Every summer for the past three years my close friend Aliana and I would make our pilgrimage to 2nd and The Bowery, what is known today as Joey Ramone Place. We would take Bleeker St. right to the very end where standing right in front of you was a White Canvas that read "CBGB'S," the canvas stood out like a sore thumb from the row of shitbox buildings that occupied that section of the Bowery. For us, and many fans of the infamous club, CBGB'S was a beautiful shitbox. You walk in and are greeted by a fully pierced hostess and the walls are painted black, yet you cant tell due to the fact that they are covered in band stickers, photos and vintage newspaper clippings. No where in the world could you find a bar with more history and more testicular fortitude than CB's.
Last year would be Aliana and I's final pilgrimage to mecca, when after a two year long fight with The Bowery Residence committee (CB'S Landlord), owner Hilly Kristal was forced to close the clubs doors for good. Some say the closing of CBGB'S marked the end of an era, some say the doors should have stayed open, others may also argue that once the 70's where over, so was the club. However you want to look at it, Hilly Kristal and CBGB'S changed the face of music forever.
Kristal opened the bar in the late 70's as a country and blue-grass venue (CBGB's = Country Blue Grass Blues), yet with no country or blues acts coming to the New York City area or willing to play in the seedy Bowery area, punks were coming out of the woodwork. He would then later add "OMFUG" to the marquee (OMFUG = Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers). What Hilly was doing he had no idea would blow up to be a pop culture phenomenon. Bands like The Ramones, The Talking Heads, Blondie were the house bands. Imagine going into a bar today and the guys on stage change the sound and scene forever and go on to become Rock and Roll Icons? That's the power CBGB's had, record labels would send their A&R guys down their to see what the next big thing would be. By the end of the 80's, the next big thing would be the club itself, it became an east coast haven for grunge, a west coast sound. It allowed bands like Dave Matthews Band, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Korn a platform to play when no one wanted to listen. I can go on forever on how much I loved that place and what it did for me. Only going their a handful of times I felt like I stepped into a time machine and was transported to a place and time I would have loved to have seen.
This afternoon I read the news to see that man that started it all, Hilly Kristal, passed away at 75 years old after a fight with Lung Cancer. What Kristal has done not only for myself but the hundreds of thousands of people that walked through those doors and played on that stage, a thank you from each person would never be enough. Oddly enough almost a year later, Kristal passed after his bar had closed, thus officially putting the stamp to mark the end of an era. Kristal is survived by his ex-wife Karen Kristal, daughter Lisa Kristal, and son Mark Dana Kristal.
