We Hear CBGB Is Planning To Reopen... Soon

I saw the headline and thought, "Please don't reopen in Brooklyn."

Bout Time!!!!! When the city offered to find CB's a place, they should of just transferred back then. Now how much will their rent be and how much will a show cost to get in? $25  to $30 bucks?

Are they going to import vomit and pee from the outer boroughs?

It will be artisanal vomit and pee.

I'm in agreement with the posters who lined out how that particular LES scene is dead and done with.  C.B.G.B.'s was as much about the hang at the time as it was about the music and there was a grittiness and dirt to it that was palpable.  I had only gone to Coney Island High once or twice so hardly missed it when it closed but I did love Continental for some bands.  The closure of the original C.B.'s closed a chapter of LES history and now there are coffee houses, high end stores and public gardens in a stone's throw distance.  Let the name live forever in music history for all its good and bad points.  I've not been to Continental since it became a Sport's Bar and I guess was ruined.  Too bad for bands of the level that really needed that space to play in.  NYC sure is different in terms of the music scene.

I wish the Ramones weren't dead.

It just wasn't CBGB. There were a lot of places nearby featuring live music, until rents priced out local musicians. When that happened live music venues like Coney Island High and Continental could not be sure if the booked band would show up on time, if at all.
That scene is dead and should now rest in peace.

Coney Island High was destined for failure. It was on an up and coming block and the police would hassle people as soon as the shows let out.
The Continental, on the other hand, could have grabbed all the clientele from CBGB and CIH, Turned it something great Instead Trigger turned it into a crappy sports bar..They once had some great shows there..Now I wouldn't go in there to use the bathroom..

CBGB was a place where I spent most of my youth. I started going there in 1986. I had Just turned 16 and Karen (Hillys then wife) turned me down at the door. Of course this didn't stop me from going there hundreds of other times.
Over the years I must have seen 100 shows there. I even got to play there a bunch of times. And anyone who has played there knew that they had the best sound in the city.
CBGB was more than a place that had shows..
CBGB died with Hilly
 Let's leave it that way

They will never be able to recreate that legendary bathroom though....

good lord i hope not.

Not without samples of at least three of my body fluids anyway....

I've been holding my bladder for a long time in hopes that it would re-open...can't wait to christen the place.

The new CBGB's will feature bands from Portlandia......or Brokelandia.

CB's was as much about the edgy, run-down, gritty and menacing streets immediately around it. 

Unless you can invent a time machine, CB's is gone for good.

CBGB's was an era, not a place. Frankly, the physical place was the least relevant part. Schmucks will show up to this new one though, what with the masses being the asses that they are.

Its like Pet Sematary.  Some things are just better left dead.

Perfect analogy - Especially due to the fact that the Ramones did the song Pet Semetary

New sign will read:


CBGB'S!!!
*sponsored by...

John Varvatos men's wear... $1550 for one shoe...

this is dumb.

Why is THIS cross-posted to DCist? Fuck! Not Given!

is the knitting factory still the knitting factory despite the fact that it is not in the knitting factory?

The Knitting Factory hasn't been the Knitting Factory in a long time.

And if CBs reopens in Williamsburg, then everything they stood for is lost forever...

don't understand y people are so obsessed with CBGB's - it didn't define music - music defined it - and the music has moved on... get over it!

Worst idea I've heard in awhile. It's over, Johnny. Get a new idea.

Location is everything. There's something about walking down Bleecker and seeing that awning from 2 blocks away. I doubt it'll be anywhere near the original location. And even if it was, that hood isn't the same.

CBGB's in the last 5-8 years was terrible venue that didn't book any good bands and became a showcase venue where just about anyone could get a show as long as you had enough friends to buy beer.

When NYC had it's musical revival with the Strokes, Interpol, etc. they never played at CB's it was all happening at Luna Lounge and other newer venues. CBGB's was totally irrelevant.

HAHAHA!!! music revolution!! don't make me laugh the reason they didn't play cb's is because these bands were a bunch of rich hipsters. Who (except for maybe the strokes) would have gotten their asses kicked there. Please gain a decent taste in music and stop listening to the current top ten. I don't know about you, but I would call Murpy's law, Rancid, The Yeah Yeah Yeah's, Sonic Youth, The Bouncing Souls, Nofx,Swingin Utters,Etc. All exceptional bands to play CBGB's in the last 5 to 8 years.

I agree with part of what you wrote in that more up and coming bands were being cultivated in other venues... but that did not make us irrelevant.  I say "us" because I worked there many years.  We were not finding and nurturing new bands the way we used to.  That is a problem some of us were well aware of and there was a lot of internal fighting that I won't get into.  But we still had more than a few great shows and we provided opportunity for many bands that may have otherwise never had an opportunity. 
It wasn't what it once was and it may not have been your scene anymore, but there were plenty of young bands and fans that called it home for a while, even in the final years.

Both The Strokes and Interpol played CBGB.

Umm, you can get a gig anywhere in NYC as long as you can prove to the club that you will bring enough beer-drinking friends/family. PS: the Strokes suck and were never a real NYC band - they bought their fame.

Actually, what made CBGB's an incubator for an entire music generation is that you DIDN'T have to prove that you would bring in enough beer-drinking friends & family. Almost anyone could play a Monday-night show (audition night) and if Hilly (or whoever was booking the club) liked your band you'd be scheduled to come back on a Tuesday or Wednesday, and thus work your way up to headlining on a weekend. Most clubs in the 70's/80's worked something like this - it took a booker with discerning taste (someone who both knew what people wanted to hear, and was always willing to take a chance on unknown bands/sounds). If Ramones, Talking Heads, etc. could have only gotten gigs based on being able to bring in enough beer-swillers, there would have been no such things as punk and everything that came after. And yes, places like Luna Lounge used bookers, not "bring us drinkers."

You really need to build a time machine and have that argument again about the Strokes in the year 2000.

It never hurts to have another small, live music venue.  But it won't ever be the same again.  CBGB's was dead to me when they let Thalia film a music video in there.

We let a lot of people film there.

It will never be the same but it damn well deserves to be open again.

"Once you're gone, you can't come back."