MY HOME AWAY FROM MY HOME AWAY FROM HOME

August 7, 1983: My first words from the stage at CBs, "My Dad always said I'd wind up on the Bowery, and he was right!"

That other Dad, the Dad to New York punk rock, and to so many other musicians and music lovers around the world, Hilly Kristal, he was the one who made those words true, but not in the pejorative sense. It was a blessing to be able to to be on that stage, the stage that Hilly gave to us.

It was the best stage in the world, where musical giants played, and on any given Monday night also musical midgets, but where else could anyone with a dream get on the same stage where their heroes once stood. I've played hundreds of shows and I still get stage-fright, but not there. It felt like home, it was home. And Hilly was the father, yet also always a friend, and a fan. Yes, a fan of the people who adored him.

There are too many stories to tell, some of them I even remember, but none of them could ever match the reality of what it was like to be in Hilly's house. The house that was home to the people who played there, the people who worked there, the people who hung there, to all the people who lived there. I sleep at home, I drink at my home away from home, but I really lived it up at my home away from my home away from home: CBGB & OMFUG.

Last year our house was demolished, this year Dad died.

Thanks for everything Hilly. So long my friend.

-Scot Weiss