{"id":40211,"date":"2018-09-10T13:39:29","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T12:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/?p=40211"},"modified":"2018-09-11T09:07:45","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T08:07:45","slug":"rama-lama-wayne-kramers-proto-punk-legends-mc5-head-to-europe-for-50th-anniversary-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2018\/09\/rama-lama-wayne-kramers-proto-punk-legends-mc5-head-to-europe-for-50th-anniversary-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"RAMA LAMA – Wayne Kramer’s Proto-Punk Legends MC5 Head To Europe For 50th Anniversary Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

MC5<\/strong> guitarist Wayne Kramer<\/strong> is heading to the UK in November on the latest leg of his\u00a0Kick Out The Jams <\/strong><\/em>50th Anniversary Tour<\/strong>.<\/em><\/h4>\n

The MC50 <\/strong>tour features a host of top musicians, including\u00a0Soundgarden\u00a0<\/strong>axeman\u00a0Kim Thayil<\/strong>, drummers\u00a0Brendan Canty<\/strong>\u00a0(Fugazi<\/strong>) and Matt Cameron<\/strong> (Pearl Jam<\/strong>), with bass from\u00a0Faith No More<\/strong>‘s\u00a0Billy Gould<\/strong>.\u00a0Vocals will be supplied by\u00a0Marcus Durant\u00a0<\/strong>of Blues rockers\u00a0Zen\u00a0<\/strong>Guerrilla<\/b>.<\/h4>\n

Guest appearances are also expected from Afghan Whigs<\/strong>‘\u00a0Greg Dulli<\/strong>\u00a0and Kramer’s fellow Detroit musician and producer\u00a0Don Was\u00a0<\/strong>of\u00a0Was Not Was<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The tour celebrates the 50th anniversary of MC5’s incendiary debut album\u00a0Kick Out The Jams<\/strong><\/em> and coincides with the release of Kramer’s memoir\u00a0The Hard Stuff: Dope, Crime, the MC5, and My Life of Impossibilities<\/i><\/strong>.<\/i><\/p>\n

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‘Brother’ Wayne Kramer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kicking off in Bristol on 9 November, the band play four UK dates, before a string of European shows, culminating with a performance in Antwerp, Belgium, on 1 December.<\/p>\n

Kramer says he’s particularly looking forward to playing in England again.<\/p>\n

[blockquote]I will come to England, where some of the greatest live shows of my life were performed in the MC5, to play\u00a0Kick Out The Jams<\/em> again with these great musicians. Doing so is the best possible tribute to the legacy. To borrow from\u00a0Claude Lanzmann [French filmmaker], there will be ‘No Retirement and No Retreat’. Let’s rock.”[\/blockquote]<\/p>\n

The band will play\u00a0Kick Out The Jams\u00a0<\/em>in its entirety and follow up with an encore of MC5 material that will change every night.<\/p>\n

Widely recognised as one of the best albums to emerge from the 1960s counter-culture, the MC5’s debut was recorded live in front of a wild hometown audience on Halloween night in 1968.<\/p>\n

The band would go on to make just two more albums, but like The Sex Pistols\u00a0<\/strong>they remain an enduring influence on countless musicians who followed in their wake.<\/p>\n

But don’t go expecting a slavish re-tread of the album, Kramer says the MC50 have much more to offer than that.<\/p>\n

[blockquote]This band will rip your head off. It\u2019s real, raw, sweaty, total energy rock and roll, like a bunch of 40-to-70-year-old punks on a meth power trip. I\u2019m not interested in a note-for-note reproduction of a record you\u2019ve known your entire life. The world has lived with these songs burned in amber for half a century, so we\u2019re going for an energy blast to end all. Let\u2019s bring the monster back to life with supremely talented musicians who will interpret it in their own unique ways.\u201d [\/blockquote]<\/p>\n

Kramer says the radical politics of the MC5 are just as relevant now as they were in 1968, when the band played at a riotous Democratic Party Convention and the US was trying to extricate itself from the war in Vietnam.<\/p>\n

“\u201cToday, there is a corrupt regime in power, an endless war thousands of miles away, uncontrollable violence wracking my country \u2014 it\u2019s becoming less and less clear if we\u2019re talking about 1968 or 2018. I\u2019m compelled to share this music I created with my brothers 50 years ago. My goal is that the audience leaves these shows mesmerized by the positive power of rock music,\u201d says Kramer. \u201cI\u2019ve come to accept that we were a dangerous band. The music we made at that time represented something that said \u2014 we are part of a tribe, we are part of a bigger movement \u2014 and apparently it still represents that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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