Alan Yuch

Two weeks after members of the Cro-Mags were allegedly stabbed by the band’s former bassist, hardcore returned to Webster Hall as Give Up the Ghost performed a pair of sold-out shows.

The Boston band (still known to many as American Nightmare or A.N., though a copyright suit forced them to change the name in 2002) kept Webster Hall’s bouncers on their toes Friday and Saturday. “Things were a little tighter security-wise,” said guitarist Brian Masek. “Hardcore isn’t always violent, but it’s dark, aggressive music, so it brings out a certain element.”

Indeed, the mosh pit was hundreds strong as vocalist Wes Eisold, who also leads synth-goth act Cold Cave, belted out the honest, poetic lyrics that have inspired a generation of tattooed hardcore kids. Read more…

Roey Ahram

Former Cro-Mags bassist Harley Flanagan was arrested after reportedly stabbing and biting current members of the band before their show at Webster Hall last night, law enforcement sources told The Post.

Bowery Boogie witnessed the incident and reported that “Harley Flannegan [sic], founding member of the Cro-Mags stumbled into the VIP lounge with a knife.” According to the site, security quickly mobilized and “it took no less than six beefy dudes to control the madness. Blood was everywhere, and bone protruded from his shin.” The site followed up its initial report with photos from the scene.

Sources told WABC that “a former member of the band” was taken into custody after “one of the victims had been slashed, and the other had been bitten. Sources say that the two injured men were members of the band that was performing on Friday night. Both victims are expected to be okay.”

Mr. Flanagan is a longtime East Villager who at one point lived in Allen Ginsberg’s building at 437 East 12th Street (the poet was a family friend and introduced a book that Mr. Flanagan wrote at the age of nine). He co-founded the Cro-Mags but is at odds with the current iteration of the band. He discussed his semi-professional dedication to mixed martial arts and his issues with former bandmates in Fight! magazine in 2009. “There were years during our beef where we said a lot of shit and I offered to fight it out and put it on video,” he said. In March of this year, he once again called out John “Bloodclot” Joseph McGowan, current Cro-Mags frontman and East Village tour guide.

“The dude is a fraud. He was back in the day and he still is,” Mr. Flanagan told Vista Fanzine, going on to say, “All I know is this, from here to eternity I will always be willing to EITHER one, gig together with all of those guys just strictly out of the love for the music & the Cro-Mags or if John EVER actually has the balls to back up all the shit he talks, to step up and I’ll beat his ass. Again…That is if he EVER has the balls to actually step up to the 100’s of times I’ve called him out, emailed him, called him, etc.”

It’s unknown whether Mr. McGowan was involved in the incident, and according to The Times, law enforcement officials have not yet identified the attacker in last night’s incident. The victims were taken to Bellevue Hospital and were in stable condition. “One was treated for a bite mark and a cut to the face and the other had cuts to his arm and stomach,” police sources told The Daily News.

Update | 9:03 a.m. The Post has now printed the names of the victims and reports that Mr. Flanagan was hit with two counts of second-degree assault and weapons charges. “William Berario, 45, was slashed above the eye and bitten on his cheek. Michael Couls, 33, — the band’s current bassist, who is known in the hardcore world as ‘The Gook’ — was cut on his arm and stomach.”

Godlis A 1977 photo of CBGB, which operated on the Bowery from 1973 to 2006. Owners of the club’s assets are now planning a festival and seeking to revive it at a new site.

For the last six years the name CBGB has been little more than a logo on T-shirts for young people in the East Village. Now a group of investors has bought the assets of that famous punk-rock club, which closed in 2006, and plans to establish an ambitious music festival this summer, with an eye toward reopening the club at a new downtown location.

The new owners of the club’s assets — some with ties to the original Bowery establishment — say they hope that the festival will revive the wide-open artistic aesthetic associated with CBGB, which in its heyday served as an incubator for influential acts like Television, the Talking Heads, the Ramones, Blondie, Sonic Youth and Patti Smith. Read more…

Phillip Kalantzis-Cope

Good morning, East Village.

The Times looks back on what made Lakeside Lounge so special (“once, while Joey and Dee Dee Ramone played, audience members watched the police raid a nearby crack house and line suspects up against the picture window beside the stage”) and gives a clue as to why it’s closing at the end of the month: “[Owner Eric] Ambel said rent and expenses had more than quadrupled since the mid-1990s, forcing him and Mr. Marshall to face the prospect of deviating from the formula that had served Lakeside, its musicians and its patrons so well.” According to WNYC, the rent was $9,000 a month.

Flaming Pablum uses the closing of Lakeside as an excuse to look back on five other bygone dive bars, including Alcatraz on St. Marks Place, an “endearingly seedy joint that catered to acolytes of all things loud, boozy and rude.”

With the average rent in Manhattan at $3,418 a month and the vacancy rent at just 1 percent despite the lagging economy, The Times lays down some real talk: “For those who find buying a home in New York City is not an option — whether because of bad credit, tougher lending standards or lack of a down payment — the choices are limited and often unappealing.” If you are buying, the Daily News points out that there are still deals to be found in the Lower East Side. Read more…