The Downtown Pop Underground

Bobern Bar and Grill

42 W 28th St, New York, NY 10001

40.745520

-73.989800

0
Bouwerie Lane Theater

330 Bowery, New York, NY 10012

40.725900

-73.992350

1
Bridge Theatre

4 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

40.729120

-73.989640

2
Café Bizarre

106 W 3rd St, New York, NY 10012

40.730160

-73.999590

3
Cafe Wha?

115 Macdougal St, New York, NY 10012

40.730080

-74.000550

4
CBGB

315 Bowery, New York, NY 10003

40.725130

-73.991880

5
Club 82

82 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003

40.726320

-73.989780

6
Continental Baths

230 W 74th St, New York, NY 10023

40.780310

-73.982180

7
Electric Circus

23 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

40.729190

-73.988530

8
Fillmore East

105 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

40.727690

-73.988720

9
Five Spot Café

2 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

40.729340

-73.989790

10
Gaslight

116 Macdougal St, New York, NY 10012

40.729690

-74.000470

11
Gerde's Folk City

11 West 4th Street, New York, NY 10014

40.732930

-74.002230

12
Hotel Diplomat/Le Jardin

210 E 47th St, New York, NY 10017

40.753540

-73.971640

13
Max's Kansas City

213 Park Ave S, New York, NY 10003

40.736870

-73.988310

14
Mercer Arts Center

240 Mercer St, New York, NY 10012

40.727900

-73.995490

15
Mother's

267 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011

40.745240

-73.997760

16
Reno Sweeney

126 W 13th St, New York, NY 10011

40.737050

-73.998660

17
The Cheetah

Broadway & West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019

40.763380

-73.982880

18
The Dom

23 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

40.729190

-73.988530

19
Trude Heller's

418 6th Ave, New York, NY 10011

40.734010

-73.999020

20
Village Gate

185 Thompson St, New York, NY 10012

40.728100

-73.999980

21
Village Vanguard

178 7th Ave S, New York, NY 10014

40.736040

-74.001720

22

Bobern Bar and Grill

42 W 28th St, New York, NY 10001

Bobern Bar and Grill, on West Twenty-Eighth Street, was named after its owners, Bob and Ernie, and it was one of the small venues where the Stilettoes performed.

Bouwerie Lane Theater

330 Bowery, New York, NY 10012

This Off-Off-Broadway theater, where Cockette Pam Tent performed with others in The Palm Casino Revue, was located in a nineteenth century cast-iron building, a stone’s throw from CBGB.

Bridge Theatre

4 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

The Bridge Theatre was above the Café Au Go Go on Bleecker Street, which benefited from the abundant Greenwich Village foot traffic—especially when the Fugs performed there during their residency.

Café Bizarre

106 W 3rd St, New York, NY 10012

Café Bizarre was one of the first coffeehouses to cash in on the folk and beatnik boom, and in 1965 it was where Ed Sanders, Andy Warhol, and others discovered the Velvet Underground.

Cafe Wha?

115 Macdougal St, New York, NY 10012

Opening its doors in 1959, Cafe Wha? was among the first wave of coffeehouses that populated MacDougal Street—hosting musicians and comedians such as Bob Dylan, Lenny Bruce, and Joan Rivers.

CBGB

315 Bowery, New York, NY 10003

– CBGB had been around since 1969 in an earlier incarnation, Hilly’s on the Bowery, which was named after owner Hilly Kristal; in late 1973, he changed the name to Country, BlueGrass, Blues and Other Music for Uplifting Gourmandizers—which was shortened to CBGB-OMFUG.

Club 82

82 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003

During the early 1950s and 1960s, when it was known as the 82 Club, this Lower East Side venue had been one of the premier venues for drag queens, though by the early 1970s it had rechristened itself Club 82 and operated as afterhours disco and underground rock club.

Continental Baths

230 W 74th St, New York, NY 10023

The Continental Baths, located on the Upper West Side, was a gay bathhouse where the New York Dolls once played and Bette Midler regularly performed with Barry Manilow (who sometimes blended in with the patrons by wearing nothing but a white towel).

Electric Circus

23 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

The Electric Circus—located in the space on St. Mark’s Place that was formerly known as the Dom, where the Velvet Underground had a residency—featured acrobats, go-go dancer, and even John Cage onstage playing an experimental-acoustic game of chess.

Fillmore East

105 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

Two blocks south of St. Mark’s Place, on Second Avenue and Sixth Street, was the Fillmore East—which for a brief period between 1968 and 1971 hosted the downtown sounds of the Fugs and Silver Apples, along with touring acts like the Who, Jefferson Airplane, and Jimi Hendrix.

Five Spot Café

2 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

The Five Spot Café, where many jazz legends performed, was frequented by Allen Ginsberg, Frank O’Hara, and John Vaccaro of the Play-House of the Ridiculous.

Gaslight

116 Macdougal St, New York, NY 10012

Located on MacDougal Street, the Gaslight was a coffeehouse that was a haven for Beat writers and which hosted the likes of Bob Dylan and the Holy Modal Rounders in the early 1960s.

Gerde's Folk City

11 West 4th Street, New York, NY 10014

Gerde's Folk City was one of the many coffeehouses around MacDougal Street that hosted hootenannies.

Hotel Diplomat/Le Jardin

210 E 47th St, New York, NY 10017

Hotel Diplomat was a midtown hotel with deteriorating ballrooms where downtown bands occasionally played, like the New York Dolls; the early disco Le Jardin was located in the hotel.

Max's Kansas City

213 Park Ave S, New York, NY 10003

Across Union Square Park from the second Factory location was a restaurant and bar named Max’s Kansas City, one of Andy Warhol’s regular haunts even before the move.

Mercer Arts Center

240 Mercer St, New York, NY 10012

Before the Mercer Arts Center collapsed in 1973, it was where underground theater, glam rock, video art, and performance art briefly intersected in the early 1970s—planting the seeds of what would become known as “punk.”

Mother's

267 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011

Early punk bands bounced back and forth between CBGB and Max’s, as well as lesser known venues like Mother’s—a gay bar near the Chelsea Hotel where Suicide, the Fast, Ramones, and Blondie played.

Reno Sweeney

126 W 13th St, New York, NY 10011

Reno Sweeney was an intimate cabaret located at 126 West Thirteenth Street in Greenwich Village, where Holly Woodlawn and many other downtown acts performed.

The Cheetah

Broadway & West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019

The Cheetah was a Midtown discothèque that also hosted a production of Hair before it opened on Broadway in the spring of 1968.

The Dom

23 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

The Dom was a former Polish wedding and social hall on St. Mark’s Place that became a popular bar where bohemians congregated; it was at the Dom where Ed Sanders suggested to Tuli Kupferberg that they should form the Fugs, and the Velvet Underground performed as part of Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable.

Trude Heller's

418 6th Ave, New York, NY 10011

Joshua Light Show founder Joshua White designed lighting at Trude Heller’s and other discothèques in the mid-1960s, where he began to develop techniques that he refined at the Fillmore East.

Village Gate

185 Thompson St, New York, NY 10012

The Village Gate, a popular venue where jazz artists like Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Cannonball Adderley played, also employed Theatre Genesis’s Ralph Cook and Sam Shepard.

Village Vanguard

178 7th Ave S, New York, NY 10014

Future CBGB owner Hilly Kristal was the manager of the famed jazz club the Village Vanguard in the 1950s before opening Hilly’s on East Thirteenth Street, where he booked folk and blues acts throughout the 1960s.