But CBGB soon emerged as a famed and iconic venue for punk rock and new wave bands, including Ramones, Dead Boys, Television, Patti Smith Group, Blondie, Madonna and Talking Heads.

CB's Gallery was played by music artists of milder sounds, such as acoustic rock, folk, jazz, or experimental music, such as Dadadah, Kristeen Young, Medeski Martin & Wood and Toshi Reagon, while CBGB continued to showcase mainly hardcore punk, post punk, metal, and alternative rock.

[5][6] Around 2000, CBGB entered a protracted dispute over allegedly unpaid rent amounts until the landlord, Bowery Residents' Committee, sued in 2005 and lost the case.

[12] Kristal's intended theme of country, bluegrass, and blues music along with poetry readings yielded to the American movement in punk rock.

[13] In 1973, while the future CBGB was still Hilly's, two locals, Bill Page and Rusty McKenna, convinced Kristal to let them book concerts.

[14] The August 1973 collapse of the Mercer Arts Center left unsigned bands little option in New York City to play original music.

Beginning in 1977, Metropolis Video filmmaker Pat Ivers and partner Emily Armstrong continued to record shows in a project called Advanced TV, later renamed GoNightclubbing.

Meanwhile, CBGB became famed for Misfits, Television, Patti Smith Group, Mink DeVille, Dead Boys, the Dictators, the Fleshtones, the Voidoids, the Cramps, the B-52's, Blondie, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, the Shirts, and Talking Heads.

Named "thrash day" in a documentary on hardcore,[citation needed] Sunday at CBGB was matinée day, which became an institution, played from afternoon until evening by hardcore bands such as Reagan Youth, Bad Brains, Beastie Boys, Agnostic Front, Murphy's Law, Cro-Mags, Leeway, Warzone, Gorilla Biscuits, Sick of It All, Misfits, Sheer Terror, Stillborn and Youth of Today.

[19] Refusing to pay until a judge ruled the debt legitimate, Kristal claimed that he had never been notified of scaled rent increases, accruing over a number of years, asserted by BRC's executive director Muzzy Rosenblatt.

[19] Ruling the debt false and that BRC had never properly billed the rent increases,[19]the judge indicated that CBGB ought to be declared a landmark, but noted that Rosenblatt did not need to renew the lease, soon expiring.

[20] A nonprofit corporation housing homeless above CBGB mostly through donations and government funding,[19] the BRC had only one commercial tenant and raised its monthly rent to $35,000.

Rocks off, a promoter in New York, organized CBGB's final weeks of shows to book "many of the artists who made CB's famous".

[7] Avail, the Bouncing Souls, and such newer acts opened during the last week, which included multi-night stands by Bad Brains and the Dictators and an acoustic set by Blondie.

The final show, broadcast live on Sirius Satellite Radio on October 15, was played by Patti Smith, helped on some songs by Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Dead Boys' Cheetah Chrome rued, "All of Manhattan has lost its soul to money lords", yet reflected, "If that alley could talk, it's seen it all".

In this role as cultural incubator, CBGB served the same function as the theatres and concert halls of the Bowery's storied past.

[10]CBGB's second awning, the one in place when the club closed in 2006, was moved into the lobby of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.