23rd to 27th February. Open daily 12 – 6pm. Private view 23rd February 6 – 9pm.
It’s 1979 in Max’s Kansas City, a freewheeling nightclub and restaurant on Park Avenue South, New York. Two men climb onto the stage, both dressed in dirty jeans and tight-fitting leather jackets. One wears dark wrap-around glasses, that make him look like a character from a second-rate sci-fi movie. The other carries an oily stainless-steel motorcycle chain, sporadically thrashing the stage with it. These men look dangerous; not to be messed with. At first, we hear just the pop-pop-pop of a drum machine. Then, a distorted keyboard comes in, repeating the same euphoric chords over and over. “Hmmm…” Suicide’s legendary vocalist Alan Vega intones, mumbling like a late-career Elvis. “Dream baby dream…Dream baby dream. Forever.”
Text by Isaac Nugent, @isaac.nugent
