CBGB Brings Down the Curtain With Nostalgia and One Last Night of Rock

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: CBGB Brings Down the Curtain With Nostalgia and One Last Night of Rock
By BEN SISARIO
Published: October 16, 2006


(Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)
Patti Smith, one of the first musicians to play at CBGB in the 1970’s, arrived for the last concert at the famed East Village club.

....Last night was the last concert at CBGB, the famously crumbling rock club that has been in continuous, loud operation since December 1973, serving as the casual headquarters and dank incubator for some of New York’s most revered groups — (Patti) Smith’s, the Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, Television, Sonic Youth — as well as thousands more whose blares left less of a mark on history but whose graffiti and concert fliers might still remain on its walls.

After a protracted real estate battle with its landlord, a nonprofit organization that aids the homeless, CBGB agreed late last year to leave its home at 313 and 315 Bowery at the end of this month. And Ms. Smith’s words outside the club, where her group was playing, encapsulated the feelings shared by fans around the city and around the world: CBGB is both the scrappy symbol of rock’s promise and a temple that no one wanted to see go.

“CBGB is a state of mind,” she said from the stage in a short preshow set for the news media whose highlight was a medley of Ramones songs....

***

Crowds had been lined up outside since early yesterday morning for a chance to see Ms. Smith and bid farewell to the club, in an event that was carefully orchestrated to maximize media coverage. Television news vans were parked on the Bowery as fans with pink hair, leather jackets and — the most popular fashion statement of the night — multicolored CBGB T-shirts (but not necessarily tickets) waited to be let in and Ms. Smith’s band played a short set for the assembled press.

Curiosity about the club’s last night was mingled with harsh feelings about its fate.

“It’s the cultural rape of New York City that this place is being pushed out,” said John Nikolai, a black-clad 36-year-old photographer from Staten Island whose tie read “I quit.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/16/arts/music/16cbgb.html?hp&ex=1160971200&en=5774c0b5de8bbecb&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Initech]

1. Sigh, the end of yet another music landmark...

First with Tower Records and now CBGB's... it sucks.

[johnnie]

2. All these years and I never knew CBGB was short for..

(CBGB & OMFUG)Country, Bluegrass and Blues and Other Music for Uplifting Gormandizers