares. gothamist has been reporting about cb's for over a year now... do a little friggin research and you'll see plently of comments about country blue grass and blues... ass.
I went to the show last night. It's hard to put in words, but it was one of the most moving experiences of my life. You could tell who came to be a fan and came just to say they were there. Us fans were in the front, pressing hard against each other to try and get pictures and a glimpse of Patti yelling into the microphone. The others loomed around in the back, chattering away THE ENTIRE TIME. I found that to be particularly annoying because of the amount of people outside DYING to get in to pay their respects.
CBGB closing was a big deal for me because of what it I believed it stood for. It was all about fueling people's passions by giving them a place to play the music they love. These days it's just about making the big bucks, not playing straight from your soul, which is totally what Patti Smith did last night.
Last night was another nail in the coffin of independent music/creative expression.
CB's hadn't stood for those ideals in years, Kibbe. It was great a reeeaaallly long time ago. They were definitely into making big bucks, off of everybody who walked in that door. And yeah, refusing to pay rent to the homeless shelter sucks ass, plain and simple. It shows they had no ideals left.
Patti Smith is a one hit wonder (written by Springsteen) everyone buys into it and now she is the grandmother of punk?
CBGB's is small, dirty, overcrowded, expensive, has inferior sound system and acoustics. It has become some type of tourist attraction or shrine to punk's heyday in them mid and late 70's. Let it go people, let it go.
but there were always people standing in the back chattering, or playing pool, or talking to their friend from queens.
my writeup and pictures at http://www.jukeboxgraduate.com