Tuesday, October 17, 2006

CBGB: My favorite memory


The New York City rock icon CBGB closed shop Sunday night and with it closes a chapter of music history. Every one’s whose ever been there has their own memory of the place, including yours truly. I'd gone with my friend Tiffany to hear The Used and met a Japanese music loving tourist.Sadly I can't recall her name but the memory of that night still makes me smile...

She had arrived alone the day before, knew no one in New York and was leaving in the morning. Her sole purpose had been to visit CBGB before it closed down because it was being threatened with eviction (again) and to see her favorite band The Used. I met her in the bathroom. She was so excited about being in New York about being in CBGB’s she was taking pictures of everything she came across including the bathroom! I felt compelled to apologize for the urine/beer stench filled ambiance of the dirty bathroom. We took turns looking out for each other while we used the facilities and struck up a conversation. We hit it off so well she invited Tiff and me to her hotel room to hang out after the show. We declined her invitation and warned her about inviting strangers to her room. The fact that she was so trusting tugged at my heart and made me very protective of her. For the rest of the night the three of us were inseparable.


The show ended and the band walked by us; I saw her camera go up but she was too shy to take a picture of them. I don’t know what came over me I'm usually type shy but I wanted to do something for the New York City lovin' Japanese girl who had come such a long way to see a band. Of course the fact that she thought my New York accent rocked had nothing to do with it. I took a deep breath and followed the band backstage. Trust me in a place as itty bitty as CBGB’s that’s not a hard thing to do. I went up the lead singer of the band and introduced myself to him and then told him about my new friend and her journey from Japan to New York just to see them play. He called the band over and they started talking to Tiffany and the girl. She was ecstatic!

They posed for pictures and even gave her their autograph. My shyness kicked in so for the most part I stood apart silent every now and then one of the guys would say something to me and I’d managed to make someone laugh. We were there for awhile when their manager came over and told them it was time to leave. The lead singer I guess thought I was the leader of our trio and came over to me and invited us to tag along with the band. The rest of the band chimed in their approval of the invitation . We begged off because of our early morning obligations and parted company. Tiff and I decided that for our own peace of mind we should drop our new friend off at her hotel. We got there just before dawn and as a couple of sanitation trucks drove by hugged and said our good-byes. The girl turned around calling out to us she said it had been like a dream she had a hard time believing it all had been real she felt like Cinderella and then she ducked into the hotel. The look on her face had been priceless! And that my friends is my favorite memory of CBGB’s.

Labels: Concert, new york

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