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Arts & Entertainment

Photos: See CBGB's Original Walls, Now Out Of Storage


By

Jen Carlson

Published Oct 4, 2013

Modified Oct 4, 2013


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One of the ladies room stall doors. Kiernan, a regular at the club, recalls: The doors "were perfect for obscuring two of the three best things about the punk scene back then:  Sex & Drugs! (The Rock 'n' Roll part happened upstairs)."

 

Photo by Jim Kiernan

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By

Jen Carlson

Published Oct 4, 2013

Modified Oct 4, 2013


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As CBGB—the feature film on the legendary venue—arrives on the big screen, the walls of the original club have been taken out of storage for the NYC premiere. Yesterday, CBGB's new owner Tim Hayes invited us by to see the nostalgia-soaked walls. Along with Hayes, 20 year CBGB manager and booker Louise Parnassa Staley are carefully preserving and guarding the legacy of the club and its late founder Hilly Kristal.

Staley helped Kristal dismantle the interior of the club in 2006 after they were evicted by their landlord. These items were put into storage and haven't been in public since... though the original bathrooms were rebuilt and used in the film.

Photographer Jim Kiernan dropped by to shoot the walls for us yesterday, which tell the club's story in layers of stickers, posters, carvings, and spray paint. Click through for a look—and we're told "on October 10th the walls, the original sound system and other items from the historic venue will be reunited with two longtime friends of CBGB: Van Toffler (MTV) and Duff McKagan (Guns n' Roses) at the Landmark Sunshine Theater on Houston Street," not far off from the original venue. At 1 p.m. that day McKagan will deliver the Musicians Keynote Address for the CBGB Festival, presumably surrounded by the walls.

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cbgb

tim hayes

walls

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Jen Carlson

Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

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