Kick Out the Jams: A film by Leni Sinclair and Cary Loren The MC5 Creem DVD (2005) Available at Amazon.

However, the rest of the DVD, home-movie-quality shots of the MC5 performing its free concerts in West Park, interspersed with clichéd "psychedelia" and historical footage of Vietnam protests and Detroit riots, is less impressive. The audio is mostly terrible -- you can hardly hear the singing on opener "Looking At You", for instance -- and that's puzzling, because it's obviously not the audio that goes with the film. There's a disturbing disconnect even in the better shot film, with the players moving a little faster than the music in many cases, and in some, clearly playing something entirely different from the soundtrack. You wonder why the filmmakers couldn't have used better audio -- maybe rights issues? -- if they weren't tied to the sound from the film. You'll be tempted to turn the sound off and blast Kick Out the Jams while you watch.

The songs are mostly drawn from that debut album, the first major label recording to include the phrase "Motherfucker", and even today it stands alongside The Who's Live At Leeds as one of the best live records ever made. (The album was censored by Elektra, which replaced the phrase with "brothers and sisters" and ultimately dropped the MC5 from their roster.) Footage comes from this period, too, showing the band at their skinny, scruffy, bad-boy best. We see the shirtless Dennis Thompson raising arms above his head to pound the drums, afro'd Rob Tyner, lit by strobes and wailing out the incendiary "Motor City Is Burning". Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith look like high school kids, astounded by the noise and power of their blues-leaning guitar lines. We cut to an audience where everybody looks to be tripping, black and white together, moving in the sunshine to the music.

The filmmakers are clearly trying to document an era as much as a band, and it works intermittently. I could do without the brightly colored geometric shapes that are thrown in every once in a while to simulate the acid-laced experience. The political footage -- cops on the edge of the park, marchers toting anti-Vietnam posters, a collection of campaign buttons including Nixon/Agnew and a peace sign -- is probably warranted, given the MC5's outspoken engagement with 1960s issues. Still there have been much better documentaries about the 1960s. I'd much rather see the MC5's two guitarists high-kicking and windmilling and spazzing to the music.

The bonus material is basically an interview with John Sinclair, filmed at Crazy Jim's in 2003, and hard to hear over background noise and music. It's worth persevering, however, past a full minute of Sinclair eating and burping repeatedly (really), to get to the stories. Here's Sinclair remembering the weekend he got out of jail for pot possession, retiring with his wife and friends after an all-day outdoor celebration only to hear a monstrous sound coming out of the park at 3:00 in the morning. His wife, terrified that the cops would come and throw Sinclair back in jail, went downstairs and pulled the plug on the MC5's amps. Less than a year later, Sinclair had become the band's unofficial manager, getting the band to shows on time, making sure their amps worked and trying to get more money than the $125 they routinely received for concerts. "Up until then," he recalled, "every gig was an adventure. Would they get there? Would their equipment work?" The best story, though, comes last, as Sinclair describes a series of slots opening for Cream, one in which the MC5 was told they'd have to set up around Ginger Baker's drums, putting Thompson's drums on one side of the stage and everything else on the other. When Cream returned the next summer, Sinclair made sure the MC5 opened for them -- and that the band blew the more famous trio off the stage. Cream, arriving in a limo after the MC5 had killed, had no idea what had happened to them. "We kicked their asses... musically," recalls Sinclair, adding that when better-known bands came to the MC5's turf from outside, "We wanted to kill them."

This is by no means an ideal introduction to the MC5. If you're just getting started, you want the first three albums. However, if you're interested in seeing a truly great live band in action, and don't mind a bit of discontinuity and confusion, there's good stuff here. Try it with the sound down and your favorite MC5 tunes on the stereo.

-- Jennifer Kelly