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John Sinclair show

John Sinclair was a 1960s revolutionary and the political guru and manager of Detroit's legendary proto-punk band, MC5 (the Stooges were in the same crowd). I suppose there was some Marxism in Sinclair's revolution, but much of it seemed to boil down to "fucking in the streets." Listen to the MC5 for more information.

Sinclair is 62 now and on Valentine's Day 2003 he did a show at the "Salvation Theater," a dinky, ultra-low-budget storefront theater in LA's Silver Lake area. He has a new book of poems about old blues men, and the show consisted of Sinclair reading poems with the backing of an excellent blues band. It was really good, and the content of the poems and Sinclair's comments were actually historically educational.

For example, I never knew that there was a Highway 61 that ran through the area of Mississippi where a lot of these old blues guys lived, right next to the Mississippi River. Remember Bob Dylan's 1965 album "Highway 61 Revisited"?

There were less than 20 people in the audience for Sinclair's show, even though the LA Times gave Sinclair an article and mentioned the show. The low turnout could have had something to do with it being Valentine's Day, or Sinclair's rather obscure, cult-hero status. Or it could have been because only weirdos like me would attend such a thing. And it wasn't quite a Ticketron event, either: 10 bucks cash at the door. Regardless, the whole thing was very intimate and great. The theater even sold beer from a big bucket of ice. (It's hard to believe they have a liquor license.)

Here's a little show-and-tell that includes some pictures I dug up and some sketches I did from memory.

Click a picture for a larger picture.

1969

Sinclair 1

Sinclair 2

Made possible by a grant from the Brahma Institute for Anthropological Studies.