Weekend Music Festival Carries On The Spirit Of Punk Club CBGB
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A music festival is underway across the city celebrating the legacy of the CBGB club. NY1's Stephanie Simon filed the following report. This weekend, get "punked." The CBGB Festival is picking up where the legendary punk rock club left off, showcasing more than 300 bands in venues around Manhattan and Brooklyn.
There will also be free concerts on Saturday at Central Park's Summerstage featuring Guided By Voices and in Times Square featuring SuperChunk and The Hold Steady.
“The reason we're doing this is because CBGB has always been about live music, supporting artists and this is what we're doing. It's free, everyone can see it, everyone can hear it and everyone can have the spirit,” says talent coordinator Louise Parnassa Staley.
The late Hilly Kristal's nightclub closed in 2006 but this festival is attracting punk rock royalty like Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols, who says he enjoys the star treatment he gets from fans and fellow musicians
“I think it really touched a chord with a lot of people and it meant something to them then and it still does today,” Matlock says.
Also on the line-up is The So So Glos from Queens. The band members played CBGBs as teenagers.
“Musically, there's no real rules anymore. I think like that's the way punk rock originally started out like anything goes and there's that freedom is I think rock and roll and punk rock is all about,” says Alex Levine, vocalist and bass player for The So So Glos.
Like CBGB, this festival showcases many genres, such as Jesse Finkelstein and Doug Gleischer, the YouTube duo known as Upper West.
“It's like a new age hip-hop mixed with pop sounds,” Gleischer says.
The festival runs through Sunday. Tickets start at $10 and passes start at $89. For more details, visit www.cbgb.com.