Live, Masonic Auditorium, Detroit, 01/14/1978

If hindsight is 20/20, there must be a few record labels kicking themselves for not signing Sonic’s Rendezvous Band back in the '70s. You don’t have to be a disciple of Detroit rock to grasp that a band featuring MC5 guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith, The Rationals’ Scott Morgan, The Stooges' Scott Asheton, and The Up's Gary Rasmussen was an exemplary supergroup. By 1978, SRB rocked like the supped-up motor of the Motor City Five, built on a rigid frame and forged in the fires of The Stooges’ Funhouse. And though “Electrophonic Tonic” sets a ferocious tone in this live recording from the Masonic Auditorium, the following seven-minute version of “Sweet Nothin’” really exposes the band's intensity, restraint, and uncanny musicianship—especially with the gripping interplay between Smith and Morgan during a dueling solo jam that bookends the song. “Asteroid B612” also displayed an evolved songwriting approach that somehow made complex arrangements flow and groove. “Gone with the Dogs” boasts more hairpin turns and changes played with an almost-extrasensory tightness.