As many of you know I spent lots of time at the now defunct legendary New York punk club CBGB's and during my time (my CB's time was high school in the mid 90's to the time CBGB's closed in 2006) at CBGB's I got to see many amazing bands, befriended some of the staff and had myself a great time. When the club was under the threat of closing in 2005 I helped spread the word about keeping it open and I tried to save it up till it closed in 2006.
Being bummed about the closing of CBGB's in 2006, I was content to live with memories and felt a special pride that I could tell people that I was at CBGB's for shows, albeit it the shows I saw there weren't exactly the Ramones or Blondie but the stuff I saw at CB's was pretty awesome. Plus the fact I had gone out of my comfort zone and discovered other venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn, I was living in Manhattan at the time.
Anyhow fast forward a few years and I heard rumblings that Hilly Kristal the owner of CBGB's daughter Lisa had sold the rights to the CBGB's name after Hilly's passing in 2007 to some promoters from New Jersey who wanted to start a CBGB's music festival.
Well the CBGB Music Festival is now a reality, it will happen in Manhattan and in some spots of Brooklyn from July 5th to July 8th. The line up includes The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The So-So Glos, The Cro-Mags, a reunion of D-Generation (Jesse Malin's old band) and Craig Finn from the Hold Steady among others. The festival also includes film screenings, industry panels and a spirits part of the festival.
The CBGB's festival is basically like every other music festival i.e. CMJ, SXSW etc with the CBGB's name attached to it.
And after the CBGB's festival was announced to the public it was also announced that plans were in the works for a CBGB's bio pic. Harry Potter stars Alan Rickman and Rupert Grint were cast as CBGB's owner Hilly Kristal and The Dead Boys guitarist Cheetah Crome and Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins was cast as Iggy Pop (BTW Iggy never played CBGB's) and Sting and Trudy Styler's daughter Mickey Sumner has been cast to play Patti Smith.
What kills me is had the Wetlands or the Bitter End had done a music festival just like this CBGB's music festival fifteen, twenty years ago you would have heard those who were CBGB's regulars complain about how the festival was a sad baby boomer hippy nostalgia thing out to make money...well!? And the way the festival is booked seems so haphazard, you don't put a band that has a strong New Jersey fan base & who hasn't played Brooklyn in four years at a venue in South Brooklyn!
In closing I feel like we should just let all of this CBGB's nostalgia die, enough is enough yeah it was fun and yeah some really good bands played CBGB's, but let it die please, be content with your memories! Don't let CBGB's become a sad nostalgia palace.
That's my two cents.
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