MC5's Kick Out the Jams 50th Anniversary Tour Announced

07 March 2018

Wayne Kramer, the founding guitarist and leader of Detroit's proto-punk/hard rock band the MC5, will celebrate the landmark anniversary of its incendiary debut album 'Kick Out The Jams' with the 35-plus-date 'Kick Out The Jams: The 50th Anniversary Tour' and a memoir 'The Hard Stuff: Dope, Crime, The MC5, And My Life Of Impossibilities' (Da Capo Press).

Kramer has put together his wish-list worthy band of fellow travelers, dubbed MC50 — Brother Wayne on guitar along with guitarist Kim Thayil (SOUNDGARDEN), drummer Brendan Canty (FUGAZI), bassist Doug Pinnick (KING'S X), and the afro'd secret weapon frontman, 6-foot-7-inch Marcus Durant (ZEN GUERRILLA).

The North American tour begins in early September, after several European summer festivals, and culminates with an October 27 concert back where it all began: in Detroit in 1968, where 'Kick Out The Jams' — recently cited by Pitchfork as one of the 50 best albums of the 1960s — was recorded live in front of a raucous home town audience at the Grande Ballroom on Halloween night. The band will announce full dates in the coming weeks, but tickets for The Fillmore Detroit go on sale at 10 a.m. EST on Friday, March 9.

The MC5's original lineup played its final show on December 31, 1972, ending a turbulent existence marked by drugs, acrimony, financial woes, police harassment from Nixon and Hoover, and lots of unbridled, uncompromising, unequaled rock-and-roll fury. Original drummer Dennis Thompson, the only other living member of the MC5, will perform on select dates (to be announced). Singer Rob Tyner and guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith died in 1991 and 1994, respectively, and bassist Michael Davis passed away in 2012.