The Cramps / The Puppets

Jeffrey Lee Jun 27, 2018

footnote # 1:

This contributor first stumbled into The Cramps traveling medicine show during their first foray outside of New York City's Bowery, (as I like to refer to as) my "Baptism by Fire" on 07 April 1978, at the Atlantis Club in Washington, D.C. I had heard of The Cramps in drips and drabs, in the pages of Richard, and Lisa Robinson's Rock Scene magazine, a rag devoted primarily to NYC glam rock, and the burgeoning punk rock movement.
Needless to say, The Cramps opened many doors, and left an incalculable, indelible, life long impression on me.
I was now totally corrupt, and, as I won't retrace the circumstances leading up to this moment, suffice to say, it had to do with an employee of a local record store; the Penguin Feather, seeking a gig as a DJ, and my giving him a lift to the Atlantis that evening.

footnote # 2:

The Atlantis Club was located at 930 F Street, NW, in the Atlantic Building, adjacent to Ford's Theatre (where U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated).
Atlantis owner Paul Parsons was quoted in the day's following The Cramps ill-fated booking with support group, The Puppets as: "...too controversial, too destructive. No club is ready for that kind of destruction. The Cramps are not healthy."
Evidently, Parsons told them 'never to return.'
Soon after, the Atlantis closed it's doors, and the building was purchased and re-christened the Nightclub 9:30 on 31 May 1980, and there, The Cramps enjoyed many a return engagement.