Comments on: The Curator of Punk

The Curator of Punk

kimdog — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 06:45:03 -0800

Hilly Kristal has died at age 75. First the club, now the man.

By: ShawnString

ShawnString — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 07:02:44 -0800

now he deserves a . I KNOW 70's US punk rock would have not been the same without him.

By: liam

liam — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 07:11:30 -0800

2005 interview with Hilly.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 07:25:48 -0800

I was one of the thousands who played in his now-legendary club, and he sort of grunted at me and mumbled a few words in my direction on more than one occasion. He was crusty and indefatigable. A good soul, I believe. .

By: scblackman

scblackman — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 07:44:58 -0800

Gabba Gabba .

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 07:47:11 -0800

How sad. The man's a well-deserved legend. .

By: Skygazer

Skygazer — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 07:54:10 -0800

Oh damn. I too was "one of the thousands". It was always a trip to go to CBGB in the daytime (this was the early 90s) to say hello to Louise P. (the booker) and see about a show and find Joey Ramone hanging about with Hilly cracking wise. My head would nearly asplode from the presence of not one, but TWO, punk rock gods. Joey was a very sweet man. Hilly was quiet and a bit gruff, but always a gentleman w/o a pretentious bone in his body. Now both gone to that great CBGBs in the sky. I hope the men's room is a bit cleaner, but the music is just as good. RIP Hilly. .

By: gwint

gwint — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:04:15 -0800

You know how when a couple who has been together for 50 years and one of them passes away and then the other one goes just a few weeks later? .

By: kuujjuarapik

kuujjuarapik — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:06:31 -0800

This wont stop the cretins from hopping.

By: bunnytricks

bunnytricks — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:09:21 -0800

Last night I had a dream that Matt introduced a new section on Mefi called Burgerfilter as a home for all of these dot threads. I never got a satisfactory answer from myself wheter was so named because when you're dead you're burger or if, um, the . is shaped like a hamburger. The color scheme was totally sweet, cast in the same shades as a bubblegum hamburger. So Matt, how about it? I think "Burger" would fit quite nicely right between "Jobs" and "Podcast" on the navbar. Make this dream ludicrously prophetic. A huge drippy . doused in A1 sauce.

By: Divine_Wino

Divine_Wino — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:12:27 -0800

I was just going to say at least he never had to clean the bathroom. The first show I ever saw was the Toasters at CB's when I was 13, I had rice and beans from a paper cup from the bodega across the street, I drank half a 40 and was shit scared of all the skinheads, it was awesome, I still remember every minute of it. Godspeed Hilly, thanks for all the good times.

By: Stynxno

Stynxno — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:16:48 -0800

By: deadmessenger

deadmessenger — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:23:26 -0800

I am also one of the thousands. Playing an awful show there on a Sunday night in front of about 15 people was one of the great thrills of my life. .

By: Aversion Therapy

Aversion Therapy — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:49:29 -0800

Never played there, but near-weekly trips to the tiny sweaty mess that was CBGB's in my teen years, getting bonked about by skinheads in the mosh pit during Murphy's Law shows and the like, shaped much of my taste in music. Damn shame.

By: SPUTNIK

SPUTNIK — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:10:12 -0800

Now HE'S a guy that deserves a NYC street named after him. Godspeed, Hilly.

By: tugena13

tugena13 — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:23:08 -0800

By: dbiedny

dbiedny — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:29:10 -0800

Hilly is off in Heaven having a laugh with Joey. New York City is pretty much over for me, between this, CBGB, Shopsins, 2nd Ave. Deli and that Polish butcher market on 2nd between 8th & 9th closing down, the Village is almost gone. The egg creams at Gem Spa would be just about the only thing to make me want to visit that part of the city now (well, that and the Strand), and once Wo Hop (on Mott Street) closes, that would just about wrap it up. It is nothing less than the passing of the guard, and the hipsters taking the baton are just not made of the same stuff, IMO. Safe voyage, Hilly, you will be missed.

By: lupus_yonderboy

lupus_yonderboy — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:41:46 -0800

. even though the two times I played at that club, they treated us unforgiveably badly (the last time, they put us on *three* hours late -- 2AM on a Tuesday night, after all these acts that weren't on the bill -- and then wouldn't invite us back because "none of our crowd were there" when we played...) That said, the place did a lot for the music biz. It's really sad that he had to see his child die right before he did.

By: cazoo

cazoo — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:45:56 -0800

I've got mixed feelings about the guy from past personal experience. Trust me, he was no saint. If you had the misfortune of working for him, you would understand. R.I.P. you cheap lying bastard.

By: padraigin

padraigin — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:27:48 -0800

♩

By: lumpenprole

lumpenprole — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:29:06 -0800

Trust me, he was no saint Yeah, I heard a lot of horror stories from his employees. I can however, say, that he treated the people who played there on a regular basis a hell of a lot better than anybody in town. He bought me a beer a couple times just for playing amateur security. Plus, he kept that place going long after reason and sense would have told him to pack it in. So, saint, no. But we could still use a few more like him in this world.

By: Skygazer

Skygazer — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:59:48 -0800

Well okay no saint, but if you worked really hard they were fair. True your slot might be canceled with no notice whatsoever and you would have the very unpleasant surprise of not seeing your band's name in the newspaper ad CBGB ran every week (that happened twice and sucked bigtime as you basically had to let everyone know who you'd invited to the show), but on the other hand, once we got the thumbs up from the booker and the sound man, my band got a lot of good weekend shows and were treated really well.

By: trip and a half

trip and a half — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 11:25:30 -0800

I hear the canopy has been taken down and replaced with a "For Rent" sign. This is such a sad thing to see happen. .

By: cobra_high_tigers

cobra_high_tigers — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 11:48:43 -0800

By: amberglow

amberglow — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 11:54:45 -0800

By: amberglow

amberglow — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 11:55:27 -0800

The Bowery is almost all luxury condos/lofts now--it's sad.

By: mike3k

mike3k — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 12:24:04 -0800

By: jtron

jtron — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 12:57:40 -0800

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 13:41:52 -0800

By: dtp

dtp — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 14:11:31 -0800

By: languagehat

languagehat — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 14:12:27 -0800

By: jason's_planet

jason's_planet — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:01:57 -0800

. (Any word on what's gonna happen to Marz Bar? He owns that place.)

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:35:22 -0800

By: bashos_frog

bashos_frog — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:19:05 -0800

By: bitter-girl.com

bitter-girl.com — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:40:20 -0800

By: gomichild

gomichild — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:07:41 -0800