MC5 to arrive again

’60s revolutionary legend to hit Fort Lauderdale.

“Brothers and sisters! The time has come for each and every one of you to decide whether you are gonna be the problem or whether you are gonna be the solution! You must choose, brothers! You must choose!”

With that introduction, shouted by an emcee to the audience gathered at Detroit’s Grande Ballroom in 1968, the Motor City 5 barreled into the live performance that would fill their debut album, “Kick Out the Jams,” a searing tour de force of rock guitar, free-jazz audacity and proto-punk chaos that went on to shape the sound of the Ramones, the Clash, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam.

Led by Wayne Kramer and Fred “Sonic” Smith — each on Spin magazine’s list of 100 greatest guitarists of all time — the MC5 was raw, primal and overpowering. And they burned with an optimistic, revolutionary zeal of the time, symbolized by an eight-hour performance for Vietnam War protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, before it dissolved into a cloud of tear gas and police batons.

As reflected in Kramer’s recently published memoir, “The Hard Stuff: Dope, Crime, the MC5 and My Life of Possibilities” (Da Capo Press), the band flamed out quickly after appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone, breaking up four years later with three major-label albums to show for it. In 1975, Kramer began a two-year sentence for a drug conviction.

Kramer is now 70 and living in Los Angeles, where he composes and produces music for film and television, and the book, while detailing the struggle of an addict and an artist, is layered with the optimism of a man committed to seeing past impossibilities.

His jail sentence inspired the 1978 Clash song “Jail Guitar Doors,” which, he is quick to point out, provided the name for his program (co-founded with Billy Bragg) that provides guitars to prison “lifers.” This summer, he succeeded in a five-year effort to bring Jail Guitar Doors USA to prisoners in his hometown of Detroit.

On Wednesday, Kramer will kick off the North American leg of a tour celebrating his seminal album, Kick Out the Jams: The 50th Anniversary Tour, with a concert at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale. Backing Kramer is the supergroup MC50, which includes Kim Thayil (Soundgarden), Brendan Canty (Fugazi), Billy Gould (Faith No More) and Marcus Durant (Zen Guerrilla).

While getting ready for the tour, an affable Kramer spoke by phone from his L.A. Studio.

You must be a kind of godlike figure to Kim Thayil and those guys. How did the first rehearsal go? Were they up to the task?

They were way up for it. Each of the guys in the band all have their own personal relationship with the music of the MC5, apart from the friendship with me. They discovered the MC5 in their own time, and the MC5 has its own meaning to them. It wasn’t like a guy called up and offered them a job. This was something that is important to them. We all share this same sensibility about the perilous state of the nation today and the fact that we’re carrying a message of self-determination and selfefficacy, that people can make a difference if they commit wholly to taking positive action. It’s what the MC5 always represented — unlimited possibilities. And action, now more than ever.

You’re doing “Kick Out the Jams” in its entirety, I think. You are also doing music from “Back in the USA,” like “The American Ruse.” What else?

We’ll do a whole selection of songs from the other two albums, as well, and those will revolve every night as we try to get different special guests to join us.

Do you have any guests lined up for this stop in Fort Lauderdale?

Who do you have in mind? I don’t know the area. Who would you recommend?

I’ll give you a name: You and Iggy Pop go way back …

Oh, sure. Of course, I was gonna call him. No doubt. … I’ll give him a holler and see if he wants to come over to the gig and sing a song or two.

What are your impressions of today’s youth. In Fort Lauderdale, you’ll be a few miles from Parkland and the March for Our Lives students. Do you have confidence in what they’re doing?

I do. I have great faith in young people, and all people of good conscience, that they’re going to pick up the hard work of civilization-building that we started in the ’60s. You know, it’s going to be their world. They’re going to be running things and I think that they’re gonna do a better job of it than this older generation is doing. I mean, I thought we were doing pretty well with the election of Barack Obama, and then the pendulum not only swung in the other direction, it fell off the wall and crashed.

Wayne Kramer and MC50 will bring their Kick Out the Jams: The 50th Anniversary Tour 7 p.m. Wednesday at Revolution Live, 100 SW Third Ave., in Fort Lauderdale. South Florida’s Goddamn Hustle opens the show. Tickets start at $26. Call 954- 449 -1025 or go to JoinTheRevolution.net. For more on Kramer, go to JailGuitarDoors.org.