[1][2] In the 1860s, the building where the New Moon was later located was a cafe frequented by French Impressionist painters called La Nouvelle Athènes.
Between World War I and World War II, it became Ada "Bricktop" Smith's Chez Bricktop,[3][4] famous for its jazz and frequented by luminaries like Pablo Picasso, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway.
[3] Performers included Marlene Dietrich, Ethel Waters, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong.
It closed in the early 1980s, and reopened again in 1987 as an alternative and punk rock club.
[6][7][8] Noir Désir, the French Lovers, Mano Negra, the Naked Apes of Reason were a few of the many groups who performed.