23 Years Ago In Irvine, California

Prior to the month running out, I wanted to take a minute to note the 23rd anniversary of The Cramps headlining performance at The Hootenanny Festival.

The festival, located in Oak Canyon Ranch in Irvine, California, is an annual one-day event incorporating some of the biggest names in rockabilly, psychobilly, Americana and country, punk and, fairly recently, Celtic music. Every incarnation has hosted a vintage car show as well.

While celebrating festival's 23rd birthday, the years have been hit and miss with regard to the living legends who have graced the stage. Of the more notable acts, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and Little Richard have appeared along with next-generation heroes such as the late Joe Strummer, Chris Isaak, X, The Blasters, Stray Cats and Social Distortion.

I was fortunate enough to hit The Hootenanny for the very first time in 1995 (its first iteration, as a matter of fact) on nothing less than the 4th of July with the Rev. Horton Heat, The Blasters and Stray Cats' bassist Lee Rocker warming up the stage for Lux Interior, Poison Ivy and Company.

By 1995 I couldn't tell you how many times I had already seen The Cramps live but it was some inordinate number. Never once before The Hootenanny, however, had I witnessed them perform in the light of day. That was a rare treat indeed. The anticipation at the start of their set was electric. Had The Cramps - bonafide legends of night time shows - ever been seen in sunshine? Would they melt? Would they vaporize when they set foot on stage? Would their paleness be able to withstand even 5 minutes brightness?

In answer: No, not a bit and yes, for 75 glorious minutes of hip-grinding, Elvis-enfused, American punk from the prime innovators of psychobilly. What a treat.

Here was their set list that day. (Yes ... I wrote down each and every song performed ...)

• Mean Machine
• Oowee Baby
• Muleskinner's Blues
• Ultra Twist
• Bop Pills
• Naked Girl Falling Down The Stairs
• What's Inside A Girl?
• I'm Customized
• Goo Goo Muck
• New Kind Of Kick
• Blues Blues Blues
• Swing The Big Eyed Rabbit
• Let's Get Fucked Up
• TV Set
• Legs Booze Chains & Boots
• She Said
• Tear It Up
• Surfin' Bird (a short, quick version)
• Mama Oo Pow Pow

I probably attended another half dozen Cramps shows post-Hootenanny until the band disbanded (Lux died in in 2009) ... but I never heard another instance of them playing a daytime show.

Bonus: While not from Hootenanny itself, here's a '95 live performance of the band doing "Ultra Twist."

.......... Ruprecht ( STOP )

T-Shirt Collection: The Cramps

One of my favorite concert shirts boasts an image of The Cramps' Poison Ivy Rorschach in her "Bikini Girls With Machine Guns" guise.

It's old, faded and the back of the shirt emblazoned with "The Cramps" is faded and continues to fade with each wearing.

You can just make out the fading of "Cramps" on the back.
(Hey ... I never promised you were going to get good pictures ...

Long ago, I was at a Cramps show in support of their Flame Job tour. At that show I picked up a tour long-sleeved shirt I don't think I ever once wore ... as it got confiscated by a friend of mine, who I still believe has it to this day. It's been a joke for years, my asking him wear my Cramps shirt is with the response "I don't have it."

But that's okay ... I like this short-sleeve classic much better ...

.......... Ruprecht ( STOP )

P.S. I wrote about The Cramps some six years ago when leadman Lux passed away. Give it a looksy.

Farewell Erick Lee Purkhiser

Of all the bands I’ve had the fortune to see, The Cramps have always been one of my favorites. So it was a shock to hear last week their front man Erick Lee Purkhiser (better known as Lux Interior) had passed away from a heart condition.

Lux formed The Cramps while I was in high school, an amalgam of surf and rockabilly and fuzz and punk and B-movie camp. I've never seen a band put so much into a show. With Lux at the forefront, they were thoroughly innovative and genuine in every sense of the word.

Over the last 25 some odd years, I’ve seen this band a goodly amount of times. And it’s safe to say I haven’t seen another band as much as I’ve seen The Cramps.

When you went to a Cramps show, you came away from it hot, sweaty, exhausted. You went to see this band, eyes wide opened, wondering if you would be witness to everything you've ever heard about them. Post concert? You weren't disappointed ... you got your money’s worth.

Just a few years ago, I got the opportunity to see them one last time at The House Of Blues in Anaheim with a friend of mine. I coerced and cajoled him into going to see them with me. I joked that Lux wasn’t going to be around forever to do his thing, so he’d better get to gettin’ and see him while the seein’ was still available.
 
With a couple JD Cokes under our belt ot fuel our sensibilites (and one for the show in hand), we made our way to the front at the stage. Nothing - nothing - tops a Cramps concert like being right in the middle of it all. A dangerous place to be for sure ... but an experience to be had.

“Is he coming out on crutches?” I was asked by my friend. I looked at him knowingly, smiled and confessed: “You, sir, are in for a treat.”

Lux did not disappoint. He came out dressed in black from head to toe, complete with “Good Googily-Moogily” sun glasses, bug-eyed things that made him look otherworldly; dark garb contrasting with moon-pale skin. With a bottle of wine in hand, he and the rest of the band launched into a raucous beginning set that had you in awe he was pushing 60 years of age. He moved effortlessly, lithely. He flung his mike stand around and punctuated songs with perfect Elvis hip sways. Lux alternately sung in perfect pitch one moment and, in the next breath, went completely camp and hicky. The crowd roared at every tune.

When “Tear It Up” came crunching out of their instruments, it was a free for all. A mosh pit had formed at the front of the stage and there were headbangers and punks mixing it up to the fuzzy guitars and ominous drum beat. A huge box fan was conveniently within reach and was impaled by Lux' microphone at an appropriate moment during the song. Amps were climbed on and overturned. Some idjit, drunk out of his skull, was doing his best to impersonate a rhinoceros and head butt people below the stage and I was one of the privileged few to help toss him out on his ass at the end of the song before he did any real damage to himself or anyone else.

The frivolity continued and the air was thick with sweat and noise and cheers.

Two hours later, there were a couple encores. The show had turned out to be nothing less than outstanding. When The Cramps performed, they gave 110%. It was a wonder The House Of Blues was still standing at the end of the thing. I know it was a bit worse for wear. And I remember fondly that it took a couple days for my hearing to return.

My friend? Well, he shook his head at every single song. He knew each one, he’d seen and heard The Cramps previously though screen and video only. But to actually be there ... that was an experience. Each performance elicited a chuckle and a jaw drop. To see “Tear It Up” in the concert film “Urgh, A Music War” was one thing. To see it live, up close and personal was something else entirely. It’s been said that anyone who saw them live has never forgotten the experience. My friend was no different. Not only was he in awe of the show, but he was just as deaf as I was.

I saw The Cramps at the very first Hootenanny Festival at Irvine Lake in 1988. (And in daylight, no less. Scarier than witnessing “Night Of The Living Dead” for the first time.) I saw them at The Hollywood House Of Blues. I’ve seen them at the Hollywood Palladium. I have all their albums, the majority of them on vinyl. I have posters and lobby cards and flyers and announcements and stickers and souvenir T-shirts. I own The Purple Knif Show. My wife’s eyes raise knowingly every time I put on their version of “Fever” (one of “our” special, personal songs).

I’m going to miss Lux Interior. I grew up appreciating his showmanship, in amazement of his down-to-his-bikini-brief performances and knowing there was a band out there daring enough to crush a childhood favorite of mine (“Shortnin’ Bread”) in a manner that would forever be engrained into my psyche.

Go well, Lux. In the words of "Human Fly":
 

96 Tears For 96 Eyes

.......................... Ruprecht ( STOP )


P.S. Lux passed away right down the street from me in Glendale Memorial Hospital here in California.