Sonic's Rendezvous Band
Sweet Nothing

All those who are devoted to the MC5/Stooges cult, prostrating themselves five times every evening towards the stinking fumes coming from motor-driven Detroit and who never go to bed without first lighting a candle to the iguana Osterberg, are my blood brothers.

To these brothers, I would like to say it is a shame never to hear the name Sonic's Rendezvous Band.

The nickname "Sonic" reminds you of someone? Well, yes, it is indeed him: Fred "Sonic" Smith, the guitarist of the legendary MC5 as well as Patti Smith's husband. It is to her that we owe this album, because after Fred's premature passing, our poet wanted full justice to be given to the period 1975-1980, spent by the great guitarist on the stages of Michigan leading a sort of national team of Detroit sound. The other names? Scott Morgan who was a local legend with the seminal Rationals, Scott Asheton otherwise known as "Rock Action" for his tendency to smash the drum skins in the Stooges, Gary Rasmussen already bassist of the Up who had inherited the role of revolutionaries alongside John Sinclair's White Panther. Well, a combo like this that for five years had stoked up the local scene with the usual brutal and wild live act found itself having "official" only a single measly seven-inch with the anthem "City Slang," characterized by Fred's lead and Scott's rhythm driving the well-known burning abrasive sonic assault.

Clearly, there was also a series of bootlegs of poor sound quality, and so we must thank Patti for commissioning in 1998 the commendable Mack Aborn Rhythm Arts label to recover these tapes of a concert at the Second Chance in Ann Arbor (where else?) in April 1978. And so we can have an "audible" testimony of the fiery atmosphere that recalls another masterpiece of the genre, that "Kick Out the Jams" by MC5 which still holds an important place in our hearts today. It is all enclosed in a disc with a beautiful cover image of Fred Sonic Smith and his white Mosrite, a 12-page booklet, and ten tracks with a final surprise.

The pieces are all great original compositions divided between Fred and Scott Morgan, except for the cover of "Heart of Stone" from the early Rolling Stones rendered as a blues ballad steeped in raw electric tension.

What of the other tracks? If you love that sound that grinds in a single mortar the Amboy Dukes and the MC5, then you're in luck: you're the right people in the right place! From start to finish it's all an amphetamine spread of raw beauty, from the more abrasively melodic episodes (the title track) to those with the guitars deliriously maxed-out (the anthem "City Slang"). The final apotheosis leaves you exhausted but it's worth keeping the smoking system on for a few more minutes because there's an unclassified hidden track, an instrumental recorded during the soundcheck of the concert, a sort of sweet guitar rondo with the instruments played at the fingertips by the four talented musicians that will help you regain strength... A delight that if it weren't for Patti Smith, we would have risked never knowing.

And if it wasn't enough for you, and I'm sure it isn't because this stuff is addicting, a year after this compact disc Mack Aborn released another: "City Slang" and I highly recommend you don't miss it because it cleans up the bootlegs of various recordings during concerts in Michigan. There are tracks that will make you jump from your chair and attempt a triple twisted somersault (and there's a stunning "Goin bye" dangerously similar to "Frederick" by Patti Smith)......................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................hidden track: if you're really unsatisfied and besides lighting a candle to Iggy, you even got the MotorCity 5 logo tattooed, let me remind you there's a recent six-CD box set released a couple of years ago that contains almost all the knowledge of the Sonic's Rendezvous Band. A total of 66 tracks of live songs, studio demos, rejected tapes! Maybe not everything is essential, but the energy is at 100% from the first to the last track.