MC5’s MC50 – 10 More Live Captures the Late Wayne Kramer’s All-Star Tribute Lineup
Soundboard recordings from the 2018 Kick Out the Jams 50th Anniversary Tour finally arrive on a 10-track live album.
The live album MC50 – 10 More Live has been released through earMUSIC, capturing the explosive energy of the late Wayne Kramer’s all-star tribute lineup. The recordings come directly from soundboards tracked during the 2018 Kick Out the Jams 50th Anniversary Tour, with performances from stops in Seattle, Cincinnati, and Hamburg.
The release gives fans a close look at one of the more unusual reunions in rock. Kramer, a founding guitarist of the proto-punk pioneers MC5, put the tour together to honor the 50-year legacy of the band’s landmark debut, and these recordings document what that celebration sounded like on stage.
The All-Star Lineup
To mark the anniversary, Kramer assembled a heavy-hitting supergroup built from players who came up on the music MC5 helped create:
- Kim Thayil (Soundgarden) on guitar
- Brendan Canty (Fugazi) on drums
- Billy Gould (Faith No More) on bass
- Marcus Durant (Zen Guerrilla) handling the roaring lead vocals
The mix of players from grunge, post-hardcore, and alternative metal says a lot about MC5’s reach. Each of those bands drew on the loud, fast, and political attitude that MC5 pioneered in Detroit in the late 1960s.
The Tracklist Breakdown
The 10-track collection skips the title track, “Kick Out the Jams,” which was previously issued as a bonus track on the Heavy Lifting deluxe package. Instead, it spotlights other definitive cuts from all three original MC5 studio albums: Kick Out the Jams, Back in the USA, and High Time.
- Call Me Animal
- I Believe to My Soul (Ray Charles cover)
- Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa-Fa-Fa)
- The American Ruse
- Skunk (Sonicly Speaking)
- Teenage Lust
- Looking at You
- High School
- Baby Won’t Ya
- Starship
Leaving out the famous title song makes room for songs that often get less attention, and the inclusion of the Ray Charles cover shows the soul roots under the band’s noise.
Available Formats
- Vinyl: A standard 180g black vinyl LP is available through indie retailers such as Goldmine Magazine and Josey Records, priced at around $29.
- CD and streaming: Standard CD pressings are available through retailers such as Everybody’s Records ($16.98), and the album is streaming on platforms including Spotify and Apple Music.
Prices come from the retailers’ listings and may change. For fans of Wayne Kramer, the release is a fitting document of the tribute lineup he put together before his passing.
