10 Flawless Live Albums In Rock Music

10. Kick Out the Jams - MC5

Like any great rock and roll, it sounds best when coming out of the garage. No matter how many times you want to layer different guitars on top of each other in the studio, the sound of a fuzzed out amplifier blaring out over drums is what made people want to start their rock and roll journey in the first place. Hell, sometimes it sounds so good that you don't even want to move out of the garage.

Kicking off their entire career with a live album, the MC5 pretty much hit the ceiling right out of the gate with Kick Out the Jams, catapulting them into one of the kings of the hard rock genre before it even had a name yet. Even though acts like Led Zeppelin were making noise across the pond, this was the kind of manic energy that all good rock and roll thrived on, being equal parts bluesy and absolutely punk in its presentation.

In fact, you could probably make the argument that punk rock started here way before bands like the Sex Pistols or the Ramones made a name for themselves, since everything sounds like its about to descend into chaos at any moment. By the time the MC5 actually hit the studio though, they would have a hard time reproducing this energy. I mean, can you blame them? You can't try to recapture something like this if you tried.