Lors d'une tournée en 1978, The Cramps créé l’un des plus étranges moments de l'histoire à la fois du Rock'n''Roll mais aussi de la psychiatrie en donnant un concert à l'intérieur du « Napa State Mental Hospital ».
Même s’il est difficile de croire que ceci s'est réellement passé et que l'histoire ressemble plus à une légende du rock, il y a pourtant quelqu'un qui a filmé le concert.
Comme pour le concert historique de Johnny Cash, joué une décennie plus tôt à la prison de St Quentin en Californie, il serait facile de supposer que les spectateurs sont des figurants et qu’ils font partie d'un terrible coup de buzz.
Une chose, aussi, est frappante : il n’y avait pas de réservations pour ces dates lors des ces 2 tournées.
Les Cramps et Johnny Cash ne font pas le même style de musique et ont peu de points communs. Cependant, ils ont tiré leur musique de la marginalisation et ici ils laissent entendre que nous ne sommes pas si différents de ceux que nous enfermons.
During a 1978 tour, psychobilly punk band The Cramps created one of the strangest moments in the history of both rock n' roll and psychiatry when they played a gig inside Napa State Mental Hospital.
It's hard to believe it actually happened. The story sounds more like an exaggerated rock legend than an account of a real concert, but no suspension of disbelief is needed. Someone filmed the gig.
As with Johnny Cash's landmark concert, played a decade earlier in Folsom Prison, it would be easy to assume that the onlookers are intended to be part of an ironic publicity stunt.
But one thing is striking from both of these shows: the audience wouldn't have looked out of place at any other date on the tour.
Cash and The Cramps are unlikely bedfellows, but both took their music to the marginalised and hinted that we're not so different from those we lock away.
It's hard to believe it actually happened. The story sounds more like an exaggerated rock legend than an account of a real concert, but no suspension of disbelief is needed. Someone filmed the gig.
As with Johnny Cash's landmark concert, played a decade earlier in Folsom Prison, it would be easy to assume that the onlookers are intended to be part of an ironic publicity stunt.
But one thing is striking from both of these shows: the audience wouldn't have looked out of place at any other date on the tour.
Cash and The Cramps are unlikely bedfellows, but both took their music to the marginalised and hinted that we're not so different from those we lock away.
