The Body Archive provided video installations in the upstairs bar, where five television sets showed hard-core, fetish, tease and adult cartoon fare to a soundtrack of industrial, Goth rock, ambient drones and screeching wails. At points there was no escaping the sensual assault, unless you went downstairs into the playroom, where sensual assault of another kind was available.

As happens with public-play parties, the action was slow to start, but once it did, it rivaled any of the S/M clubs we've attended lately. The club's basement, equipped with several toys made for the event, was abuzz with activity-usually two or three scenes at a time.

Master R. and Madame Sang of the Country House bed and Dungeon came looking for a pair of bondage beginners to rope into their first public scene. And they found them at SMack! - a young shaven-head blonde and a happy slaveboy in a knobby red rubber skirt. Facing each other on a side horse, they were bound with soft, thick cord intricately knotted around their bodies. After R. and Sang lashed the couple together in Cherry Blossom style, the dominant duo lashed their backs, whipping the scene, its participants and its viewers into a frenzy.