The Mall & Slash Need (Moonfrog x QUARRY)

Moonfrog and Quarry come together to present to you The Mall and Slash Need on 18.02.26

The Mall

The Mall is music for punks who dance. In the suburban wasteland of middle America, malls exist as decaying artifacts of conspicuous consumption–forgotten tombs haunted by the ghosts of capitalism’s failures. Using sequencers and analog synths, the Mall’s Mark Plant raises the dead to get glamorous amidst decay. Fusing the shimmering, plastic qualities of 80s dance electronica with the punishing, visceral energy of midwestern hardcore, the Mall soundtracks the liminal space between beauty and anger, celebration and cynicism, resilience and destruction. Performances are as ephemeral as kisses in a movie theater in 1987–and more lethal than radiation fallout from a space probe. The Mall experience is spasming, ecstatic technical disaster.

Slash Need

A confrontational, camp and seductive dramaturge. Toronto’s industrial performance art outfit Slash Need have earned a reputation for putting on high-energy theatrical live performances. The group craft songs that slither, satirize, and scream. Served up raw, Slash Need’s distinct style of propulsive techno and metallic darkwave serves as the backdrop to an unpredictable, ever-changing, and communal performance piece. Following a viral bout of unplanned, and gratifying, attention from right wing media in 2023 after their lore-making performance at Toronto Pride, the group has developed a cult following. (A widely-circulated video earned 2.3 million views with one comment calling the group ”nasty, filthy perverts”.) Conjuring the essence of cherry red lipstick smudged on the rim of a spilled energy drink, baby powder masquerading as Chanel perfume; pheromones, smoke machines, and crossed wires, Toronto’s Slash Need is an invitation: demanding that we blur the line between repulsion and desire, to arrive at a fierce reclamation of personal autonomy