Posted on 08/03/2005 10:34:23 AM PDT by weegee
Steven Van Zandt, Tommy Ramone, Debbie Harry, Ted Leo, Jesse Malin, and more band together to save the beleaguered NY landmark.
Debbie Harry performs Blondie classics at CBGB, hopefully not for the last time. / Photo by Lane Brown If the graffiti-splattered, poster-covered walls of CBGB could talk, aside from asking for a good scrubbing, they might wax nostalgic about an era when they watched the Ramones grow up and fantasized as Debbie Harry sauntered across the stage. With those legendary walls facing possible demolition in a month, the venue's owner kicked off a month-long campaign on Monday to save the renowned New York City venue.
On August 1, the first day of the last month of the venue's current lease, Steven Van Zandt, Tommy Ramone, Debbie Harry, Lenny Kaye, Handsome Dick Manitoba, Legs McNeil, Jesse Malin, and a host of other speakers and performers banded together to raise the public's awareness about the very real possibility of the death of CBGB.
"CBGB is the last rock'n'roll club left," said Van Zandt as he held court over the press conference on the stage, sporting his signature bandana and loud purple shirt. "There's nothing like it left in the world, [a place] where people have come not being famous and left being found by record companies," Van Zandt added. "There's historical significance here too. The genre of punk was created here."
While Van Zandt and his fellow panelists put on brave faces and spewed optimistic and empowered sentiments about the import of the venue, there was of course the lurking knowledge that the club is in serious danger, since its landlord -- the Bowery Residents Committee (BRC), a non-profit organization for the homeless -- raised the rent.
The lease for the club, which has been a landmark on New York's Bowery for 31 years, is set to expire at the end of the month, unless the coalition for CBGB can convince the BRC to negotiate a fair lease renewal for the venue.
CBGB owner Hilly Kristal, who spoke in more hushed tones, said he felt the BRC wanted him out specifically, and assured the crowd that rumors of the club moving to Las Vegas were untrue. "We want to be here," he said.
As the press conference turned into a rock concert, Debbie Harry sashayed onto the stage flanked by Paul Carbonara on acoustic guitar and Kevin Patrick on keys. Clad in a red-and-white striped cardigan, a Dee Dee King tee, and a black boustier, the Blondie frontwoman -- for whom the CBGB stage was her launch pad into stardom -- crooned her way through a quartet of songs including a blues-infused rendition of "Call Me" and "Presence, Dear," swinging her hips and gazing out at the crowd. "Let's pull this thing together," she said, before exiting the stage.
Jesse Malin took a different route during his set, blasting through songs like "Queen of the Underworld" and "Black-Haired Girl," which he said went out to "all the girls who come out to CBGB." As the majority of the women in the club rushed the stage to get closer to the former glam-rocker, Malin that "the town wouldn't be the same without [CBGB]" before thrashing through the song "Wendy," and ending his set by kicking over a mic stand, sitting on the drums, and dousing the crowd with water.
During the marathon event, bands like the Star Spangles, Swingin' Neckbreakers, and others each played two sets: one at CBGB, and one next door at CB's 313 Gallery. While the double feature was a treat for fans, it became a burden for some of the rockers, including poor Ted Leo, who had to race through a quartet of songs in order to get next door in time for his scheduled set.
Everyone but Anton Newcombe of the Brian Jonestown Massacre was feeling the "Save CBGB" vibe. An inebriated Newcombe instead feebly attempted to rally the crowd to "leave this place" and "let it die." Managing to eke out just two songs during his set, Newcombe successfully insulted Handsome Dick Manitoba, the entire audience, his fellow band members and all of Canada.
Following his first song, Newcombe took a break to lob some more insults at the audience before pouring some water on the stage for his "fallen friends, you know what I mean?" As the crowd uselessly implored him to just play a damn song, Newcombe remained defiant: "I have four minutes to play the best song ever, so I am going to talk shit for the next two."
Maybe he didn't have the best intentions or his faculties in order, but even Newcombe's annoying antics could be included in the slew of reasons to keep CBGB standing.
To help the club stay alive, drop by any night over the next month and show your support, or visit CBGB.com or savecbgb.org to find out how.
BUMP
I wonder if the talking heads/TomTom club will get involved. They played there a bunch.
Just because punk wasn't shoved in our face like grunge was doesn't mean it's dead.
Don't see them listed:
http://www.cbgb.com/save_cbgb_benefit_shows.htm
AUGUST
8/2 JOKER 5 SPEED
8/3 RANA / SOUND OF URCHIN (co-headline) with Big Machine [buy tickets]
8/4 CHEVELLE [buy tickets]
8/5 BUSH TETRAS
8/7 AWKWARD THOUGHT, URBAN RIOT, STEP2FAR, NUTS & BOLTS, THE TURNPIKE WRECKS and STATE of DISGRACE
8/9 APHASIA, SHORTIE
8/10 AGAINST ME, THE EXIT, WORLD INFERNO FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY
8/12 MISFITS [buy tickets]
8/13 VANS WARPED TOUR AFTER PARTY
8/14 GORILLA BISCUITS, BLACK TRAIN JACK
8/15 RAW POWER
8/19 LIVING COLOUR
8/20 THE VANDALS
8/22 KID DYNAMITE, GREYAREA
8/26 DEAD BOYS, FLIPPER, PETER AND THE TEST TUBE BABIES, ADRENALIN O.D. ,
FURIOUS GEORGE [buy tickets]
8/27 DEAD BOYS, ANTI-NOWHERE LEAGUE, NIHILISTICS, SFA [buy tickets]
8/28 SHAM 69, FLIPPER, CHEETAH CHROME & THE BLACK ANGELS [buy tickets]
8/29 SMAM 69, YOUTH BRIGADE, THE RADICTS [buy tickets]
ALSO PLAYING IN AUGUST IS YOUTH BRIGADE, FANG, BILLY CLUB AND MORE TBA LATER.
SEPTEMBER
9/1 CONFLICT, VERBAL ABUSE, LOST CHERREES [buy tickets]
9/2 CONFLICT, LOST CHERREES [buy tickets]
9/3 TODAY IS THE DAY, CIRCLE OF DEAD CHILDREN, ADOLYNE
9/4 SICK OF IT ALL, FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS, MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD
9/6 DR. KNOW, DAYGLO ABORTIONS, THE ACCUSED
9/7 DR. KNOW, DAYGLO ABORTIONS, THE ACCUSED
9/8 THE EXPLOITED
9/9 CIRCLE JERKS, ADOLESCENTS, D.I. , CHANNEL 3, ZERO BOYS, ELECTRIC FRANKENSTEIN [buy tickets]
9/10 CIRCLE JERKS, ADOLESCENTS, D.I., CHANNEL 3, ZERO BOYS [buy tickets]
Considering the bands that have played there in the past and bands that exist today, the booking for these shows just isn't there (and that is acknowledging the Stiv-less Dead Boys reunion).
Opening night fundraiser sounded like it had better bands but only 2-4 songs each.
It was dead by 77. Lester Bangs wrote an essay about it, and THAT was the 3rd movement of punk by his reckoning.
Bummer.
I only hope she does better at this show than she did the last time I saw her. She shuffled around like a sixty year old confused stoner. Which she probably is, but it was rather embarrassing to watch.
Perhaps I'll just stick to cd's.
FR-mail me to be added to or removed from this ping list
Speaking as one who has christened the bathroom (notice I didn't say toilet) at CBGB on a few occassions, I can honestly say that, while it was a great place to hang in my youth, its time has come and gone. The death of NY's hardcore scene (and live music in general in the big apple) has meant that it was only a matter of time before that little hovel on Bowery & Bleecker became a Starbucks or Sushi stand.
New Wave bands (lots of good ones) took over in the 1980's, and punk receded. The good punk rockers broke up (Sex Pistols), joined other bands, or got a little more mainstream (Blondie is a classic example).
My fave punk essay by Bangs. He was right about the fact that Punk was an AMERICAN phenomenom, rooted in garage rock (the Sonics, Count Five, and even early Paul Revere). I also liked his essay "the White Noise Supremacists" about the creeping neo-Nazism in the punk scene.
I care to remember her how she jammed in the 80's.
I still remember watching the original American Band Stand when she performed Heart of Glass. Loved it. Love it. (yes I know all of ABS was lip synced. It was still cool to dance to in front of the t.v.!) LOL.
'Til this day I will get up and dance with no one around and love hearing Blondie songs.
My mom still waxes emotional about all the old dance halls in the Seattle area that were torn down. I think the last one went down 25 years ago.
Life goes on. There is a little too much romanticising about this building going on. "That's the hallway where we got really high and me and this really f***ed up chick got it on during a Ramones concert. Man I'm going to miss that building."
Rapture is my favorite. But all of her songs force me to get up and move.
A sad indicator of my age is I judge music by whether or not it is good to clean to.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.