MC5-founding guitar icon Wayne Kramer has revealed plans for a world tour in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the band's seminal 1969 album (recorded live in 1968) Kick Out The Jams. Kramer will be bringing an all-star cast on stage with him, including MC5 drummer Dennis Thompson on select dates, plus Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil, Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty, King's X bassist Doug Pinnick and Zen Guerrilla vocalist Marcus Durant.
<iframe src="https://tools.applemusic.com/embed/v1/album/1018383064?country=us" height="500px" width="100%" frameborder="0"></iframe>
“The message of the MC5 has always been the sense of possibilities: a new music, a new politics, a new lifestyle,” Kramer said in a statement. “Today, there is a corrupt regime in power, an endless war thousands of miles away, and uncontrollable violence wracking our country. It’s becoming less and less clear if we’re talking about 1968 or 2018. I’m now compelled to share this music I created with my brothers 50 years ago. My goal is that the audience leaves these concerts fueled by the positive and unifying power of rock music.”
The trek will take this supergroup across Europe this summer before landing stateside in September, where the tour will run through the Oct. 27 closing night in MC5's hometown of Detroit. A full itinerary of the tour is forthcoming.
Kramer also announced plans to release a memoir entitled The Hard Stuff: Dope, Crime, the MC5, and My Life of Impossibilities. Due out Aug. 14 via Da Capo Press, the book is reportedly “an intimate portrait of Kramer’s post-MC5 life, which included a federal prison term, addiction struggles that lasted decades, reconnection with his long-absent father, finding the path to sobriety at 50, and, incredibly, first-time fatherhood” at age 65.
