Imperial Dogs "Live in Long Beach (October 30, 1974)"

(imperial dogs) This DVD is amazing not merely for the content (Stooges-esque proto-punk from before many were considering doing such  a thing) but for what it is (a videotaped performance of an obscure band before ANYONE was considering doing such a thing). Don Waller, who would go on to write your fave reissue liner notes, Motown books and scrappy Back Door fanzine articles) tells the story better in the liner notes than I possibly could, but basically this loud, crude, swastika-bearing, audience abusing, punk band had a friend who managed to convince her school she was doing research that involved putting on this concert and recording it on an ancient open reel video tape machine...and she wasn't lying! Then she had the wherewithal to BUY THE TAPE FROM THE SCHOOL! Like the monks on German teen dance TV half the fun of this is seeing the audience (in the bright light necessitated by the taping) not knowing how the hell to react. And the rest of the fun is seeing Waller strutting, crawling, and doing his best degenerate, abusive, white guy version of the theatricality he already loved in James Brown and Co. The intro banter to the songs, the fact that this was shot on black and white video (!), and the shoulda been classic songs like "Just Kids," "Amphetamine Superman," and their claim to fame, "This Ain't the Summer of Love," which they sold to Blue Oyster Cult who really just used the title (this version is scarier), make this a hard product to pass up.