'MC5: A True Testimonial'
Still kickin'

LIKE NEW YORK City's Velvet Underground, Detroit's MC5 were a late '60s-early '70s rock outfit that enjoyed a fervent regional fan base, if not much larger commercial success. Their muscular sound – closer to garage and "heavy" music than then-fashionable psychedelia – won critical praise, while their revolutionary politics attracted less welcome attention from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They were the only band to play outside 1968's notorious Chicago Democratic Convention, cofounded yippie-ish organization the White Panthers, enraged their major label by printing a rabble-rousing manifesto on an album sleeve, and for a while worked under the aegis of both a commune and a "spiritual adviser." Eventually, infighting, egomania, canceled recording contracts, and an unmanageable reputation led to their demise. After the breakup, however, they acquired legendary status among the next generation's punks and indie rockers. David C. Thomas's in-depth chronicle MC5: A True Testimonial draws on extensive archival materials to etch an absorbing portrait of a singular counterculture mini-phenom. He tosses in everything from race-riot news footage and vintage TV studio and concert performances (which bear out the band's rep for being much better live than on LP) to interviews with bemused ex-wives. Surviving members (two have since died, including Patti Smith's subsequent husband-collaborator, Fred "Sonic" Smith) are still pretty full of themselves and offer entertainingly contrary recollections of their shared history. Like The Cockettes and The Weather Underground, this is the rare acid-flashback memento that really makes the era's volatile and exhilarating complexity come alive again. See Rep Clock for show times. (Dennis Harvey)