Customer Reviews

The Cramps - Live at Napa State Mental Hospital

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have to say the quality of the audio and video is really pretty decent for a 1978 recording. I was pleasantly surprised. With that said, this DVD is a lot of fun. The Cramps just fit in with this unique environment, a psychiatric hospital. I agree with another reviewer; I spent many years working in a psychiatric hospital and wonder how this concert was ever permitted. Overlooking the fact that the Cramps were allowed to play at a psychiatric hospital, how was it ever allowed to be recorded then distributed?

This DVD isn't for everyone. You must appreciate The Cramps and their humor. You must not be politically correct. I laugh with and at the patients in this DVD. The whole thing is just hard to believe. Never, in today's world, would this be allowed to happen.

It's unique. It's funny. Drink some beer and enjoy the show.

If all DVDs are Mount Everest, this one's at the tippy top.
It works on so many levels. At one level it's a little
scary because you find yourself reacting to ths music just like the "inmates" and feel like you are one of them. On another level it's incredibly satisfying to see The Cramps performing this extremely good deed, really reaching these troubled souls. During chaotic moments, it's amazing how well The Cramps handle
the situation, not trying to put controls on the audience,
even when the lead singer has to struggle, several times,
to regain control of the microphone, he does it with incredible
grace & power; and even those uninvited vocals seem to
blend perfectly well with the overall ecstatic madness.
AND, after all this, The Cramps' performance itself is fantastic,
and the production values (given the nature of the event) are
surprisingly good. Extra added attraction: the video also features some other entertaining punk/performance art pieces, most
of which are extremely creative...but The Cramps' show is the
real story here...I'd have to list this as the best DVD I own.

Let's be straight about what we've got here. This was a performance captured with one of the original portable video tape devices available to non-broadcast professionals. We're talking BEFORE camcorders - the mighty Sony Porta-Pac - a black and white camera and a 1/2 inch open reel videotape recorder.

So that's one hand-held camera for the visual and one solitary mic for the sound. The visual is very primitive by today's standards - the sound could be called bootleg quality. The band plays a quick set.

Why 5 stars? Because despite the technological limitations - this comes across very well. You can hear all the instruments and the vocals. You get a good view of the band members. And the performance itself is very good - they are playing very tightly.

Frankly, the antics of the "audience" don't strike me as any more absurd or outrageous than the typical punk club crowd of 1978.

If you like the Cramps - I think you'll enjoy this. If you were around in those days, this will definitely take you back...thekeez

Who in the world thought that The Cramps (I cut your head off and put it in my TV set) playing at a mental hospital would be a good idea? I dunno, I doubt anything like that would happen in this day & age, not that there's any bands like The Cramps around anymore. The footage of this is pretty rough, as the box says, and Lux Interior spends a lot of time wrestling the microphone away from would-be stars, but this gives you a good idea of what the original Cramps (with Bryan Gregory & Nick Knox) were like. I love the Cramps but unfortunately the footage of this event is over before you know it and all that's left to watch is some shameless self-promotion from Target Video, some of which is interesting to see (like Crime playing at San Quentin, another lapse in good sense from somebody), but a lot of which is which is just plain irritating like a long segment featuring (I think) Non, a one man show wherein this guy bangs on a lot of pieces of metal and rattles lots of "found" objects, at which point I'd had enough and turned it off. The Cramps are great but it's hard not to feel like you've just bought 20 minutes of music and 40 minutes of advertisements.

While enjoyable, you need to know that the running time of the Cramps performance here is 20 MINUTES. You won't see this on the box as I'm sure it would detract from sales. The Cramps performance was enjoyable as always, and the setting could hardly be more appropriate. The sound and video footage are VERY ROUGH. I'd like to see a better produced feature-length Cramps concert myself though.

The Cramps: Live at Napa State Mental Hospital (Anonymous, 1978)

Perhaps more important in the annals of film because it was (according to the text at the end) one of the first films shot with a handheld commercial-quality video camera, The Cramps Live at Napa State Mental Hospital serves an entirely different purpose in the annals of punk rock: this is DIY mayhem at its finest, the punk equivalent of Johnny Cash Live at Folsom Prison, except that the inmates are allowed audience participation. This little twenty-minute (note that Amazon, Blockbuster, and IMDB all incorrectly list it as sixty minutes) masterpiece should be required viewing for any musicians who style themselves "punk" these days, to see how horribly short they fall. The band are at the height of their live powers. Lux Interior manages to be slinky and hyper at the same time, kind of like a thin Harvey Keitel who's in the process of overdosing on crank, while the rest of the band just look on in amused fascination. Interior also knows how to win a crowd, no matter who that crowd may be. "Someone said you people are crazy. I ain't so sure..." Oh, yes. The music, of course, is vintage Cramps, a combination of three-chord punk and twelve-bar rockabilly with charmingly spacy lyrics. For the love of god, if you've never seen this, and you are, were, or will be a fan of anything remotely resembling punk, you must see this. Thankfully, Target have engineered a new release of the disc recently, so you can. **** ½

Raw, primitive footage of early Cramps live! They are performing before mental patients, and at times, they look a little nervous. The audience seemed to enjoy themselves, and had no problem grabbing the microphone and joining the act! Thought I was watching a real life Marat/Sade here.

Video and sound are bad however. You have to see this as "archival" footage. An interesting watch for fans. Disk also includes previews of other video products the company sells. Underground and punk groups you may not even heard of.

It may only last a little under twenty minutes, but this concert is worth every penny. This is live footage (black and white, by the way) of The Cramps performing at the Napa State Mental Hospital. Of course, the interest here should be more focused on the raw rocking energy flowing from the band, rather than the patients allowed on tape. Don't expect to witness a disrespect to the severely mentally ill on camera -- any patients incoherent enough to cause harm or deeply embarrass themselves were not allowed to attend the concert. On the other hand, there are a few patients who aren't afraid to show their abnormal behavior (yeah, you'll know 'em when you see 'em). As the other reviews point out, there is a woman who can't resist grabbing the microphone and screaming into it, but Lex keeps his cool and interacts with the more out-going patients quite gracefully. In the midst of all the madness (excuse the pun), there are eight songs played to the fullest by easily one of the best rockabilly/psychobilly (whatever you want to call them) bands ever. Seeing it/hearing it live is much better than any album can give you. Forget the tameness that might occur in a recording studio. The band delivers an amazing performance here that makes you feel like you're there! The special features, although, are nothing to brag about. There is some short concert footage of other bands, but for the most part you are tortured with scenes that don't even belong on a home video, much less a mass-market DVD. For instance, there is footage (I guess it's supposed to be "art") of a man jangling around metal objects (such as pots, pans, and garbage) for what seems like an eternity (really, I think it lasts for twenty minutes or so). So trust me, the special features are nothing to become excited about. The true glory here is the concert. And if you like punk/primitive rockabilly music, then you must buy this. Wonderful footage.

Not everyone will love this video, but it deserves wide viewing. This is not simply for rock freaks, video oddity collectors, or Cramps completists, although all of the above will add to the five star pile.

What is compelling about this is that *this*concert*actually*happened* and it is empirical proof reality is far stranger than any imagined fiction.

1978. Punk band. Mental hospital. Stoneage video camera. Zeitgeist and ancient Dionysian rite all wrapped up in a throb and ooze. The codine and crank speedball crowd meets the Thorozine and Lithium set.

It.Really.Happened.

The obvious complaints that this is a very short video, has poor production quality, and is padded out with ghastly useless filler is simply overwhelmed by the sheer wonder that it exists at all.

"What hath God wrought?" the first message of the age of electronic communication age once had an observation on its continuingly unfolding time line of this moment.

The Cramps finally gave Morse an answer that even the deaf and insane could hear.

And feel.

Nice archive performance from the original line-up of the band,meaning that we get to see buzz-guitarist Byron Gregory(R.I.P.)in action here.'Live At...' was filmed with a hand held video camera in black&white at the hospital in June,1978.Lux and Poison Ivy appear to be in good form.Some great Cramps tunes are here,like "Mystery Plane","Human Fly","Twist And Shout","TV Set" plus four more.But this DVD is just(is this right?)twenty minutes long!?I think I'll be patient and SEE if they ever reissue this DVD with extra tunes,which should've been done on this release in the first place.I mean,c'mon...twenty minutes?You'd better be a major Cramps fan before purchasing this DVD.Quality of both picture and sound are not great,but okay.