To a first-timer, CBGB’s is intimidating: the peeling walls; the beer-soaked floors; the leather-clad dudes, and, worst of all, the smell—a potpourri of Porta-Potty and post-kegger frat house. But when NYC punk stalwarts the Dictators hit the stage on Friday night to mark the legendary club’s third-to-last show, all sensory sins were forgiven.Wailing on raucous, earsplitting love letters to their old stomping ground, the Bowery-bred band proved the “rock-or-die” ethos they lived by in their Seventies heyday is still very much intact. “New York, New York” and “Avenue A” had the sold-out crow — a mix of Converse-wearing grandmas and Joey Ramone look-alikes — stomping on their chairs and pumping their fists, while odes to teenage disillusionment like “Pussy and Money” and “Next Big Thing” inspired Amen-style “fuck yeah’s!”

The best part of the show was between songs, when frontman “Handsome Dick” Manitoba—in a sequined jacket and a doo-rag—waxed nostalgic about his sweet CBs memories, like cooking heroin in the little girls’ room and his infamous brawl with Jayne County. “I had some amazing memories in this place,” he said, while two hundred beer bottles raised in unison. After tonight, we did too.

[photo: Brent Walquist]