Lux Interior performing in a striped suit during a Cramps gig on April 1st, 1978, for the re-opening of the short-lived CBGB 2nd Avenue Theatre, an event which obviously called for a formal attire, as captured byĀ Pat HefleyĀ (thereās another iconic shot from that gig by Stephanie ChernikowskiĀ on the back cover of āGravest Hitsā, with Lux climbing over the chairs mid-audience).
CBGB Theatre, aka CBGB Second Avenue Theatre and originally known as Public Theatre, Antillas Theatre & later as Anderson Theatre, was Hilly Kristalās brilliant, yet poorly executed plan to expand operations with an additional show venueĀ of a near-2,000-capacity venue which could host the crowds that were getting out of handĀ by late-ā77Ā at CBGB OMFUG.Ā Unfortunately the building he bought but never really checked outĀ was in a shabby state of repair and cost a lot of money to meet the standards of safety and modernization.
According to various anecdotes fromĀ Roman Kozakās āThis Aināt No Disco: The Story of CBGBā (Boston: Faber and Faber, 1988):
āā¦It opened on a Tuesday night, Dec. 27, 1977, with Talking Heads headlining, supported by the Shirts and the Tuff Darts. The next night it was the Dictators, the Dead Boys, and the Luna Band (formerly Orchestra Luna). Then Patti Smith headlined December 29, 30, and New Yearās Eve. There were problems right from the beginningā¦
ā¦[says] Bill Shumaker. āIt was in December, it was bitter cold, but the heating system never really worked. I never went down into the basement, but you could look down and it honestly looked like one of the rings in Danteās Inferno. And down there was the boiler. Everybody got serious coldsā¦
ā¦.[Sound engineer] Norman Dunn: "It was an exercise in how many things could go wrong. In twenty-seven degree temperature you donāt spray soundproofing under the balcony. It doesnāt dry. At the first note it started falling down. The boiler room was under eleven feet of water because the water mains broke. The generator outside was running the electricity for everything and it was driving the neighbors crazyā¦There were threats, the police were there; but it would have cost $15,000 and Con Edison would have had to rip up the street to make things right. And this thing was opened on a shoestring. So every time the lights would go full blast, the sound would die to a whisperā¦
ā¦Joel Webber is even more graphic, though he does exaggerate for effect: "The place was disgusting. It made the CBGB club look like the Rainbow Room. We were talking about eighty yearsā worth of dirt. I mean there was popcorn left over from the last performance of the Yiddish theater in 1925ā¦ā
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After the Patti Smith dates, the Theater closed and was briefly used as a rock'nāroll flea market, re-opening for shows with the Jam and the Tuff Darts on March 31st & the Cramps, the Erasers and the Sic F*cks on April 1st 1978. It is believed that by mid-ā78 theĀ new enterprise had come to an end, costing Kristal a loss of about $160,000.
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