Summer stage - MC5

[John MacDougall <xuicholti>]

A nice review of the MC5/Sun Ra set at Summerstage.
Wonder if anyone recorded it!

Kinda wonder how Patti feels about the MC5 survivors
after they blocked the MC5 movie that she was a
supporter of.

John

1960's Musical Anarchists Still Kicking Out the Jams

By JON PARELES
Published: August 1, 2005 NYTimes

The MC5 and the Sun Ra Arkestra knew exactly what they
meant by freedom when they shared a bill and performed
together at Central Park Summerstage on Saturday
afternoon. Freedom was about taking a known structure
- a blues, a vamp, a swing tune - and overloading it
with noise and wild impulses.

When the two bands first played together, in the
1960's, they represented a shared utopian anarchy: MC5
mingled revolution, lust and the urge to rock, while
the Arkestra tossed together African-inspired
drumming, carnival pageantry, big-band arrangements
and visions of outer space as a better place. The MC5
included a Sun Ra tune, "Starship," on their first
album, "Kick Out the Jams." What both groups played,
then and now, was also good-time music, from a time
when protest and pleasure merged.

The MC5, who formed in Detroit in 1966, used
garage-rock, soul and blues-rock as the makings of
rowdy psychedelic stomps. They denounced the war in
Vietnam; they got primal about sex. In the ferment of
the late 60's, the distorted momentum of the music was
greeted as an insurrectionary force in songs like
"Motor City Is Burning." It was also a foundation for
metal and punk-rock to come.

Two of the five original band members - the singer Rob
Tyner and the guitarist Fred Smith - died in the
1990's, and Michael Davis (bass), Wayne Kramer
(guitar) and Dennis Thompson (drums) haven't tried to
recreate the original band. Instead, they call
themselves DKT/MC5 and work with various singers. At
Summerstage they had Mark Arm from Mudhoney, Handsome
Dick Manitoba from the Dictators and Lisa Kekaula from
Basement Jaxx, each offering a version of the old
Detroit rebel howl. Gilbey Clarke, from Guns N' Roses,
added a second guitar. There was also a two-man horn
section.

Heard now, the MC5's music showed its blues and soul
roots. But it also reached psychedelic heights,
particularly when Mr. Kramer took off on lead-guitar
solos that stretched blues lines and Chuck Berry licks
toward high-speed runs and distortion, while the
rhythm section kicked harder and harder.

The Sun Ra Arkestra, now led by the saxophonist
Marshall Allen, is a gleefully overstuffed big band.
Its members perform in glittering costumes and hats
that are anything but uniform. Multiple percussionists
pile onto swing beats, cluttering them with hints of
Africa and Brazil. While members of the saxophone or
brass sections play arranged passages, other
instruments squeal and bark and cackle. Some parts are
harmonious, others proudly out of tune. And behind
vocals that declare "This planet is not my home" is
not alienation, but a jovial tenacity.

The MC5 and the Arkestra got together at the end, for
"Starship" and "Outer Spaceways Incorporated," and
they redoubled each other's squall, spinning off into
free improvisations. Yesterday's protests still made a
joyful noise.