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Melody Maker

JUNE 1972

10 Saturday /

MC-5

Kingdom Come

+ film

'Monterey Pop'

*Kings Cross
Cinema*

London , UK

MC5 : ROB TYNER , DENNIS THOMPSON , WAYNE KRAMER , FRED SMITH ,
on bass DEREK HUGHES

MC5/KINGDOM COME BY STEVE PEACOCK   [SOUNDS]  17.6.72

   I'd forgotten what a good sort of atmosphere you get at all-nighters: everything seems a lot looser and less formal between the hours of midnight and six, a chance for everyone - people and musicians - to stretch out a bit. The Kings Cross Cinema seems to provide just the right environment for such events - at least it did on Saturday when Kingdom Come, and the MC5 played.
   Perhaps Kingdom Come took their looseness a bit too far towards the end of their set - three jams all along much the same lines did end their set on a bit of a down slope - but I enjoyed the band, and found myself absorbed by their combination of musical and visual ideas, and by their flashes of cackling insanity. Musically they're fine, and their rhythm machine fits into the music much better than I'd thought it would. "Time Captains" was - I think - the musical high point.
   But along with that, there's a constant streak of drama running through the band's set. Some of it is planned, costumed figures appearing and disappearing, and some of it isn't - looks of horror on their faces as something goes wrong. It'll sound daft to them, but unplanned accidents like the failing synthesiser become equally as involving as the planned stunts. It was that kind of night.
   The MC5 were the antithesis of that: slick, tight, hard-rocking and very together, they steamed through a set that was mostly exhilarating but occasionally fell a bit flat. Numbers like "Thunder Express", "Motor City Is Burning" and "Poison" showed them at their tough, aggressive best. These Detroit bands can certainly do it.