A New York City punk rock landmark is closing its doors after being a trailblazing venue for the underground for more than 30 years.

CBGB & OMFUG, which stands for Country Bluegrass Blues and Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers, opened in 1973 -- originally as a country music bar.

But, in the basement confines of CBGB, a crowd of edgy musical outcasts gathered to hammer out their frustrations on drums and electric guitars. New York in those days had almost no places for independent musicians to play original music.

Writing on the CBGB website, club owner Hilly Crystal expressed this philosophy: "Originality (to me) was prime. Technique was secondary."

With its focus on originality, CBGB played a key role in restoring rebellion to rock music at a time when corporate bands became bloated, self-important, bland and safe.

"Without CBGBs, there wouldn't have necessarily been American punk," said Paul Rogers of the alternative L.A. Weekly.

"What else was there before CBGBs?" asked Peter Fletcher of Pygmy Love Circus.

He explained the scene this way: "CBGB's was more our type of crowd: Lots of ugly guys, women who looked like they might want to beat you senseless."

Among those women: Deborah Harry -- lead singer of the 1970s new wave band Blondie -- was one of the first to play at CBGB. This weekend, she's one of the last, doing an acoustic set with her husband Chris Stein. On Sunday night, punk poetess Patti Smith, who first played the club in early 1975, will play the final concert there.

Pioneering alternative acts like Television, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, the Cramps and especially the Ramones -- voted the second-greatest rock band of all time, just behind the Beatles, in 2002 readers' polls by Rolling Stone and Spin magazines -- provided edge aplenty.

The Ramones, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, went on to influence legendary British punk bands like The Sex Pistols and The Clash.

However, times change. When CBGB started, the Bowery was the lowest of the low-rent districts on the island of Manhattan. The streets were lined with flophouses that had winos for tenants. Today, the Bowery is a high-rent area with tony martini bars and pricey condos.

The Bowery Residents Committee, which owns the building that houses CBGB, got into a fight with Kristal over the rent (they wanted to raise it significantly) and refused to renew the lease. While he fought them, Kristal ultimately lost.

Some say what happened to CBGB is emblematic of New York itself; rising real estate costs have pushed the artistic counterculture out of Manhattan to boroughs like Brooklyn. In CBGB's case, the loss of the lease has pushed the club west -- w-a-a-y west.

Fans of punk music will now have to travel to Las Vegas if they want get a taste of CBGB.

The legendary club will be redeveloped on the Vegas strip with everything salvageable being sent to the new venue -- including wall posters and the urinals.

Purists say the spirit of the place could never be transplanted to Las Vegas.

But Kristal said there's a thriving punk and hardcore scene in Vegas operating underneath the glitzy mainstream shows, so maybe lightning can strike twice and the underground's superstars of the future will emerge from CBGB once again.

With a report from CTV's Tom Walters and files from The Associated Press