Even Emmy-award winning actor Peter Dinklage has a scar to remember (from his neck to his eye-brow to be exact) after getting kneed in the temple while rocking a bit too hard on stage with his former band, “Whizzy,” which ironically became good practice for his future on Game of Thrones. But CBGB’s was not for the faint of heart, fights and substance-fueled violence were a regular occurrence, including Dee-Dee Ramone who reportedly had frequent jealous battles with his groupie girlfriend (picture broken beer bottle threats and smashed windshields). A New York City celebrity sommelier has been arrested after allegedly setting several outdoor dining structures ablaze on at least three occasions this year.
Patti Smith, The Ramones, The Talking Heads, and dozens of other avant-garde, head-smashing and crowd-punching punk acts made this club - which closed in the mid-aughts after giving The Strokes one of their biggest boosts. The brick Bowery building where the neat and orderly John Varvatos store currently resides, used to be CBGB, the grimy, smelly, sweaty, occasionally puke-covered epicenter of underground rock.
