Plot

A look at the New York City punk-rock scene and the venerable nightclub, CBGB.

CBGB follows the story of Hilly Kristal's New York club from its concept as a venue for Country, Bluegrass and Blues (CBGB) to what it ultimately became: the birthplace of underground rock 'n roll and punk. When Kristal had difficulty booking country bands in his club on the Bowery he opened his doors to other kinds of rock music. Kristal had one demand of the acts he booked; they could only play original music. No top 40's, no covers. It was the credo he lived by, support the artist at whatever the cost. Hilly Kristal ironically became known as the godfather of punk giving a chance to such bands as Blondie, Television, Ramones, Talking Heads, Dead Boys and The Police.—anonymous

A opening text informs the viewers that punk rock music did not start at CBGB, but in a basement in Connecticut. The story is mostly true. John Holmstrom (Josh Zuckerman) and Legs McNeil (Peter Vack) are in their basement talking about starting Punk Magazine.

Hightstown, New Jersey. 40 years earlier in 1933.

A baby escapes from his crib and runs away. His parents find him three miles away.

1972

Hilly Krystal (Alan Rickman) stands before a judge. He is divorced with two children and bankrupt again after a second failed attempt to open a nightclub. He walks around New York City with his dog and wanders into a small bar after picking up a junkie named Idaho (Freddy Rodriguez). He asks the bartender if they ever play music there and decides he wants to buy the bar.

Hilly goes with Merv Fergueson (Donal Logue), his former partner, to his mother to ask for money to buy the bar, which he does. He calls it Hillys on the Bowery. His teenage daughter Lisa (Ashley Greene) shows up to tell him that she can't afford school anymore and is dropping out. She crashes there while Hilly and Merv work on the bar, building a stage. He wants it to be for country, bluegrass, and blues music. Merv, upset, leaves with Idaho.

The name of the bar has now been changed to CBGB. Terry Ork (Johnny Galecki) shows up with his band, wanting to play there. He is the manager of the band Television. He convinces Hilly to let them play there, but only original music, even though they are a raw band. Hilly goes to find a man named Taxi (Richard de Klerk), a man who knows mechanics, to hire him to be a sound engineer. Television starts to play, but Hillys main concern is that they don't play too loud.

Hilly goes with his dog to the homeless alley. There's a dead man outside. A police officer named Stan (Michael Massee) arrests Idaho, but leaves the body behind. Hilly goes back to the bar and pays some bikers to get Idaho out of jail.

Back at the bar, the band starts to play, but Merv is passed out in the shower upstairs blocking the drain which almost causes an electrical accident. Meanwhile, his mother wants her money back, so they start delivering pianos to raise some, breaking a piano in the process.

Thanks to Television, Hilly's bar GBCB's starts to gain publicity and Lisa wants to work there. Suddenly the bar is full and the punk magazine founders are hanging out there, hiring a girl named Mary. The band Talking Heads starts to play there, and Hilly invites Officer Stan to see them play. Suddenly Blondie, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, and a million other bands are playing there. Punk Magazine releases their first issue.

The Ramones show up, and they actually aren't very good. Despite the popularity of the club, they don't seem to be making any money because Hilly lets a lot of people in without paying cover charges and gives away a lot of free drinks.

The Dead Boys perform there and become very popular. Genya Ravan (Stana Katic) the record producer and other girls start to go wild, and the place is getting insane. Stan shows up to tell Hilly that they've been getting complaints about the type of people the club attracts. He's also three months behind on his rent. He starts to kick out junkies, but the club becomes huge and no one is afraid of having sex or getting high in the bathrooms.

The Ramones sign a record deal and suddenly they are everywhere, except CBGB's. Men come to collect the rent, but Hilly had been making deals with the bikers, so they come and beat them up and take them away. Lisa flips out because she didn't realize that her deadbeat father Hilly has not been paying the rent and insists on taking over the books.

Hilly goes into the bathroom and leaves the water running while he falls asleep, completely flooding the upstairs, showing his irresponsibility. The bands keep coming, and Punk magazine is interviewing them and writing about sex, violence, and everything. Hilly starts managing the Dead Boys and wants Genya to produce them. While they perform one night, Hilly's mother shows up. Lisa forces Hilly into the office to talk with him and Merv about their finances. He doesn't care though. All he wants at the moment is to talk to Genya about producing the Dead Boys. Lisa goes to smoke a cigarette in the bathroom when she is visited by Idaho who doesn't mind peeing right in front of her. Hilly insists that The Dead Boys are going to be big.

Genya goes to talk to Hilly. She doesn't want to produce them, but agrees to anyway. Hilly pulls out tons of money that he has been hoarding away to get them started. She goes ballistic on the band because they have stickers of swastikas on their amp. They're pretty stupid and don't even know what they mean. They go on tour but are a hot mess and crash their bus. Hilly goes to the bank and finds out he only has $300 left in his bank account. He takes it out of the CBGB account and gives it to Genya. Meanwhile, the band gets into a fight, and one of the members, Blitz, almost dies in a knife fight. Hilly tells Genya to make sure Blitz gets the money for his medical expenses and he leaves the Dead Boys to go back to his hometown to his old house. On the phone, Lisa yells at him to get back there because of all the people who are depending on him. Even though he insists hes done, he returns. Lisa tells him she's going to law school, and they all raised money to help pay to keep the club open. Just then, The Police audition. He says "There is definitely something there".

A text appears that says "Hilly gave a stage to some 50,000 bands during CBGB's 33 year tenure."

The final scene shows Hilly being interviewed by Punk Magazine. He says he opened CBGB because he thought country music would be the next big thing (and it was) in Nashville.

The films closes with a series of texts which say that Blitz survived 17 stab wounds. Hilly managed the Dead Boys for over one year. The band recorded two albums before they imploded.

The Ramones played 74 gigs at CBGB's in 1974. The band became so ironic that their music can be heard in TV commercials to this very day and CDs of their albums can be purchased at Starbucks.

Debbie Harry was in every issue of Punk magazine. She was GBGB's pin up girl. To this day, her band, Blondie, has sold 40 million records worldwide.

Patti Smith was the last artist to perform at GBCB's before its closing with a tribute to Hilly. She is considered the Godmother of Punk.

When the Talking Heads were introduced into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, the banks thanked Hilly Kristal.

Iggy Pop is widely considered the grand master of punk music. He is still known for his outrageous and unpredictable stage antics.

Hilly's former business partner, Merv Ferguson, was born in England but lived most of his life in New York City. He always wore a construction worker's hard hat and no one ever found out why.

Hilly's daughter, Linda Kristal, is currently a practicing attorney living in New York City. She is married with two children.

Idaho was one of many street junkies that Hilly employed at CBGB's, usually working in the kitchen as a dishwasher.

Taxi went on to sound mix for Bruce Springsteen, Ray Charles and many others. He mixed over 4,300 concerts in his career.

In 2012, Yale University acquired John Holmstrom's archives. His art will be housed in the Beinecke Library along with the works of Eugene O'Neill, Mark Twain and Georgia O'Keefe.

Legs McNeil became a senior editor at Spin magazine and wrote the book 'Please Kill Me' which is widely considered the preeminent text on the Punk movement.

Fact: Jonathan the dog's bowls were considered legendary.

The airing of the the Talking Heads induction ceremony in 2002 is shown over the closing credits.

Dedicated to the late Hilly Kristal (September 23, 1931 - August 28, 2007)