Blondie, Talking Heads, Television, Patti Smith: the Lower East Side of the 1970s incubated bands that pushed the limits of sound and style. The music and art community made possible by the neighborhood’s close quarters and cheap, plentiful space may have only lasted a few years, but its impact on popular culture and NYC reverberates to this day.

Metropolitan Members joined OHNY and expert guide Jesse Rifkin on a walking tour that highlighted some of the studios, venues, bars, and record stores where these punk and New Wave legends lived and performed. Jesse is a licensed tour guide and author of This Must Be The Place: Music, Community, and Vanished Spaces in New York City (Hanover Square Press, 2023), which explores 60 years of NYC’s musical history and the spaces that allowed it to thrive through extensive interviews, photos, and firsthand accounts.