How Deep Is Your Nothing?

Ann Magnuson's theme nights at Manhattan's Club 57 are legend. There was the unforgettable Model World of Glue evening, which found New York's hippest sitting around assembling model airplanes and sniffing glue. On Putt Putt Reggae Night you could play miniature golf on a course made out of refrigerator boxes to resemble a Jamaican shanty town while reggae music blared. Her celebration of Muzak, Upwardly Mobile II, was presented in the elevator of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Magnuson may be best remembered to anyone not living in New York as the new wave disco chick on whose breasts David Bowie suckled in Tony Scott's The Hunger. Currently, along with Kristian Hoffman and Robert Mache of the Swinging Madisons, she's formed Bleaker Street Incident, a folk backlash for a dying generation who preach "Faith is Out, Peace Through Doubt." These iconoclastic hipsters sneak into town for a couple of surprise shows this week and you'd be wise to indulge yourself in their satirical set list that includes such unrecognized gems as "In The Year 2525" or "Joy to the World" and original tunes like "How Deep Is Your Nothing." Join them in a folk protest against war, chemicals, indifference and McNuggets. Celebrate the moments of your life with a unique blend of sentimental cynicism, monumental concern and the kind of educated second-guessing that has made their "Ethic of Doubt" the musical blueprint for survival in the '80s.

- Brad Dunning