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Paddy

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Aquamarine

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Paddy
[www.youtube.com]

Sounding great! Really looking forward to the 2 shows in October. Read Wayne Kramers autobiography. Good read, but a lot of stuff left out too.

This is the first gig in 25 years of going to gigs that I've bought a meet and greet ticket for. Signed copy of Kramers book included in the price which was reasonable.

I saw the DKT/MC5 tour back in 2005 and hope these shows are as electric as the one I caught then.

Has anyone been to any of the shows so far?

Going Saturday, also doing the meet and greet thing! AND the Detroit Cobras are opening, should be an amazing night.

Detroit Cobras would have been a great support act to have caught. Alas not in Seattle or Vancouver. Seattle does have Fitz of Depression though!

I would appreciate your take on the meet and greet. Im afraid I'll go all guitar geek on brother Wayne

I'll report back. They do say that no topic is off the table, I've been trying to think of something really good! I'm sure he'd actually love some guitar geek questions, though.

Thanks Aqua!

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ab
Saw this show in DC two weeks ago. Wayne molded his ringers into a tight band!

Excellent, is it on a part with the 2005 shows?

I liked it better than the 2005 show I saw. Evan Dando was drunk and made a mess of things at the DC show I saw back then



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2018-09-26 04:46 by ab.

Kick out the jams Grandmothers?

Nope. They were spry. It only took Ramblin' Rose to get warmed up. It wasn't the old 5, but it was no disgrace.

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ab

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ab
Saw this show in DC two weeks ago. Wayne molded his ringers into a tight band!

Excellent, is it on a part with the 2005 shows?

I liked it better than the 2005 show I saw. Evan Dando was drunk and made a mess of things at the DC show I saw back then

Kramer references Dando’s drinking in the book. Thanks for your take on the show.
I was lucky and caught them with Mark Arm, Lemmy & Gilby Clarke. I can’t wait for the 2 shows next month. Depending on how they are, I just might make the trip to Detroit for the 2 shows there later in the month.

The band mentioned in the latest ad sound really good IMO. WK knows where it's at.

It looks from the setlists I've seen that they aren't doing "baby wont ya" off of High Time. I Wish they were, I love the solos in that song.

I Need to give an honorary mention to Sonics Rendezvous Band also. They have a couple of albums and a live album well worth checking out!

Absolutely! Sonic was an ace rhythm guitarist. He studied Keith well and added his own thing

Funny you say that, but Sonic Smith & brother Wayne definitely were practitioners of the ancient art of weaving!

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Aquamarine

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Paddy

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Aquamarine

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Paddy
[www.youtube.com]

Sounding great! Really looking forward to the 2 shows in October. Read Wayne Kramers autobiography. Good read, but a lot of stuff left out too.

This is the first gig in 25 years of going to gigs that I've bought a meet and greet ticket for. Signed copy of Kramers book included in the price which was reasonable.

I saw the DKT/MC5 tour back in 2005 and hope these shows are as electric as the one I caught then.

Has anyone been to any of the shows so far?

Going Saturday, also doing the meet and greet thing! AND the Detroit Cobras are opening, should be an amazing night.

Detroit Cobras would have been a great support act to have caught. Alas not in Seattle or Vancouver. Seattle does have Fitz of Depression though!

I would appreciate your take on the meet and greet. Im afraid I'll go all guitar geek on brother Wayne

I'll report back. They do say that no topic is off the table, I've been trying to think of something really good! I'm sure he'd actually love some guitar geek questions, though.

So my report is that the show itself was everything I hoped, and that Wayne is the sweetest person. He had time for everyone, and fortunately got asked some really good questions during the q & a part, so it was a more substantive conversation than it could have been. Luckily in our case they were running a bit late and he hadn't had time to pre-sign the books, so he was able to personalize the signatures for us, while chatting. Also, contrary to the information we received, he WILL sign more than one thing. And you can have the stars and stripes guitar in the picture with him if you want! (The only downside to them running slightly late was that we only got to look at a couple of his guitars.)

Everybody seemed to agree that it was a more than worthwhile (and worth the money) experience, and as I said the show itself was awesome. I nearly cried when they hit the Kick Out the Jams riff!

Thanks for your review, I’m getting excited, I’m doing the meet n greet thing the second night. How did the band sound as a whole, is Kim Thayail a good foil for brother Wayne?

I think he really is, they worked very well together. Definitely high-grade weaving! The band was very tight, and my friend who does merch for the Cobras told me they’ve been getting better and better and have really hit their stride. I thought it was a very strong performance. So it definitely bodes well for your shows!

And to repeat, Brother Wayne is a very charismatic and interesting man.

[www.rollingstone.com]

"In his new book, The Hard Stuff: Dope, Crime, the MC5, and My Life of Impossibilities, MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer has some wild stories to tell: His Detroit band’s improbable journey from polite covers act to noisy rock insurrectionists; his own descent into crime and imprisonment; and his comeback as a solo artist. Kramer, who is currently on tour celebrating the 50th anniversary of the MC5’s Kick Out the Jams, called into the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast to talk about it all.

To hear the entire discussion, press play below or download and subscribe on iTunes or Spotify."
___
The 1967 Detroit Riots
“The air was full of smoke and sirens and gunfire. It was like a World War II army movie where you’re hearing all this in the background except it was real. These were streets that I grew up on and was raised and went to school, and these neighborhoods I knew all my life and now the entire order of daily life was turned upside down. It was thrilling and terrifying at the same time.”

The birth of the MC5
“Well, I’d say it took major turns at a few different points. The decision to not be a cover band exclusively was a turning point for us. We were encouraged to learn songs that were played on the radio so that we could get steady employment in bars. But we didn’t want to do that. I wanted to write my own songs and play concerts like my idols, like the Who and the Rolling Stones. And then the influence of the counterculture and marijuana and LSD was considerable and kind of opened my mind up to different ways of approaching music and then ultimately exposed me to the free jazz movement. The music of John Coltrane, and Sonny Rollins, Albert Ayler, and then trying to make a connection between what I was trying to do with the electric guitar coming from Chuck Berry to move forward to what Albert Ayler was doing with the saxophone seemed like the logical next step.”

Embracing distortion
“It just evolved. We used to play ‘Wild Thing,’ and then Hendrix came out with his version of it, so we thought, ‘Well, let’s move over and pick another one of their songs,’ because we liked the stuff they were doing. I think that heaviness just grew out of trying to put more energy into the same three chords — where do you go once you’re playing everything as fast as you possibly can? We started to find that you could leave the beat and the key behind and go into a pure sonic dimension.”

How their debut, Kick Out the Jams, became a live album rather than a studio release
“It was a consensus idea between the band and [producer John Sinclair] and Elektra Records because all of our effort was put into performing live and we had very little studio experience at that point. We just made a handful of 45 RPM singles where you go in and you cut the song in three hours and mix it and you’re done. I think the idea that getting this band in a studio to record an album could be costly and labor intensive, whereas we were a fantastic live performing unit. And if we could capture the excitement of the live concert event on record, it could be a revolutionary way to introduce the band to the world. I think that worked pretty well.”


Playing Outside the 1968 Democratic Convention
“It was not unlike a lot of days for the MC5, because we would play anywhere anyone would let us. To play a free concert in a park for community groups was something we did as a matter of course. And so when Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman invited us to Chicago to perform at the Festival of Life to oppose the festival of death, which is the way they saw the Democrats’ convention, we jumped at the chance. Sure, they said all the California bands were coming and bands were coming from all over the world it was going to be a big rock festival. We drove out there and got there. There was no stage, there was no electricity, there’s no flatbed truck. There was nothing. We set up on the ground and we had to borrow electrical power from a hot dog stand to run our back line. We perform the set, and the minute we finished, and I’d seen this before, when as long as the band is playing or the crowd has something positive to focus on, everything is fairly peaceful. But once you take that away, the mob mentality takes over. And of course the Chicago police were provoking the kids with really rough tactics; beating kids and pushing kids around and riding their motorcycles through the crowd. Of course, the kids responded in kind and we all, we got in our van and headed back to Detroit where we’d be safe and then we all watched on television.”

___________________________

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Aquamarine
I think he really is, they worked very well together. Definitely high-grade weaving! The band was very tight, and my friend who does merch for the Cobras told me they’ve been getting better and better and have really hit their stride. I thought it was a very strong performance. So it definitely bodes well for your shows!

And to repeat, Brother Wayne is a very charismatic and interesting man.

What questions got the best response form him?

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Paddy

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Aquamarine
I think he really is, they worked very well together. Definitely high-grade weaving! The band was very tight, and my friend who does merch for the Cobras told me they’ve been getting better and better and have really hit their stride. I thought it was a very strong performance. So it definitely bodes well for your shows!

And to repeat, Brother Wayne is a very charismatic and interesting man.

What questions got the best response form him?

He was very animated about the spirit of the times, in social and political terms, the civil rights and anti-war movements. I asked him about Mick Farren and he had a lot of enthusiastic things to say about him, and also memories of what a character Rob Tyner could be.

For anybody interested, on Oct. 30th the MC50 band are going to record and film the whole of the Kick Out the Jams album at a Devils Night show at Third Man Records in Detroit, close to the site of the Grande Ballroom where the original one was recorded, exactly 50 years since the first one (which was recorded on Devils Night and Halloween in 1968). Special guests Matt Cameron and Don Was, and the whole thing benefits Jail Guitar Doors. Special editions of the album will be available for attendees to purchase (I'm certain there will also be a regular black version later for non-attendees, though it doesn't specify that). Details here if anyone's interested-- I'll be there!:
MC50 Detroit Devils Night show

O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire
Shepherds Bush Green
London, United Kingdom W12 8TT
Mon, 12 Nov 2018

MC5 with Special guest announced as Michael Monroe

Billy Gould (Faith No More) added to all-star group.

I have my tickets for this one, a great double bill.

UK people - half price on Groupon. 15 quid a ticket, just booked for Manchester (great venue too - Former Wesleyan chapel)
[www.groupon.co.uk]

Caught the last 2 shows in Seattle and Vancouver, brilliant gigs each night. First time I bought a meet and greet ticket for a show. Brother Wayne was a gentleman and truly appreciative of the fact people had paid extra and taken time to meet him. Personally signed the book and my drivers license I have also spent some time in a facility such as the one Brother Wayne did so we spoke about life after that while we got the photo taken and the signing.

The shows were brilliant, he has a great weaving thing going with Thayil for sure, I asked him if he thought any new material would come from the group given how tight they sounded and he said they had talked about earlier that day! They’ve recorded almost every show so hopefully something other than the planned DVD from the Detroit shows at the end of the month come out. Durant is a good frontman for this band I thought. It was a cool moment to see the Stars and Stripes strat 2 foot from me. Fitz Of Depression were excellent in Seattle, I didn’t catch either support band in Vancouver as I went home to tuck the young one into bed between the meet and greet and the band. I had seen both previously and wasn’t fussed about missing them.

Now to decide if I go to Detroit or not.

If anyone is on the fence GO!

Yes last night at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver was quite excellent. Nice guitar interplay and the band was really intense at times. I liked the 'free jazz' part as well. Missed the openers, but oh well...

Highly recommended.

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Yes last night at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver was quite excellent. Nice guitar interplay and the band was really intense at times. I liked the 'free jazz' part as well. Missed the openers, but oh well...

Highly recommended.

Yeah Starship was really cool. Did we speak on the train after the gig by any chance? I was wearing a long sleeve Stones shirt...

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mosthigh
Yes last night at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver was quite excellent. Nice guitar interplay and the band was really intense at times. I liked the 'free jazz' part as well. Missed the openers, but oh well...

Highly recommended.

Yeah Starship was really cool. Did we speak on the train after the gig by any chance? I was wearing a long sleeve Stones shirt...

No, I was wearing a blue-ish hoodie jacket and a brown Tilley hat. Jumped on the bus pretty quickly afterwards.

I wass at the anniversary show last night, and it was one for the ages. It was recorded for a double album (the songs from the original album plus part of the encore), which will be out at some point on Third Man Records. It was also filmed, but I don’t know what the footage is intended for.

Don Was was a no-show, btw.

"...and also memories of what a character Rob Tyner could be"

I got around to this thread a bit late, but it would be interesting to hear what he said about Tyner. Could you spare a minute or two, Brother Aquamarine?

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Ronnierocks
O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire
Shepherds Bush Green
London, United Kingdom W12 8TT
Mon, 12 Nov 2018

MC5 with Special guest announced as Michael Monroe

Billy Gould (Faith No More) added to all-star group.

I have my tickets for this one, a great double bill.

And Monroe is the support act as well, methinks. What a lineup!

The second best frontman ever:



[www.youtube.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2018-11-01 11:53 by DandelionPowderman.

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parislocksmith
"...and also memories of what a character Rob Tyner could be"

I got around to this thread a bit late, but it would be interesting to hear what he said about Tyner. Could you spare a minute or two, Brother Aquamarine?

In Vancouver he talked a little about Tyner, said he felt Rob didn't get the kudos he deserved as an artist or singer, said he was a very talented guy who could play pretty much anything. He also said that as Tyner got older he disowned some of the more revolutionary things the MC5 had done and been involved in, he didn't know why Tyner felt the need to disown part of his past. Mercurial was a word he used to describe Tyner, he also said that the band as a whole were mercurial.

That's all i can remember from the Vancouver meet and greet.

"Inside a backroom production studio, an audio crew mixed on the fly while a vintage 1970 lathe cut the show live to acetate —
setting up a “Kick Out the Jams” record that will be pressed at Third Man's vinyl plant and released in early 2019."







"The recording situation made for a fun if unorthodox show: Kramer and company periodically paused the performance as the acetates in back were flipped or replaced,
filling the time with autograph signings, makeshift jams and musings on weed legalization."

-Detroit Free Press
MC50 Plays Third Man Show Full Article

Many thanks Paddy. A shame that he died so young.

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DandelionPowderman

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Ronnierocks
O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire
Shepherds Bush Green
London, United Kingdom W12 8TT
Mon, 12 Nov 2018

MC5 with Special guest announced as Michael Monroe

Billy Gould (Faith No More) added to all-star group.

I have my tickets for this one, a great double bill.

And Monroe is the support act as well, methinks. What a lineup!

The second best frontman ever:



[www.youtube.com]

Yawn