Reforms! If there is one  word in the music industry that conjures up more excitement and acrimony from fans and critics alike, I would like to hear about it. On one hand, you get to see that one band you were too young, too broke or too high on glue to see the first time they toured through your neck of the woods. On the other hand, to some the very thought of a reformed band evokes sneers of milking the cash cow that is the nostalgia bandwagon, backed by soul-less corporations, and thus losing their primary core belief system which involves, never backing down to “the man”. Before writing the Motor City 5 (well 3 + 3 on this occasion) off for being the latter, there were some interesting moments, which are worth mentioning.

Due to my extreme tardiness,  I unfortunately missed the nights supporting acts of Dollhouse and Young Heart Attack, both, who I’m sure, in all their youthful enthusiasm would have warmed up the night quite well. I waited in quiet anticipation, not knowing where the night would go…would I have to turn away in disgust at the sight of a bunch of old men trying to reclaim some former glory, or would my low expectations be super seeded by something that was both truly unique? Opening with an obscure monologue of psycho-babble, the group powered through a number of short blistering Detroit-fuelled blues tunes including excellent renditions of Sister Anne, High School, Animal and of course the eternal Kick Out The Jams, which subsequently brought the house down. There was also a short dedication to Ray Charles, with their version of I Believe To My Soul.

But I think the night belonged to ex-lead singer of Mudhoney, Mark Arm. While his less than impressive contemporary Evan Dando, who seems stuck in some Bob Dylan/Joey Ramone time zone struggled to establish any sort of interaction with the crowd. Arm embraced MC5 as if it were his backing band, jumping off stage, posing for cameras, and  jumping and gyrating all over the stage and basically injecting the much needed youthfulness that was needed to carry them into the contemporary world of rock. The same, unfortunately, could not be said for the remaining members of MC5 who seemed too rigid and stiff on stage. It was a bit unsettling to see guys as old as my dad trying to rock out, all the afro’s were gone, replaced with wrinkles and sagginess.

That still doesn’t mean that the crowd didn’t appreciate the old codgers, I think my favourite moment came when there was a bit of the old crowd participation. Lead guitarist Deniz Tek divided the crowd into three, and gave each section a portion to sing, when the music went, that was our cue to sing our portions, and it worked perfectly. A beautiful moment of harmony, that finished a very humble, but not overly spectacular set from a band that has not fully embraced the commercialisation of rock revival acts, but rather reliving and enjoying their former glory days with the youth of today.