Excellent Good Fair Poor : VIDEOCASSETTES

“The Best of New Wave Theatre.” Rhino. Two volumes, $29.95 each. This local cable series of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s (eventually seen on USA Cable) was one of the most delightfully freakish programs in television history. It featured many of the best underground bands of the L.A. pop scene’s glory days actually performing--no MTV-like lip-syncs--and captured with crudely exciting camera work. The show also displayed several terrible bands, too, plus snatches of hit-and-miss art-humor and non-sequitur flower-power hosting by the late Peter Ivers. Valuable time capsules of a wonderfully chaotic TV anomaly.