Pitchfork: Save CBGB!

On Monday, CBGB owner Hilly Kristal announced very, very preliminary plans for a 30-date series of fundraising gigs in an attempt to save the venerable New York institution, said a report in Billboard. The club's landlord, the nonprofit Bowery Residents Committee, wants to more than double the rent that CBGB currently pays. Kristal says on the CBGB web site that "a gradual increase in rent" would be manageable for the club, but told Billboard that BRC board members "do not want to negotiate. They want me out."

Kristal emphasized that no artists are confirmed as yet for the shows. "Within two or three weeks, we'll start a pretty good roster," he said. That uncertainty didn't stop him from throwing around some possible names, from the expected (Patti Smith, David Byrne, the Beastie Boys, Green Day) to the surreal (country white-hat Alan Jackson). He also floated the possibility of turning the club into "a rock 'n' roll art museum for New York" and quashed the idea of moving the whole operation to Las Vegas, as some have suggested.

In the meantime, his "Save CBGB" campaign continues apace, with exhortations on the club's web site for concerned rock folk to contact Mayor Michael Bloomberg and BRC board members, staff, and funders. A New York confectioner, the Chocolate Bar, is also offering CBGB-themed benefit chocolates in an effort to save the club-- each package includes a postage-paid petition demanding a "fair and gradual rent hike."