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People
Trigger: Rock to shots
is shuttering. This time it’s the
Continental, a dive bar and former
rock venue that’s been on Third
Ave. near St. Mark’s Place since 1991.
The Continental’s closing was expected
this summer, but got pushed
back. The fi nal night is set for Dec. 31.
Real Estate Equities Corporation
bought the rights to the block’s corner
properties for 99 years, paying more
than $150 million, and reportedly
plans to develop one big “boutique offi
ce building.”
The Continental’s owner and founder,
who goes by Trigger Smith but usually
just Trigger, admitted he’s been
emotional about the closing.
“I live on Avenue A. It’s going to be
hard to walk by that corner and not be
crushed inside,” he said, “because the
place has meant so much to me. It becomes
your life.”
He added that while the past 12
years of the Continental as a bar were
great — “I call it a ‘classy dive bar,’
some people might disagree,” he said
— it was the fi rst 15 years of music that
meant the most to him. Trigger said
this was partly because he loves playing
music, including guitar and jazz sax,
which he hopes to take up again with
more free time.
The relationships also made the music
special.
“The musicians, you know — creative,
artistic, crazy, dysfunctional people
in a local rock scene,” Trigger said.
“You just get so close. You have a lot
in common. Most of the bands aren’t
gonna blow up and become rich rock
stars. A few of them have… . But you’re
in it together, blood sweat and tears,
and you’re in it for the love of music.”
Big names that played there included
Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Guns N’ Roses
and The Wallfl owers. Trigger wanted
two local bands mentioned, Sea Monster
and The Waldos, who were good
friends and whose music he loved.
During the place’s live-music years,
Trigger developed a friendship with
Joey Ramone, who lived a block away,
at Ninth St. and Third Ave. — “in the
big white building” — and often walked
by. Initially they just nodded.
“I didn’t know him,” he said. “Of
course, I’m a huge Ramones fan.”
Joey came to see live music, but the
ice wasn’t broken until they were at
the same Catskills ashram, and talked
about how they would see each other
outside the club. Trigger meditates
daily.
“We hit it off, we became buddies,”
he said. “We started having ‘unsigned
band nights,’ bands that he was behind.”
PHOTO BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
Trigger, outside the Continental,
above, and Joey Ramone became
friends while at an Upstate ashram.
A Christmas show with Joey followed,
then a birthday show, and he
ended up performing there many times,
including his fi nal show, in 2000.
In the early 2010s when it was a bar,
the Continental was accused by some
of having a racist door policy. There
were protests by Act Now to Stop War
and End Racism, and complaints fi led
with the city’s Commission on Human
Rights. But the commission cleared the
bar of any wrongdoing or discrimination,
as The Villager reported in 2013.
In Trigger’s goodbye on the site, he
wrote, “Our door policy was strictly
about dress code and vibe code. And
I’m absolutely certain we denied entry
to more intoxicated, caucasian, bro
types than any other group or race. A
busy, centrally located, bar without a
Door Policy will soon devolve into chaos,
violence and things disappearing.”
He doesn’t plan to duplicate the Continental.
“It means a lot that we have our
place in New York City rock lore,” he
said. “But it’s real stressful and it takes
a lot out of you.”
Despite the changes to the East Village
that have now also affected his
business, Trigger remains fond of his
home of three decades. He compared it
to Burning Man, which he has attended
for 17 years, which now draws Silicon
Valley types to the annual desert fest.
“You can’t avoid the gentrifi cation
to a certain degree, but there’s still a
great vibe in the East Village,” he said.
“Is it what it was 20 years ago? No, but
what is?”
Schneps Media TVG December 27, 2018 29
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