The Cramps and The Mutants: The Napa State Tapes at Speed Cinema
The Cramps and The Mutants: The Napa State Tapes
Directed by Joe Rees, Mike Plante, and Jason Willis
Thursday, July 30, 7 pm | BUY TICKETS
$12 | $8 Speed and LPM members
“One of the most seminal performances in the history of punk rock.”—Colby Smith, The Aither
On June 13, 1978, the soon-to-be legendary rock band The Cramps went to play at Napa State, a psychiatric hospital in the small town of Napa in Northern California. Opening for them was The Mutants, an eclectic septet of art school punks from nearby San Francisco. Also in the van was seminal Bay Area art collective Target Video, there to capture the show using one of the first video cameras available to the public, democratizing a medium controlled by mainstream media outlets.
What resulted may be the most unique punk show ever, as the two bands played for the residents at the hospital, a rehabilitation facility that was skimming the danger of being shut down by former California Governor Ronald Reagan.
Here for the first time ever: the long-lost tape of The Mutants playing at Napa State and the full tape of The Cramps’ show, both unedited and fully remastered from the original reel-to-reel videotape. In between the shows is We Were There To Be There, a new short documentary about how the Napa State show happened and its lasting effect. 1978-2023, U.S., DCP, 72 minutes. Recommended for 16+
Co-presented with WFPK
