Genre:
Music
Release Date: 02/10/2004
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD5.1
Run Time: 60 min
Flags: Questionable for Children, Adult Language
Distributor/Studio: Music Video Distributors
In June 1978,
the Cramps, a pioneering New York-based
rock band who blend the primitive twangy stomp of
rockabilly with the attitude and willful perversity of
punk, were touring the West Coast and discovered they'd been lined up with perhaps the most unusual gig of their career.
The Cramps were booked to play a show at the Napa State Mental Hospital, a facility for the emotionally challenged, and found themselves facing an audience that was half smuggled-in
punk fans and half in-patients whose reaction to the performance was often vocal and demonstrative. A cameraman from the
punk-oriented video collective
Target Video was on hand with a primitive black-and-white camera, and the results became the infamous
The Cramps: Live at the Napa State Mental Hospital. As the band faced a truly unusual audience, it roared through a handful of songs, including
"Human Fly," "Love Me," "Domino," "The Way I Walk," "What's Behind the Mask," and
"T.V. Set." In 2003, British performance artists
Iain Forsyth and
Jane Pollard staged a videotaped recreation of
the Cramps' Napa performance, which received enthusiastic reviews when screened under the title
File Under Sacred Music.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
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