I go to two types of shows, those which allow me to take notes while comfortably watching the performers, and those which don’t let me a moment of rest, which are so brutal and chaotic that my only preoccupation becomes the protection of my camera and essential survival. Needless, to say, Iggy and the Stooges’ show at the Palladium on Thursday night was definitely in the second category, as the Godfather of punk has not lost one percent of his edge to say the least. You would think that, at 64, he may have slow down a bit, but it was certainly not the case, as he delivered a violent, bloody, and decadent performance.
It was Iggy’s night, it looked like he gave everything he had as if he was decided to catch up for the show that was originally planned on September 7th but had to be cancelled due to a foot injury,.. or may be it was just a regular Iggy Pop performance.
Iggy, with his Miami-beach-tanned torso, looked like an usual war hero, still limping (probably due to his foot injury, but Mike Watt, was limping too!), but jumping with the energy of a 20-year old, and making multiple body contortions every five seconds, going at the front with a large smile and arms in the air, and above everything, greatly enjoying it.
‘Some people are all about success. And some people like to bleed!’ he yelled at one point, and indeed he did get a nose bleed after one of his numerous stage dives over the excited and adoring crowd,… but what is a nose bleed for Iggy? Close to nothing, as the guy must have built up a bottomless endorphin reservoir to endure so many pain-inducing performances.
The energy was very high from the beginning, as they opened with ‘Raw Power’ and ‘Search and Destroy’, two songs which immediately put the audience in the crazy-moshing-crowd-surfing mode, and front-row-crushed people became to be evacuated by the guards.
‘Turn on the lights, I want to see everyone’ Iggy said, since it really was about the fans, and when he invited everyone on stage during ‘Shake Appeal’, in a sort of ‘Occupy the stage, occupy Hollywood’ frenzy, I just witnessed a riot, and it was only the fifth song! The funny thing is that the security guards pushed back the first persons who were climbing over the barricade, but soon it was an uncontrollable rush, a human tsunami and they could not do anything anymore. However, Iggy was totally in control and when he told them that ‘it was time to go home’ because he wanted to play the ‘fucking blues’ ('I need somebody’), everybody listened, and went back where they were without any problem.
Iggy disappeared a few times from my sight, every time he was diving and surfing over the crowd, then he was resurfacing like a wild beast who has received multiple wounds but keeps going, not always in total control of his body nevertheless, walking like a disarticulated doll, spiting on the crowd, inundating his body with water, incarnating punk revolt over riffs and riffs coming from the aggressive delivery of the Stooges.
And of course he sang ‘I wanna be your dog’, and ‘No fun’ while crawling on the floor and screaming, two songs that were some highlights of the show, and the crowd went even wilder at each one of his theatrical antics, singing-along the famous lines, throwing all kinds of things at him.
Then, before singing the last number,’ Cock in My Pocket’, Iggy screamed at the crowd ‘I want to sing a song about my dick!’ before undoing his belt and dragging down his pant a bit, just enough to make it potentially dangerous during his wild moves. Every single eye was focusing on that body mid-section, but actually, during the whole show, it was difficult to see anything else than the impressively charismatic personality of Iggy,… he still is a fury on stage and a total legend,.. will he still be doing this in 10 years? May be, he seemed to be indestructible last night! Iggy Pop will probably never get old with his fat-free sexagenarian body and endless energy, he is probably not completely human.
Setlist
Raw power
Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell
Encore:
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