I got this from the
downtown music gallery's weekly e-mail newsletter.
Sirius will be broadcasting Patti Smith's concert on 10/15/2006, which will be CBGB's NYC last.
Read it and weep:
THE END OF AN ERA, THE CLOSING OF CBGB'S THIS WEEKEND!
This Sunday, October 15th, CBGB's, the renown punk palace that made the Bowery famous will have its final show with The Patti Smith Group. Everyone's favorite funky dive with an incredible sound system, will finally close down and bring an era to a sad demise. CBGB's was opened in 1973 by Hilly Crystal, a lovable yet feisty big bear of a guy, a Jewish fiddler from New Jersey who once managed the Village Vanguard. CBGB's stood for Country, Bluegrass & Blues, while OMFUG, also written on the marquee, meant Other Music for Uplifting Gourmandizers. Originally, it was a hangout for the Hells' Angels, not surprising since the Bowery has long had a bad reputation for bums and other undesirables. Hilly's only credo was that bands that played at CB's, had to play original music. So, through the years 1,000's of bands played there. Bands like the Ramones, Television, Talking Heads, Blondie and the Dictators, the Dead Boys, play their first or early gigs and many were born in CB's.
I started going there regularly in the late 70's and continued to frequent CB's throughout the 80's and early 90's. In the late 70's/early 80's CB's had a Sunday matinee for more experimental music, so I went almost every week to hear the likes of John Zorn, Fred Frith, Daevid Allen & NY Gong, Elliott Sharp... Here's a list of bands that I caught at CB's through the years: Pere Ubu, DNA, Pam (& Gary) Windo & the Shades, ISM, Public Servants (w/ Shelley Hirsch & Phillip Johnston), Meat Puppets, The President, V-Effect, Mofungo, Regressive Aid, Flipper, Live Skull, Kraut, Sonic Youth, Glenn Phillips Band, Love Tractor, Young Turks, Scornflakes, Replacements, Band of Outsiders, Certain General, Butthole Surfers, Dumptruck, False Prophets, Fish & Roses, Skeleton Crew, Killdozer, AOD, Dream Syndicate, Antietam, The Scene is Now, Celibate Rifles, Gone, Ritual Tension, Camper Van Beethoven, Dred Foole & the Din, Phantom Tollbooth, Pussy Galore, Soul Asylum, Yo Lat Tengo, Curlew, Alter Natives, Semantics, Big Dipper, Machine Gun, Living Colour, Rhythm Pigs, Elliott Sharp & Soldier String Quartet, Blind Idiot God, Melvin Gibbs Band, Pixies, Great Plains, Tenko, Mad World Music, Frith & E. Sharp, John Zorn & Haino Keiji, Firehose, Downy Mildew, Toh Ban Jan, Universal Congress Of, Das Damen, UT, American Music Club, Mekons, Cop Shoot Cop, Gary Lucas, Death os Samantha, Happy Flowers, Gun Club, Jesus Lizard, Napalm Death, Drunken Boat, Ambitious Lovers, Barkmarket, Zeni Geva, Caroliner Rainbow Hernia, Bewitched, Thinking Fellars, UFO or Die, The Swans, Cakekitchen, Grifters, Pain Teens, Th' Faith Heelers, Luscious Jackson, Bettie Serveert, Band of Susans, Scramms, Timber, Carbon, Electric Masada ( a week in CB's Gallery), Run On, Tsunami, Codiene, William Hooker, Blue Humans, The Dictators... Quite an impressive list!
The last gig I can remember going to at CB's was Pearls Before Swine and Bevis Frond, another incredible night. It is true that over the past decade, I would go to less shows at CB's, although I did frequent CB's Gallery on occasion. Over the last few years, Hilly was cool enough to let Dee Pop run a fine avant/jazz series downstairs from the Gallery. CBGB's is right down the block from our store and across the street from the Bowery Poetry Club. There is often a line of punk-rockers waiting outside to get in or just hanging out. The Bowery is changing fast, as NYU and other power brokers build oversized and over-priced condos up and down the block. Where will it lead? They are already squeezing out anyone who can not afford the ridiculous rents around here. What will happen to DMG when our lease runs out in 2 years? I shudder to think. Even our neighbor, Tower Records, will be closing soon. Perhaps we will be forced to move to Brooklyn and perhaps do mail-order only!?! Only time will tell and time is running out. When CBGB's closes, there will be nothing to take its place. Pretty fucking sad! Rumor has it that Hilly might be moving CB's to Las Vegas. Let's raise a toast to Hilly Crystal and CBGB's! Long live punk rock & long live original music!
- The DMG Crew