Description
Original American NTSC video tape in paper slipcase
The Plasmatics found a way to stir up the press in anticipation of their forthcoming album New Hope For The Wretched. They held a free Plasmatics concert at the end of Pier 62, at 22nd Street and the Hudson River, in New York City with a guarantee of the biggest spectacle ever from this outrageous band. They certainly lived up to it. A curious audience of 10,000 people watched as the band were lowered to the special stage by a hovering helicopter. They crunched and ground through a short set of highlights from their new album and then came the big finale. Instead of tossing dynamite into the parked prop Cadillac as she’s prone to do, Wendy hopped in, rewed it up and drove toward the end of the pier (where the stage was). By the way, the brakes had been removed from the beast. At the last minute she could be seen jumping out as the car struck the 40′ x 50′ stage primed with explosive, which naturally sent a ball of fire into the air that was visible for a mile. The car, stage gear and bits of the platform went crashing through the other side and dropping into the Hudson River in a flaming ball of twisted metal. The band dusted themselves off and left the scene in a waiting ambulance. For their efforts, not only did the crowd have a good view of the spectacle, but all five major TV stations were on hand to videotape it for their news shows, plus a myriad of newspaper and magazine reporters. All in the name of rock n roll. Here is guitarist Richie Stotts describing it several years later: We got a permit from New York City to film a movie, and we were gonna do it on the Pier. We built a stage out there. A real freakin’ stage. It was five feet high and made of plywood, which cost a lot of money. Then we built all phony stage amps and stuff. Even the guitars we played were not really real. Then we went to the studio and recorded the songs we were gonna play. The recorded them without the vocals, because Wendy was gonna sing live. Then we had to get a PA system out there to play the music. Then we had a ramp going off the stage, and behind the stage was the end of the pier and the Hudson River. In the meantime, we didn’t tell New York City that we put posters all around saying that there was going to be a free concert by the Plasmatics. Then we invited Chuck Scarborough and those characters from ABC, NBC, CBS to come down. We did a press release. So we built the stage a couple days before. I built part of that stage, hammering the freakin’ shit in. We built a drum riser, got a cheap drum set, threw it up there. The plan was for us to do the songs, and Wendy would go to the front of the pier, get in the Cadillac, drive the car at us and go up the ramp. Then we’d jump off the stage, everything would explode and the car would hit this barrier in the back. It was a real Cadillac, and we wanted to use that for our next show. We buy these cars, and then we’d drive them to the show and blow them up. Later on, we got a great pyro guy named ‘Pyro Pete,’ but before him we had a guy named Rob. We didn’t know much about pyro, but Swenson thought Rob was taking care of it. And all Rob did was have 10-gallon tanks cut in half under the stage, and he just poured gasoline in them. This was not what we expected. If the fire department had seen that, it would have been all off. There was a tiff before the show, because we were all nervous. It was wild, because so many people came. My parents actually came to this thing. We rented a helicopter, so we’d come down in the helicopter. We came down and it looked like Woodstock. It was just jam-packed. The police department was there; the fire department was there. It was really exciting, and really exciting because we didn’t really have to worry about playing because it was already taped. (laughs) We went down there, and we played these songs and it was great. Wendy goes and gets the car, drives the car up the stage, jumps out and everybody’s fine. The car goes up the ramp, but doesn’t go up the ramp the way we thought it would. The whole stage blew up, the gasoline tanks worked…but the car just kept going and went right into the river. The whole thing was great!”
Track list:
1. Tight Black Pants
2. (Make You) Squirm
3. Nothing
4. Plasma Jam