Posted on 07/07/2006 10:37:15 AM PDT by weegee
CBGB Owner Relocating Club — Urinals Included — To Vegas This Spring
Hilly Kristal vows to put on finale shows at NYC venue.
Hilly Kristal's got an awful lot of packing ahead of him.
The owner and operator of New York's legendary CBGB club says by mid-October, the last drinks will have been poured and the last unsigned band will have taken the stage inside the punk-rock landmark. In compliance with an agreement Kristal reached with the club's landlord last December (see "CBGB Owner, Landlord Reach Accord: Club To Close On Halloween '06"), CBGB will no longer exist on the Bowery.
Still, Kristal says he's not about to let the mythical club go the way of the dodo.
"We want to take a lot of this stuff with us, and I think we're going to move to Las Vegas," Kristal said, adding that he'll start disassembling parts of the club as early as September. "I have some developers who have some really great space in the downtown area. So, I'd say sometime in spring we'll be in Las Vegas. It's a big undertaking, and these developers are putting the money into it, and I want to make sure that, for my benefit and theirs, we make this work."
Of course, Kristal, who wouldn't name the developers he's working with, knows it won't be the same in Vegas. "I don't have any choice," he explained. "I have been looking for space in New York and the rent's $125,000 a month on Broadway." He said he came close to securing a space downtown on Essex Street, but the deal didn't make it past the negotiations phase. So, it's "Viva Las Vegas" for one of New York's most revered rock and roll attractions.
"[The Vegas CBGB] won't be the same size or the same shape, but I am going to have all the things that matter there," Kristal said. "I am taking the bars with me, I am taking the stage — I'm taking the urinal that Joey [Ramone] p!ssed in with me. I'm going to take a lot of things — anything that makes this place CBGB.
"I'll make it CBGB, and even more so," he continued. "I think we can do better, starting in a new place, where the city's for it. It's more important to try to keep things going and moving up."
Kristal said he'd still like to open a second CBGB in New York but doesn't see that happening for at least several years because of high rent. But financial worries and his club's impending move aren't Kristal's biggest concerns at the moment: Three weeks ago, he learned that he has lung cancer, and he's been enduring chemotherapy treatments ever since.
"It's in one spot," he said of the tumor. "They will be able to have great surgeons cut it out — a part of my lung. But I have to tell you, chemotherapy ain't fun. It's going to be corrected, and things will be good."
Kristal's highly publicized battle with his landlord, a nonprofit called the Bowery Residents' Committee that funds programs for New York's homeless, ended in December with an agreement that stated CBGB could continue to operate in the same space it has occupied since its 1973 inception until October 31. Kristal agreed to pay near-market rent of $35,000 per month, an increase of $16,000 over the amount he was paying before the lease ran out nearly a year ago.
Kristal said he's working with a couple of bookers to give CBGB a fitting send-off and added that several of the artists who helped make the club famous, as well as a number of on-the-brink bands, have been contacted about performing as part of the two-month finale. A schedule will be announced in the coming weeks.
Does this mean he'll put the "Country BlueGrass Blues" back into the rotation?
This ain't the Mud Club.
spelled Mudd Club.
Will they be able to keep the bathrooms in Las Vegas as dirty as they were and are down at The Bowery?
CBGB just wasn't the same after Lester Flatt died.
I have fuzzy memories of all three of my visits to CBGB's in the mid-seventies. I do remember worrying more about the crowd in the club waiting to see The Ramones and Patti Smith than the bums and thugs roaming the streets of the lower East side.
The Double Down Saloon's bathrooms are probably that dirty. Not having been to NYC, I wouldn't know for sure.
And more News You Can Use. There is footage of the CBGBs bathroom in The Foreigner, an art film feature by Amos Poe. The Cramps can be seen beating up the title figure in the bar and dragging him to the bathroom.
Lux cuts at his shirt with a knife (something that supposedly freaked everyone involved in the shoot).
Mudd Club can be seen in the feature Downtown 81.
CBGB = semi-enclosed sewer that exploited its association with a few famous bands and impressed the desperate-for-mythology music press. In reality, it would let anyone with two tin cans and a string to play a show. Most nights were triple bills of horrible amateurish noise (and I'm not talking about Ramones-type amateurs, I'm talking about truly inept 'musicians') as bands from the hinterland came to kiss the ring and put CBGB on their resume.
All of the now-wealthy CBGB alums apparently couldn't be bothered to bail out the club financially and the owner also appears to have frittered his cash away.
Oh I agree that the place is trading on a name and a reputation that more often than not was for days that passed by decades ago.
Rather than treking to Las Cbgbs, people should scout out THAT bar in their own town and see the local Ramones, Talking Heads, that Blondie girl who hangs out there even on the nights she isn't playing...
rip
Johnny Ramone
"the original conservative punk"
http://www.punkmagazine.com/morestuff/johnny_ramone.html
Punk venue CBGB's closing after 33 years - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061009/ap_en_ot/cbgb_s_shutdown_5
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