MC5
Stugis Armory
Sturgis Michigan
aka Starship: Live At the Sturgis Armory
27 June 68


  1. Kick Out the Jams
  2. Come Together
  3. Revolutionary Blues - small digital skip at 2:50
  4. Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)
  5. Cold Sweat > I Can't Stand Myself > There Was a Time
  6. Upper Egypt
  7. Tutti Frutti
  8. Borderline >
  9. Born Under a Bad Sign
10. // I Want You
11. Starship
12. Black to Comm

return

Any show that starts off with Kick Out The Jams is going to be hot hot hot. And this certainly the case for this live MC5 show.

MC5 was one of the original punk bands although we didn't call it that at the time - it was just loud rock music. Their studios albums were shams compared to their live shows although it was their studio albums that introduced most of us to the group. BUT, here we get to hear the raw power of their live show- this is about seventy full minutes of MC5 in all of their crashing, burning glory.

I was a teenager when this group was Kickin' Out the Jams and I had no idea of the broad range of music that they actually played. Here's a rock (punk) band doing James Brown's Cold Sweat, Pharoah Sanders Upper Egypt, Sun Ra's , Albert Kings's Born Under A Bad Sign and even Little Richard's Tutti Fruiti. Good God what an eclectic mix but somehow it worked, oddly at times, but it worked. All these songs are intermixed with MC5 original songs. The song Starship is a bit of self indulgent nonsense but it's actually a great lead in song for Black To Comm - an 11 minute version no less. It is largely regarded as the first punk song (~1965) - that's right, before Iggy & Stooges, before NY Dolls, before Sid, etc etc etc.

This show itself was about a billion light years away from The Beatles, and Dylan, and just about everyone else playing music in 1968.

Supposedly, this show was captured on some kid's reel-to-reel recorder, plugged directly into the soundboard. Sounds like an urban legend/myth to me but nevertheless, the sound of this is quite good and the entire show ranks up there with some of the top live shows of all time. Certainly comparable to The Who's "Live At Leeds".  So if you're looking for a way to do travel back in time, now's your chance. Strap on your headphones, close your eyes and imagine that you were one of the 100's of kids packed into the Sturgis Armory on that summer night.