Why CBGB Is Better Off Dead
A 2005 bid to designate CBGB a historic landmark in the city of New York was unsuccessful despite support from Mayor Bloomberg.
CBGB, the legendary Bowery closet that launched the careers of such punk icons as the Ramones and Patti Smith, might be coming back from the dead.
Or not.
Gothamist’s Jen Carlson on Wednesday hinted on “good authority” that the music club is in the market for new a Manhattan space. However, the noticeably unspecific blog post smelled of empty rumor according to the New York Observer, which yesterday called Carlson’s report “so vague it could mean literally anything.”
CBGB closed in 2006, and its owner, Hilly Kristal, died of lung cancer the following year. The Kristal family still owns CBGB’s name, and most of the beer-soaked memorabilia that was left behind when it shut down is still reportedly holed up in “a basement somewhere.”
The question is, does anyone outside of the Hot Topic set really want to see a CBGB knockoff sprout up somewhere else in the city? Sure, it would have the CBGB name, and if the designers added enough Agnostic Front stickers and ripped the doors off the bathrooms, it might even look like the original, but who cares? The resulting venue would be no more CBGB than the Trump Taj Mahal is the actual Taj Mahal.
The energy and novelty that made CBGB what it was vanished from the city’s rock scene decades ago, and while the spirit of the club–and the music it spawned–definitely lives on, attempts to capture that spirit in a touristy reboot would be at best futile and at worst insulting.
A great punk club, like the bands it hosts, should know when to call it quits.
I’m still holding out for a Talking Heads reunion. Bring the club back!
Hey, I have an “I saw David Byrne outside CB’s one night” story, but then again, who doesn’t?
I’m jealous!
By the way, Seattle in the 90’s was what CBGBs was in the 70’s. I’m just saying.
The Croc: “The CBGB of Grunge.”
I think that more music venues are a good thing and the new owners would generate a lot of good will as well as gain employees with mad skills by giving former employees first crack at any openings. I’m not one, I just think it is a very good idea.
I hear they’re looking at a space in midtown, but they’d be wise to call it something else — I’m sick of seeing New York’s iconic establishments reborn as watered down versions of their former selves. As David Byrne might say, “This ain’t no foolin’ around.”
Speaking of Talking Heads, yesterday I was alerted to this video of the band playing at the short-lived Entermedia Theatre on Second Avenue & 12th Street (now the Village East Cinema) back in August 1978. Personally I prefer the expanded Remain In Light/Speaking in Tongues era live sound, but it’s pretty priceless footage nonetheless.
Well, Elizabeth makes a good point. It’s hard to argue against jobs and the need for more music venues, but that’s not what a new CBGB would be about. It would be about capitalizing on name recognition — kind of like Hollywood and all of its pointless remakes. Tim Burton’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” employed people, too, but that doesn’t mean it was a good idea. I have to agree with James on this one.
A new CBGB club is about as good an idea as the Sex Pistols 2008 tour.
That was just sad.
Look if Dana Krystal is running the club ok. Now if they treat musicians like family like CBGB did. ok. Some stupid nightclub for the sake of the name no. Cbgb’s was family a place the musicians felt welcome in. We never had to pay to see a bvand and the people that worked the club like Louis, Denis Dunn and all the Bouncers were family. Rest in Peace Big Charlie. They hired the best musicians to be the workers. If you were family you were allowed to run your own sound. do special showcases for friends. I would gladly work for free just to be able to play pool. at CBGB’s. A Homeless Punk Rocker spent many a night hanging their with no problems because they were family. Hilly was and will be missed. How is Karen Krystal doing?