The iconic awning that graced punk mecca CBGB goes on the auction block Saturday at Sotheby’s.
The hand-painted vinyl canopy — emblazoned with the signature CBGB OMFUG and 315 Bowery address — covered the entrance from 1988 to 2003. The mysterious OMFUG phrase stood for “Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers.”
It’s expected to fetch up to $35,000.
“It was definitely the best club there ever was. It was a place for everyone. I definitely miss it,” former CBGB bouncer/manager Drew Bushong, who consigned the awning for auction, told The Post.
The East Village resident, who worked at CBGB from 2000 until its 2006 funeral, has fond memories of killer performances by Patti Smith, The Cars, Bad Brains and David Byrne. But it’s a kinky no-name duo that sticks with Bushong.
“We’d have six bands a night. We would audition them on Monday nights and I’d hear some of the worst bands. We had a goth-rap group from Pennsylvania that would rap about being brother and sister — and then make out. They were so bad!” he laughed.
Just a few months into his CBGB career, Bushong was stabbed in the neck outside the club — under the awning — after breaking up a fight inside.
“I was holding this guy down and there was blood everywhere. I thought, ‘I didn’t even hit this guy and there was blood all over his face.’ I realized he had stabbed me and I was bleeding all over him!”
Bushong stumbled upon the awning — which was packed in a cardboard box and left for trash outside the club — one summer night in 2004.
Bushong, 42, said he and his fiancee have a month-old daughter and a cramped apartment, so the decision to part with a piece of punk history was an easy one.
The canopy is part of Sotheby’s “A Rock & Roll Anthology: From Folk to Fury auction.”