MC5 * A True Testimonial

This rockumentary about the groundbreaking Detroit-based band MC5 fills a void in pop history. We do not hear much about MC5 anymore, although their unpolished rock sound and political aura were just as much precursors of punk and later hard rock as the music by contemporaries The Stooges. For seven years, debuting director David C. Thomas delved through a huge pile of archive footage from the late sixties and early seventies. For nearly every event, place and person mentioned in this chronological reconstruction, he presents relevant photographs, radio interviews or film footage. The chaotic images of live shows in particular demonstrate to what extent the band, led by private guru John Sinclair, grew into an ever freer and rougher collective. While the hippies preached love and peace, MC5 represented raw sex and drugs and rock-’n’-roll. As the house band of Sinclair’s White Panther Party (analogous to the radical-violent Black Panther movement), they had themselves photographed toting weapons. Former band members now claim that it was mainly parody and provocation, but it brought them structural scrutiny from the FBI - the documentary contains footage from a US Government Surveillance film. The fact that they shouted ‘Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!’ at each concert obviously did not alleviate this situation. Of the five band members, two have meanwhile passed away. In interviews, the remaining musicians look back on this episode, some with nostalgic bravado, others with discriminating self-mockery.