My first gig there was in 1992, saw the NYC band Nausea. The first time i'd seen a large circle pit live. My brother was going there since the mid 80's, and had lots of stories about seeing various hardcore bands there. A couple memorable stories.... One evening we watched this band from Canada play a gig. I'd describe their style as progressive metal, not the usual CBGB fare. Audience was quite bored, my drunk friend was angry at what he heard. So after the band plays and is packing up, I see my friend walk on the stage. He says to the guitar player "Hey man, great set!." The guitar player lights up and replies "Reallly?!" to which my pal barks back "NOOO!" and then he grabs this Canadian fella by the neck, and literally tosses him off the side of the stage, into a bank of amps. The guy barely lands on his feet and his face smashes into some amps... Another evening my friends band is playing. They'd been around since '85, and played an early mix of thrash metal and hardcore. Some of the punks in attendance not into the metal side of things, may not have been into it. One guy in particular hated it and kept yelling up to the stage "That's not punk rock!!!!." So the singer between a song asks him "What is punk rock," and the angry fella yells back "Punk rock is pissing people off." so the singer responds by kicking the guy in the chest and replies "Did that piss you off!!" Next the guy tries rushing the stage but before he can, the singer of my old band walks up to him and punches him square in the face, and my other friend from the above story does a running dropkick into the guy putting him down. Next thing I see this totally hot blonde gal grab this dude by the hair and start pulling him out of the club, random people taking pot shots at him as he is dragged out. Wished I got her number!
My band at the time played a show there a few months before it closed. So thankful for the experience. The toilet lived up to all expectations.
Trying to forget. A friend of mine had some bad Mexi food when he was there, so he had to do "the hover".....I'll let y'all figure that one out. Dan
My band played there once in the late 90's. I was fully aware of the history and that fueled my performance, to a captive audience of two people!
Ha! I was dating a girl from Buffalo who was already paranoid about NYC since it was right after Son of Sam. The city itself was a bit scary in those days anyway. She went to the ladies room and came back almost in tears. I still think that was one of the reasons we broke up right after that. As a guy you could always go outside and water the rats.
I missed the heyday but saw a Big Black show in 1986 that is written up in detail in Our Band Could Be Your Life, and was there for the 1993 gig where Jesus Lizard recorded their Show live CD.
He was wearing a leather jacket on the cover of the debut album... close enough to Punk to get booked at CBGB!
I'm trying to remember if he mentions the place in his bio. There was something regarding punk and how his band was perceived but I forget the details.
I was the guitarist/singer/songwriter for the Laughing Dogs and played at CBGB from 1976 to 1979 when we got signed to Columbia. I practically LIVED in that place. When we weren't playing there we were hanging out seeing the other bands there. We (The Laughing Dogs) were also the band that backed Mickey Dolenz & Davy Jones on the 1977 Monkees reunion tour. Howdy everyone!
During that time, I lived in the Philly suburbs and was close enough to go, but never made it. The only live music I saw in New York was Chicago and The Beach Boys at Madison Square Garden in 1975.
Jimmy, I saw you and the dogs backing up Davey and Mickey at a club called "The Riverboat" in the Empire State Building in 1977. Great show. I'm a drummer, and I remember that I liked how your drummer played "Clarksville" .
The Riverboat was the first place we ever played. I also met Harry Nilsson at The Riverboat. Mickey introduced him to me and I did some recording with him many years later (some demos).
when I first joined the forum, I canvassed the membership for obscure 70s rock recommendations--the kind of stuff I missed on account of not having been born yet--and jon9091 suggested laughing dogs. I remember watching a youtube video of you guys playing times square in 1979 and being really impressed at how tight it was. I still need to get a copy of the record he hyped, the one with the boy in the jughead hat on the cover. it's kind of bizarre you ended up backing half the monkees. what the heck was that like?
That's amazing. I just earlier today put a copy of this in my Discogs cart because my copy has a scratch on it...
The band I was in at the time played there in 1986 and again in 1989. It was deep, dark and dirty. The people who worked there were obnoxious. So yes, CBGB lived up to expectations.
Awesome! I saw you guys with Patti Smith. Your band ROCKED. What a great show. But I can't remember if that was at CBGB or not. Arrrrgh! Memory and old age ... and other substances. Anyway, I still love the album. And ya'll even made the compilation if memory serves.
A friend of mine in N Jersey said he was in once and the condition of the men's room skeeved him out so bad he never went back