End Of A Punk-rock Institution Whose Attitude Won't Die

[Paper Hearts]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/16/arts/mus...artner=homepage

Probably as terrible a venue through out it's last nineteen years as it was a great venue for it's first thirteen years, CBGB closes it's doors forever, reminding me that a bar is just a bar.

[phee]

Saw that.... interesting.... don't worry, Paramount will open a watered down chain resteraunt version of it eventually

[Paper Hearts]

Saw that.... interesting.... don't worry, Paramount will open a watered down chain resteraunt version of it eventually

Right, with $14 cheeseburgers containing meat from factory farms, being eaten by people sipping on non alcoholic beer, served by electrically over-tanned waitresses clad in baseball caps, shortpants and tanktops. If CBGB had gone that route, they'd still be a pub. One in every city, I'm sure. And just wait for the movie. Not any worse than Moulin Rouge, naturally.

[phee]

Right, with $14 cheeseburgers containing meat from factory farms, being eaten by people sipping on non alcoholic beer, served by electrically over-tanned waitresses clad in baseball caps, shortpants and tanktops. If CBGB had gone that route, they'd still be a pub. One in every city, I'm sure. And just wait for the movie. Not any worse than Moulin Rouge, naturally.

Exactly....

Would you like a "TV Party" steak?

Or maybe a Sid Viscous Tuna?

[Paper Hearts]

Exactly....

Would you like a "TV Party" steak?

Or maybe a Sid Viscous Tuna?

"Try our new Stilettos Spritzer !!" *exclaimed with a crusty smile, above her obnoxious breasts flaunting one of those Patti Smith badges pinned just offset from the left nipple on her pre-ripped tanktop*

[phee]

Flipping the Early bird breakfast special

[Paper Hearts]

Flipping the Early bird breakfast special

(I'm laughing.) -With a mannequin heroin addict injecting, in every stall in the restrooms.

[Paper Hearts]

God damn it, Phee, let's sell out and go into buisness.

[phee]

God damn it, Phee, let's sell out and go into buisness.

I see great things in our future...

[Paper Hearts]

I see great things in our future...

Actually, I just checked. I think you were mistakenly looking into the future of the person nearest you. Our future is fraught with whoa.

[phee]

Woah?

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

Actually, the owner is going to move the bar to LA.... or was it Las Vegas.. one of the two... and open a clothing store not too far from where CGGB is/was.

Maybe they should have paid thier rent.

[Paper Hearts]

^CBGB had a store next to the bar from some point in the mid to late 1990s, onward. It was filled with really tacky hoodys and things emblazoned with the CBGB OMFUG logo. CBGB OMFUG had become a very popular destination for tourists in New York City which was why they started selling frisbees and commemorative spoons and things.

CBGB, regardless of their failing relevance as a true epicenter of American avant-garde rock music, remained a Mecca of sorts, for lots of people from the blank generation...who are older now and can afford to travel, and who also have children whose music owes CBGB credit, as well.

CBGB was packed with vacationers every night, paying high cover and drinking liquid tons of alcohol. Although rent in Manhattan is high, there are bars around who do much worse business than CBGB has done since the good music has left it, which have still kept their doors open--Albeit Max's Kansas City closed a long time ago. -I'm not sure Hilly Kristal was interested in paying his rent.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

Hadn't paid it in 17 years... why ever start again.

[Paper Hearts]

Well, you are right. And I'm inclined to wonder whether maybe this has been his plan all along.

[Paper Hearts]

I've done a bit of research into the CBGB franchise. In addition to to the retail clothing shop and the now closed popular bar, CBGB distributes it's merchandise to select stores around the nation and sells it's products via a web site. CBGB also has it's own record label and a recording studio. They also sell e-mail addresses (yourname@CBGB.net).

In it's day, the bar was credited responsible for discovering such acts as:

Blondie (originally, the Stilettos)

Elvis Costello

Television and Richard Hell and the Voidoids

Joan Jett

the Plasmatics

The Ramones

Patti Smith

Talking Heads

The Cars

-Among many others.

Acts such as the Tuff Darts, Bruce Springsteen, Sham 69, X-Ray Spex, the Police, Nico, Mink Deville, the Miamis, the Jam, the Damned, Alex Chilton, the Dead Boys, John Cale, the Shirts, Orchestra Luna, Tom Waits, Suicide, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, also played CBGB early on. The bar was also frequented by artists such as Andy Warhol and Allen Ginsberg and companies such as Manic Panic were started by CBGB patrons.

[Der Nister]

:erm

[pomba gira]

"Try our new Stilettos Spritzer !!" *exclaimed with a crusty smile, above her obnoxious breasts flaunting one of those Patti Smith badges pinned just offset from the left nipple on her pre-ripped tanktop*

"obnoxious breasts"

yeah I've seen a few in my time

Woah?

woe?

[mallochai]

wee-oh.

CBGB's, moving to vegas. So much for the punk mentality.

Ah well, vive le capitalism!!!!

[Paper Hearts]

wee-oh.

CBGB's, moving to vegas. So much for the punk mentality.

Ah well, vive le capitalism!!!!

CBGB, was really just a bar. The same phenomena could have started at many other bars around that area, It's just that the guys from the band Television happened to walk by as Hilly Kristal was tacking up the marquee, or something. At the same time, there were no other bars in Manhattan where an "unsigned" rock band could play original music. Kristal took a chance by allowing unsigned rock bands to play the bar on Sundays, only, at first, but the Bowery was not an area that many tourists found there way to anyway--Kristal only ever dreamt the bar would be a local's shit hole. Kristal was not impressed by Television's first performance, either, because Television's first gig was performed for a crowd of about nine people. One or those people was Patti Smith. It just so happened that many other local performers such as the Ramones or like Patti Smith, heard there was a place where they could play in Manhattan and so groups began sort of contacting Kristal for gigs, from all angles. The response was more than Hilly Kristal had ever thought about and the crowds his endeavor drew were more than he'd ever hoped for, eventually. But Kristal was only a pub owner, he wasn't really an artist of the movement. In reality, Kristal was an accidental patron or supporter of the arts and a reluctant philanthropist; Kristal only wanted to sell more liquor.