Sleep Tight in New York City: Black 47, After 25 Years and 2,500 Shows, Steps Off the Stage.  Black 47 first played in the Bronx in 1989. The band's sound, a mix of Irish traditional, hip-hop and punk, was raw by all accounts. Twenty five years later, almost to the day, Black 47 played its final performance at B.B. King's on Times Square. Across those 25 years, an iconoclastic New York band found its voice.