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The Only Footage of A NYC Musical Landmark: A Two-Minute Tour of Max’s Kanas City

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In our “MUSIC + TRAVEL WORLDWIDE”, we bring you to some of the most legendary and vital music clubs on the planet, from Tresor in Berlin or Green Mill in Chicago. But among the most famous venues for the rising tide of glam, punk, post-punk and New Wave were right here in New York City—good, ol’ CBGB and the less well-known but equally influential Max’s Kansas City.

Even kids born in the 1990s could have enjoyed a show at CBGB’s (the club only closed in 2006 to be replaced by a John Varvatos store). But Max’s, which as the nighttime haunt of Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, the New York Dolls and later Patti Smith, the Ramones, Television, Suicide, Blondie, the Talking Heads and many others, was perhaps more brilliant in its much shorter life (it opened first in 1965 and, after several closings, shut for good in 1981). Fewer recordings of live shows there and an almost complete lack of film footage has consigned Max’s to a lesser place in New York music history. For those of you who seek out the sort of fertile scenes captured in “MUSIC + TRAVEL”, the roughly two minutes of black-and-white footage (the only known existing film of Max’s interior) should prove a curious and valuable artifact. Narrated by David Weisman, director of the cult favorite “Ciao! Manhattan” and an upcoming documentary on its star, Edie Segwick, the original “Factory Girl”, it should also serve as a reminder to grab a copy of “MUSIC + TRAVEL” and soak up sonic hotspots before they disappear forever.
 


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For those of you in New York City who want a somewhat depressing, but nonetheless delicious, “taste” of history, the former site of Max’s at 213 Park Avenue South, is now a takeaway deli.

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