CBGBs - Goodbye to NYC Icon

We’re sure the Real New Yorkers have heard about this already, but we haven’t covered it here yet: CBGB is officially closing on Halloween. October 30 will be the date of its last show. After that, club owner Hilly Kristal will be moving the place to Las Vegas. We’ve also heard that he’s fighting cancer. We don’t like his decision to relocate, but we wish him the very best of luck in beating the cancer.

RNYK has mixed feelings. CBs was an institution; everyone who knows rock knows it was the proving ground for some great bands.Television, Suicide, Patti Smith, The Cramps, The Dictators, Dead Boys, Johnny Thunders, Blondie, The Ramones, Talking Heads… All these influential punk groups spent the 1970s blazing a trail from the stage of CBs. They cleared a path for people like the Beastie Boys and Sonic Youth. — experimental acts who also got their start by using CBGB as a dirty, beer-soaked platform. Then there were the legendary “hardcore matinees” - weekend afternoon shows where local hardcore bands would get together and play. Influential groups like Agnostic Front and Murphy’s Law built their chops, got a following and went on tour because CBGB was their launchpad.

If you care about rock, a stage where such notable performers have stood becomes sacred ground. We personally know people whose idea of “making it” was playing at CBGB. Any local band that wanted some kind of underground cred had to play at CBs at least once. It was a gathering place for misfit kids who needed to hear & do something new, something kinda wild. If you wanted a shot at being crazy, and you wanted a taste of good ol’ New York sleaze at the same time, CBs was your place.

Losing CBs is a blow, but it’s hard to weep for it when you know the backstory. The group holding the lease on CBGB, the Bowery Residents Committee (BRC), were owed a ridiculous amount of back rent by Kristal. The BRC is dedicated to helping the homeless in New York. Why Kristal refused to pay rent to the BRC is unclear, but it couldn’t have been a lack of funds: Kristal’s line of CBGB t-shirts pulls in seven figures a year. We do know that withholding money you owe to a homeless advocacy group seems heartless, though.

Kristal also seems more into cashing in on his piece of New York history, than preserving it. He’s said in interviews that before leaving for Vegas, he’s ripping out the stage, the urinal that Joey Ramone would use, and everything else he can for the new place in Vegas. His idea is apparently to make CBs into a sort of themed bar, like a Friday’s or an ESPNZone. One writer tagged his idea as “The Punk Rock Cafe.” It seems accurate, but ironic — the punk rock scene his club helped launch was, to some degree, against that sort of commercialism. The Bowery is no longer what it was. Like so many parts of New York, it’s being “cleaned up” — which means making it nice for wealthy suburbanites who’ll pay massive rents to have suburban convenience in the gritty city. There’s already one fancy apartment building there, and others will be going up soon. In time, the Bowery’s rep as a place for outsiders will be a thing of the past. Just like CBs, apparently.

We won’t weep for the place, though. Consider the words of Patti Smith, one of the first New York punk rockers. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Smith said, “Kids are resilient… If they close CBGB’s, they’ll find another hole-in-the-wall and give it glory.” We think she’s right; instead of focusing on the place we’re losing, we should look at this as an opportunity. Maybe it’s time to forget the old order and find a new dive, where musicians can create a new punk rock. There may be a new music revolution coming to New York, and we look forward to seeing it.

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