Punk is Dead; Long Live Punk

Neil Genzlinger has a nice piece in the New York Times about punk rock history tours being conducted in New York by Jake Szufnarowski (from the band Tragedy -- see here) and John Joseph.

The article only hints at the best stories that are told on these tours:

Mr. Szufnarowski will show you the spot outside Irving Plaza where he was beaten to a pulp after a Warren Zevon concert (an episode he parlayed into free passes to countless other shows there). Mr. Joseph will bring you to the sidewalk where, he says, he was stabbed in a sort of drug-dealer-versus-punk-rocker turf war.

And then I was particularly fond of the following:

[Joseph] won’t use the name “East Village”; he still likes “Alphabet City.” (The avenues, back when he arrived, were ranked thus, he said: “A, you’re adventurous; B, you’re bold; C, you’re crazy; D, you’re dead.”)

Also, referring to the Continental as a "B-level club" strikes me as wrong -- it was a "C-level club," part of the "C circuit" along with Coney Island High and CBGBs (both of which are now-defunct, so maybe The Continental did get an upgrade).