last show at cbgbs
nme story
i started going to cb's in 1976. 1st show: television w/ suicide opening. soon to follow: ramones (two shows one night?! friends wanted to leave after 1st show, we stayed), judy nylon, ramones again, and again... anyone else catch something special there (and i dont mean from the bath room)?
Bad Brains in '79. They were at their most "hardcore punk" then.
what do you think of the possibility that it morphs into some sort of "punk" hardrock cafe with its rebirth into vegas kitsch?
odds id put at 100%. cbgb tshirts are already an over 2 million dollars a year franchise. the club has been brain dead for years. well captured by a gilmore girls episode where lanes band is scheduled but gets bumped (for lack of an audience) on a tuesday night 2 am gig. tom you saw the bad brains in dc too i imagine. they rock.
Wasn't it already a simulacrum of itself, for the last, say 20 years? When was the last time anyone went there?
Re: the Brains, yes, I sort of followed them up here from DC, although I was already living here.
the sunday hardcore matinee held its ground till late 80's till it was cancelled for evil HC behavior inside and out. id give the weekend shows a good 10 year run, then turned crapola. i guess the vibe shifted to the next-door space that handeled the indie vibe ok, i guess.
well it still was a punk(ish) rock shithole all the way through. there were no theme restaurants or gift shops or casinos. it was nobodys job to dress punk for the tourists. that will be an entirely new level of brand management. does patti smith play cbgbs vegas lounge act like a latter day judy garland?
She'll always keep it real, won't she? (I confess I haven't been following her--has she gone over to the dark, I mean light side?)
right dave but as a simulation after say, 85-86 (end of east village low life artist (real punk) hayday - beginning of EV 12 step (clean up get a job hayday). i think PS would play a bigger room and keep it real to the day she dies. she has always been a fashion plate you know. by comparison (not contrast), ive heard some pretty good yoko stories where she maintained a separate apartment in the dakota for her fendi furs (fur!!!!) . but she still keeps it pretty real as a rich hippie type. punk reinvents its self for every generation and i would predict always will. i think its a locked in trope that will regenerate itself in perp. excellent to have witnessed the invention of youth meems in the making in real time. greaser, ivy league (later to be preppy) surf (white levis, horizontal stripe shirts (note: aw and velvets picked up on west-coast stripe shirts and french fisherman sweaters with horizontal stripes and wide neck) or hang ten shirts, blue deck shoes (note: john lennon wore brown suede topsider sneakers), hippie (long hair country-western), glitter-glam, punk (and hardcore - english punk with the mohawk and safety pins) disco (duck), goth (raincoat, firearms), preppy, metal, garage or rockabilly, skate, hip-hop, cool kids (preppy with emphasis on couture), hipster (pabst, mod/rocker), etc. i think none of these will really go away and fewer and fewer new identity inventions will need to appear. and there should be plenty of real authentic (looking) neo-punks looking for service positions in the music industry at cb's in vegas. 2 cents for you.
If CB’s succeeds in Vegas it will invalidate everything it stood for to begin with, but I think Hilly’s on his last legs and I wouldn’t count on the move really happening.
I think my first show was Talking Heads, 77/78; we were way at the back, could barely see the band and the hype was already in effect. Tops were back-to-back Pere Ubu shows in 78, and Buttholes up close and personal in 85 & 87. Beyond that it was worth something to see your friends embarrass themselves by drawing paltry crowds in the latter days, professional regards for the hard-core kids notwithstanding.
Venues deserve a certain honor, but if there’s music worth seeing, it’ll find a place to be seen.
slideshow
haha, growing up in sweden, immersed in punk and new wave from both continents, i remember a swedish pop band with talking head influences bragging about that they were going to NY to play cb's. every hipster in town was impressed.
a year later i moved here and quickly realized that the infamous gig they had done was on one of those almost open mike nights. funny what cb's meant to us. even in old "sviiiiiden".
(how are you doing Bill, give my regards to carl.)
fotolog.net/galamander
i will.
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- bill 10-16-2006 4:10 pm
nme story
i started going to cb's in 1976. 1st show: television w/ suicide opening. soon to follow: ramones (two shows one night?! friends wanted to leave after 1st show, we stayed), judy nylon, ramones again, and again... anyone else catch something special there (and i dont mean from the bath room)?
- bill 10-16-2006 4:14 pm [add a comment]
Bad Brains in '79. They were at their most "hardcore punk" then.
- tom moody 10-16-2006 6:41 pm [add a comment]
what do you think of the possibility that it morphs into some sort of "punk" hardrock cafe with its rebirth into vegas kitsch?
- dave 10-16-2006 7:00 pm [add a comment]
odds id put at 100%. cbgb tshirts are already an over 2 million dollars a year franchise. the club has been brain dead for years. well captured by a gilmore girls episode where lanes band is scheduled but gets bumped (for lack of an audience) on a tuesday night 2 am gig. tom you saw the bad brains in dc too i imagine. they rock.
- bill 10-16-2006 7:06 pm [add a comment]
Wasn't it already a simulacrum of itself, for the last, say 20 years? When was the last time anyone went there?
- tom moody 10-16-2006 7:08 pm [add a comment]
Re: the Brains, yes, I sort of followed them up here from DC, although I was already living here.
- tom moody 10-16-2006 7:13 pm [add a comment]
the sunday hardcore matinee held its ground till late 80's till it was cancelled for evil HC behavior inside and out. id give the weekend shows a good 10 year run, then turned crapola. i guess the vibe shifted to the next-door space that handeled the indie vibe ok, i guess.
- bill 10-16-2006 7:35 pm [add a comment]
well it still was a punk(ish) rock shithole all the way through. there were no theme restaurants or gift shops or casinos. it was nobodys job to dress punk for the tourists. that will be an entirely new level of brand management. does patti smith play cbgbs vegas lounge act like a latter day judy garland?
- dave 10-16-2006 7:57 pm [add a comment]
She'll always keep it real, won't she? (I confess I haven't been following her--has she gone over to the dark, I mean light side?)
- tom moody 10-16-2006 8:15 pm [add a comment]
right dave but as a simulation after say, 85-86 (end of east village low life artist (real punk) hayday - beginning of EV 12 step (clean up get a job hayday). i think PS would play a bigger room and keep it real to the day she dies. she has always been a fashion plate you know. by comparison (not contrast), ive heard some pretty good yoko stories where she maintained a separate apartment in the dakota for her fendi furs (fur!!!!) . but she still keeps it pretty real as a rich hippie type. punk reinvents its self for every generation and i would predict always will. i think its a locked in trope that will regenerate itself in perp. excellent to have witnessed the invention of youth meems in the making in real time. greaser, ivy league (later to be preppy) surf (white levis, horizontal stripe shirts (note: aw and velvets picked up on west-coast stripe shirts and french fisherman sweaters with horizontal stripes and wide neck) or hang ten shirts, blue deck shoes (note: john lennon wore brown suede topsider sneakers), hippie (long hair country-western), glitter-glam, punk (and hardcore - english punk with the mohawk and safety pins) disco (duck), goth (raincoat, firearms), preppy, metal, garage or rockabilly, skate, hip-hop, cool kids (preppy with emphasis on couture), hipster (pabst, mod/rocker), etc. i think none of these will really go away and fewer and fewer new identity inventions will need to appear. and there should be plenty of real authentic (looking) neo-punks looking for service positions in the music industry at cb's in vegas. 2 cents for you.
- bill 10-16-2006 8:46 pm [add a comment]
If CB’s succeeds in Vegas it will invalidate everything it stood for to begin with, but I think Hilly’s on his last legs and I wouldn’t count on the move really happening.
I think my first show was Talking Heads, 77/78; we were way at the back, could barely see the band and the hype was already in effect. Tops were back-to-back Pere Ubu shows in 78, and Buttholes up close and personal in 85 & 87. Beyond that it was worth something to see your friends embarrass themselves by drawing paltry crowds in the latter days, professional regards for the hard-core kids notwithstanding.
Venues deserve a certain honor, but if there’s music worth seeing, it’ll find a place to be seen.
- alex 10-17-2006 5:50 am [add a comment]
slideshow
- bill 10-17-2006 8:03 pm [add a comment]
haha, growing up in sweden, immersed in punk and new wave from both continents, i remember a swedish pop band with talking head influences bragging about that they were going to NY to play cb's. every hipster in town was impressed.
a year later i moved here and quickly realized that the infamous gig they had done was on one of those almost open mike nights. funny what cb's meant to us. even in old "sviiiiiden".
(how are you doing Bill, give my regards to carl.)
fotolog.net/galamander
- k (guest) 10-18-2006 12:42 am [add a comment]
i will.
- bill 10-18-2006 3:21 am [add a comment]