People are still bitching about the closure of CBGB’s in November 2006, and it’s unfortunate that the demise of so many other important clubs over the years has met with little fanfare (or even a brouhaha). Nobody is protesting outside of the deli that used to be home to the Mudd Club, and NYU students sleep soundly at night in their dorm that housed the Palladium a few years ago.

Wetlands Preserve was located in Tribeca just south of the Holland Tunnel and hosted everyone from unknown acts to full-fledge rock gods from 1989 until 2001. The club’s décor was very Woodstock circa 1967 (see picture) and didn’t have many frills; the sound was often hit or miss. However, Wetlands hosted ground-breaking bands like Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Oasis, Travis, Sublime and a litany of cool bands before they broke big, and they were an integral part of the development of the jam band scene. More important to its legacy was that it was the first activist rock club, which encouraged its patrons to organize for grassroots change.

Fortunately, many of the club’s best moments were captured on video. Wetlands Preserved: The Story of An Activist Rock Club (which was released on DVD this week) tells the story of the venue and shows the inner workings of the club’s social and environmental advocacy groups.

The DVD includes over an hour of unreleased interviews and footage including: P Diddy's confrontation with The Roots' Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson backstage at Wetlands, Larry Bloch's conflict with Oasis and the Dylan family, behind the scenes with Sublime, more from the Dave Matthews Band, "The House of Booze" April Fool's Day gag in the Village Voice and much more. There’s also a bevy of live clips and interviews with too many people to mention. Though the club was known as a hippie enclave, the musical diversity on this DVD will certainly prove a lot of naysayers wrong.