SATURDAY, OCT. 20:
Nearly 40 years after Kick Out the Jams was released, former MC5 bass player Michael Davis stepped on stage as the newest member of the Lords of Altamont. Slim and black clad, Davis easily could have passed for a much younger audience member. This is the man whose crippling heroin addiction helped bring down the MC5? Who went on to play in critically acclaimed anti-rock band Destroy All Monsters? While he appeared slightly embarrassed by the seductive long hair photos of his Motor City youth projected on stage, Davis still launched into a masterful cover of the Stooges ‘1969.’ Not ones to be overshadowed, the Lords soon joined him. Their performance included every possible action to distract us from the luscious stage flanking go-go dancers: they shrieked, they leaped, they stomped, and they repeatedly mounted their amplifiers or a willing organ. (Due to increased fire regulations, we are sadly no longer able to witness that most classic of Lords’ stage antics, ‘the Flaming Farfisa.’) Aside from original material, the Lords of Altamont breathed new life into classics like Bo Diddley’s ‘Who do you Love?’ and the Misfits’ ‘London Dungeon,’ as well as a furious Guitar Wolf-inspired cover of “Kick Out the Jams.” ‘How old were you when “Kick Out The Jams” came out?’ asked lead singer Jake ‘The Preacher’ Cavaliere mid-set, and he was met with confused silence. With the majority of audience members being people in their thirties pretending it’s the sixties, most were hardly a twinkle in Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ eye in 1969. It just proves that Michael Davis is still way more rock ‘n’ roll than you’ll ever be. (ZZ)