{"id":2064927,"date":"2025-10-02T18:42:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T18:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2064927"},"modified":"2025-10-02T18:42:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T18:42:13","slug":"cbgb-festival-stays-true-to-its-roots-with-a-night-of-punks-past-present-and-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/cbgb-festival-stays-true-to-its-roots-with-a-night-of-punks-past-present-and-future\/","title":{"rendered":"CBGB Festival stays true to its roots with a night of punk\u2019s past, present and future"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For the first time in nearly two decades, CBGB, the beloved Lower East Side punk venue, was back in the New York groove, but in a different form and in a new setting. Last weekend, nearly 10,000 fans trekked out to Under the K Bridge Park in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, for the CBGB Festival.<\/p>\n

For nearly 33 years, CBGB was a symbol of punk\u2019s passion and persistence. It all started in 1973 when proprietor Hilly Kristal transformed his dive bar into a venue for Country, Bluegrass, Blues and Other Music for Uplifting Gormandizers \u2014 CBGB-OMFUG for short. Or, to the millions of punks who staggered under the entrance\u2019s iconic awning: \u201cCBGBs.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Kristal\u2019s vision for the club as a country music mecca didn\u2019t materialize, he pivoted to the loud, abrasive sounds emerging from Bowery \u2014 even though the former Marine personally didn\u2019t care for it.<\/p>\n

For the three decades Kristal ran CBGB, he never stopped experimenting and wasn\u2019t afraid to try something new: from serving 50-cent bowls of chili to staging all-ages matinee hardcore shows. Today, CBGB is best-remembered as the incubator for punk\u2019s first wave, launching the legacies of Television, Talking Heads, Blondie, Patti Smith and the Ramones.<\/p>\n

But it was seldom pretty. Marky Ramone, who played with Richard Hell and the Voidoids before joining the Ramones, recalled what it was like back when Kristal slept in a cot in the back of the bar. \u201cThere were no doors on the bathroom. There was a dog that Hilly owned that used to s\u2014 all over the place and everybody would slide on it as they walked in.\u201d<\/p>\n

When CBGB closed its doors in 2006, it became an unlikely symbol of gentrification after a clothing boutique took over the storied space. Kristal passed away the following year and ownership of the CBGB brand changed hands. Since then, CBGB has struggled to find the proper platform to showcase its history \u2014 until last weekend.<\/p>\n

The CBGB Festival delivered a diverse lineup of bands from punk rock\u2019s past, present and future that reflected the inclusive spirit of the early \u201970s. \u201cWe weren\u2019t competitive amongst each other,\u201d remembered Ramone, \u201cbecause all our genres were different. Blondie didn\u2019t sound like the Ramones. The Ramones didn\u2019t sound like Patti Smith. Patti Smith didn\u2019t sound like Television.\u201d<\/p>\n

That diversity was important to the festival\u2019s organizers. Phil Sandhaus, brand manager and partner, looked to the past for inspiration. \u201cWhat would Hilly do?\u201d Sandhaus said. \u201cHe was the pioneer.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Fans pose and take pictures in front of a replica of the legendary punk club at CBGB Festival. <\/p>\n

(Maggie Lndn Photo)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Sandhaus\u2019 search for a new home for CBGB has been no less challenging than it was half a century ago. \u201cThe Lower East Side is not what the Lower East Side used to be,\u201d Sandhaus said. \u201cAnd so is it Brooklyn? Is it Queens? As we\u2019re looking for a venue, we decided to put on a festival.\u201d<\/p>\n

To lend a bit of grit to the proceedings, the original bar was put on display and Kristal\u2019s office was assembled in the VIP area. The iconic awning, however, was a reconstruction. (The original is on display at the Rock \u2019n\u2019 Roll Hall of Fame.)<\/p>\n

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\"Iggy <\/picture>\n
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Iggy Pop performs at CBGB Festival.<\/p>\n

(Jenna Murray)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Each of the festival\u2019s three stages was curated to reflect Kristal\u2019s evolving vision for his infamous patch of punk rock paradise. The CBGB Stage, the largest and loudest, was where headlining acts such as the Melvins, the Damned, Jack White, and Iggy Pop turned back the clock and ripped up the stage. Or, in Iggy\u2019s case, rolled around on it.<\/p>\n

The Young Punks Stage featured artists from the next generation: Pink Shift, Scowl, Linda Lindas and Destroy Boys to name a few. Many of these artists are young, but that doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t know their history.<\/p>\n

The Linda Lindas\u2019 Eloise Wong, who danced in the pit before and after her set, was well aware of the club\u2019s legacy. \u201cWhen the Linda Lindas started out,\u201d she said, \u201cwe were covering a lot of Ramones songs.\u201d The L.A. band has also opened for Blondie and recorded a cover of the Talking Heads song \u201cFound a Job,\u201d which the group played during its set.<\/p>\n

Kat Moss of Scowl learned her history the old-fashioned way: She read about it in a book. \u201cI got most of my information about CBGB from \u2018Please Kill Me.\u2019 I recommend everybody read it!\u201d (Legs McNeil\u2019s oral history is a great place to start, but I also suggest \u201cThis Ain\u2019t No Disco: The Story of CBGB\u201d by Roman Kozak, reissued last year by Trouser Press.)<\/p>\n

Hilly\u2019s Stage was where many of the hardcore bands with a personal connection to CBGB played, including Cro-Mags, Murphy\u2019s Law and Gorilla Biscuits. Because many of the old guard got record deals, they quickly outgrew CBGB and never played there again. This opened the door for the all-ages hardcore shows. Many of the kids who attended those matinees started their own bands and played their first shows at CBGB.<\/p>\n

Harley Flanagan of the Cro-Mags went to CBGB for the first time when he was 6, saw his first punk show at age 10 and played there shortly afterward with the Stimulators. He then went on to play at the club throughout the \u201980s, \u201990s and \u201900s \u2014 right up to the final weekend in 2006.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am probably one of the only human beings on this Earth that went through literally every era of that club\u2019s existence,\u201d Flanagan said. How many times did he play there? \u201cMore times than I could even try to put a number on.\u201d<\/p>\n

For James Drescher of Murphy\u2019s Law, playing on Hilly\u2019s Stage was a powerful reminder of the man who gave him and countless others their start. \u201cYou didn\u2019t really get it till you grew up and you\u2019re like, \u2018Wow, this guy really looked out for us as kids and helped nurture us so we could make music and become the people we are today.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Fans <\/picture>\n
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Fans at CBGB Festival hang out between bands.<\/p>\n

(Maggie Lndn Photo)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

As much as Drescher relished those memories, he acknowledged that times had changed. He encouraged everyone to turn toward the New York skyline and said, \u201cLook at the city we can\u2019t afford to live in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hilly\u2019s Stage was also the scene of a powerful moment when D-Generation\u2019s Jesse Malin, who is recovering from a spinal stroke, rose from his wheelchair and sang alongside Drescher and Murphy\u2019s Law.<\/p>\n

While organizers search for the perfect place for a new permanent home, plans for another CBGB Festival are underway. Brooklyn Councilman Justin Brannan, the only elected official in New York to actually play at CBGB, hopes it\u2019s here to stay.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying CBGBs was a real rite of passage,\u201d Brannan said. \u201cYou felt like you\u2019d gone beyond just being a local band to really being on the map. When you walked into that place, you felt the history of who\u2019d come before you, that this was sacred ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim Ruland is the author of <\/i>\u201cCorporate Rock Sucks: The Rise & Fall of SST Records\u201d and publishes a Substack about books, music<\/i> and books about music called <\/i>\u201cMessage from the Underground.<\/i>\u201d<\/i> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the first time in nearly two decades, CBGB, the beloved Lower East Side punk venue, was back in the New York groove, but in a different form and in a new setting. Last weekend, nearly 10,000 fans trekked out to Under the K Bridge Park in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, for the CBGB Festival. For nearly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2064928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2064927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/CBGB-Festival-stays-true-to-its-roots-with-a-night.com2F932F272Fb8408bfd4669ad65019b2100.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2064927"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2064929,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064927\/revisions\/2064929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2064928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2064927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2064927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2064927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}