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CBGB hosts final concert before eviction

BY IRA ROBBINS | Special to Newsday

4:41 AM EDT, October 16, 2006

Outside at CBGB on its final night after 33 years in New York. (Getty Images / October 15, 2006)

For the first time in 33 years, quiet reigns at CBGB. Following a losing battle with its landlord, the New York punk club closed its doors for good Sunday night. By October 31st, the dark, narrow dark space on the Bowery will be stripped to bare walls, with all traces of its colorful musical history moved, reportedly to Las Vegas.

In many ways, the last night was like any other at CBGB. The band onstage was unconventional and sloppy. The toilets weren't working. Oldtimers congregated near the back, nursing beers and trading rock and roll war stories. Snapshots were shot. But when the Patti Smith Group left the stage at 1:02 am Sunday night, New York's mecca for underground rock for three decades was no more.

Billed on a commemorative poster as "The Last Chord," Smith's three-hour set featured appearances by Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea (whose birthday was noted by Smith in song) and Television guitarist Richard Lloyd.

Smith may not be the most emblematic survivor of the CBGB school, but she surely grasped the occasion, offering such impassioned pronouncements as "CBGB is dead! Long live CBGB!" Guitarist Lenny Kaye contributed a spirited Ramones medley to the effort. CBGB owner Hilly Kristal, who did not appear on stage Sunday, departed during the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter," leaving Smith to do the valedictory honors for him. In the final minutes, she proclaimed "Jesus died for somebody's sinsbut not CBGB!" and read names of dead punk icons. "Farewell CBGB," she said at the end. "33 yearsthe same age as Jesus. Thank you Hilly. Thank you everybody. Goodnight."

At an event that felt more like a genial reunion than a tragic farewell, the full house included members of such CBGB alumni as Talking Heads, the Dead Boys and the Dictators, as well as Steve Van Zandt of Springsteen/Sopranos fame and actor-director Ed Burns.

The shuttering of the club prompted major media interest. By 6:00 pm, the Bowery block was packed with ticketholders on the south side of the door and photographers, TV crews and reporters on the north. Staff and supplicants alike remained calm and upbeat, both outside and in, and the evening passed without incident. At a press-only runthrough of several songs at 7:30, Smith remarked, "CBGB is a state of mind," adding that her favorite show there was her first - seeing the group Television in April 1974.