Legendary punk rock n roll venue CBGB's, located on The Bowery in the East Village of N.Y has been purchased by a bunch of investors that are planning a CBGB's festival and MIGHT consider reopening the venue at a different site.
Founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973, CBGB's was originally intended to feature its namesake musical styles ( those being Country, BlueGrass and Blues) hence its name. However the venue ended up becoming a forum for American punk and New Wave bands like Ramones, Misfits, Television, the Patti Smith Group, Mink DeVille, The Dead Boys, The Dictators, The Fleshtones, The Voidoids, The Cramps, Blondie, The Shirts, and Talking Heads.
The venue closed it's doors in 2006 after a battle between owner Hilly Kristal and The Bowery Residents Committee over $91,000 in unpaid back rent. Kristal fought hard to get Historic Landmark status for the club, but gave up the legal battles over rent. The last week of gigs featured Bad Brains, The Dictators, an acoustic set by Blondie and a finale starring Patti Smith.
Skip to 2012 and The New York Times has reported that new investors in the site plan to hold a massive city-wide music festival in July and are also considering the possibility of reopening the club at a new location. Why can't they just open the old one!
Anyhoo, the CBGB festival that is in planning right now sounds like a good one. I may have to sell a kidney to get over there. It is set to run from July 5th to 8th, will include 300 bands at 30 locations across New York, from Central Park's Summerstage to the Highline Ballroom to clubs like Lit Lounge. The festival will also include screenings of 30 classic and new rock films and documentaries on five screens over the course of two days. Plus a conference with panels and talks from songwriters, publishers, record label employees, promoters, journalists and more.
in case you're interested the full venue name is CBGB & OMFUG. OMFUG stands for "Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers"
Here are the Ramones playing CBGB's in 1974.
