CBGB & OMFUG

Coming out in 2013 is "CBGB" a movie directed by Randall Miller. Hilly Kristal and his little club on Bowery were instrumental in the making of the punk rock scene in New York. The bar was a little know down and dirty bar called CBGB & OMFUG. Hilly Kristal originally envisioned the bar as a place to feature County, BlueGrass and Blues music. It was "discovered" by the punk crowd after the closing of the Mercer Center of the Arts. Underground bands were looking for a place to play and CBGB's wasn't really pulling in a huge crowd. Hilly Kristal agreed to have bands play on Sunday nights. CBGB's had only one rule, no cover bands, this way the club didn't have to pay ASCAP royalties. The arrangement worked well and bands started playing in 1973 and started filling the place. Some of the earliest performers were Wayne/Jayne County, Television and Suicide. At Television's third show in 1974 Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye came to see the their friend Tom Verlaine play. They too went on to perform on the stage at CB's. The buzz about the club began to grow and more and more bands were booked. The Ramones and Blondie were also playing there in 1974. The club became more and more popular with new bands such as Talking Heads, The Shirts and Mink Deville playing. By the late 70's bands from out of town and England started to play cementing CBGB's reputation as one of "the" clubs for punk rock.
All good things must come to an end and in 2005 Hilly Kristal and the building owner's Bowery Residents Committe got into a disagreement about the rent. The East Village by this time had become gentrified and CB's didn't fit into the new chic image. The end finally came on October 15, 2007. The final act on the stage of CBGB's was The Patti Smith Group. This was after a week of good bye shows by bands like Dictators, Bad Brains and Blondie. Patti Smith's last song was "Eligie" during the song she thanked Hilly and read a list of performers and scene makers that had died. Less than a year later Hilly Kristal himself had died.

When the club closed they took everything when moving out including the infamous restrooms. There had been a discussion of moving everthing to Las Vegas and reopening the club there but has not happened.
Currently the space is occupied by a John Varvatos store.