The Cramps
RockinNReelinInAucklandNewZealandXXX

THE REVIEW

Learning about the death of Lux Interior hit me with one of those spasms you get when you know that one of your favorite characters, actors, or singers is gone, and they won't be able to offer you anything new anymore.

In these cases, an irresistible temptation appears to relive what they have left me as a legacy, so much so that I decide to dust off this live album. I take the record with devotion, glance at the grooves, and feed it to my modest but ever so useful and appreciated turntable.

The hiss starts, and my room, in the space of a couple of spins, gets saturated with the usual dirty Rockabilly Riffs that only the Cramps know how to produce with the skill befitting a blacksmith trying to handle a crystal glass, guided by Lux's swaggering and schizoid voice that sings as always with the hysteria befitting Elvis's Zombie.

It doesn't matter that the album isn't a masterpiece, nor that the recording isn't stellar, nor that basic pieces of the group are missing; rather, it's nice to feel how exciting a live of theirs must have been, how much love for Rock, for noise, and for low-budget horror movies is hidden in the grooves of this vinyl!

Only eleven tracks make up the Tracklist (plus three bonus on the CD), which trace Interior and associates' career from the beginnings to 1986 (even though many of the tracks come directly from "A Date With Elvis"), offered to the audience of Auckland and then recorded for us insatiable listeners the following year.

I reiterate, nothing shocking but an honest work by one of my preferred ensembles, yet a fascinating immersion in the rough and engaging sounds that the Cramps have left as a legacy to many of their devotees!

Indispensable, regardless!