Thu Jul 3, 6:38 PM ET
By Sarah Tomlinson
BOSTON (Billboard) - As the wild banshee who fronted Detroit rock trailblazers the Stooges, Iggy Pop (news) taught the original punks how lust and fury could be mixed with squalling guitars into a rock 'n' roll tsunami. And 35 years later, he's still showing the kids how raw rock can be, as he proved by strutting, slithering and raging through a 17-song, career-spanning set on June 27 in Boston.
Teasing the audience with a warm-up shimmy at the back of the dark stage, Pop earned a wild cheer even before he bounded to the mic, immediately blazing into two classics from the Stooges' 1970 record "Fun House" and never letting up from there. On show opener "Loose," he spat out the lyrics "I'll stick it deep inside" with as much gleeful menace as ever, and during a rambunctious "Down on the Street," he pulled himself onto the bass speakers, riding the stack suggestively and beating his chest.
Pop whipped up the crowd with more Stooges material during the first half of the set, driving "Search and Destroy," to the thundering drum crescendo and leading his band, the Trolls, through a stripped down and revved up "Raw Power." For his raucously sexy "Now I Wanna Be Your Dog," Pop leapt into the midst of the dancing crowd at the front of the stage.
Interspersed with the classics were songs from his 2001 solo album "Beat 'Em Up," including "Drink New Blood" and "Death Is Certain," on which his rap-like vocals don't rival the primal wail he still achieves on the old numbers, but pack plenty of punk aggression.
Dressed only in skin-tight blue jeans, Pop's bare, vein-mapped torso writhed and wriggled as he roamed the stage like a hyperactive bad seed, giving the audience the finger and pounding the air with fists like sledgehammers. He hit the highlights from almost two decades of solo material, including 1999's "Corruption," which rages with a bit of the old evil, 1990's riff-heavy "Home," which ends in a big, crooning finish, and an organic rock take on "The Passenger" from 1977's classic collaboration with David Bowie (news), "Lust for Life."
His encore opened with the threatening grind of The Stooges' "T.V. Eye," during which he ran into the crowd as the guitar solo wailed, and ended with a hip shaking "Sixteen," for which he raged and shadow-boxed until the end. Then, pausing to soak up the electricity in the air, he swaggered offstage like the godfather of punk that he is.
New York performance artists Fischerspooner opened with an utterly different take on Pop's lessons in decadence and spectacle, embracing lip-synching pop artifice, basking in campy glitz, and sprinkling the crowd with confetti. Building anticipation with multiple costume changes and an intricate, tongue-in-cheek stage show with two female vocalists and four dancers, singer Casey Spooner had the crowd eating from his hand. So it was surprising that he seemed genuinely miffed by the lack of singalong participation for club hit "Emerge," and stopped the song not once, but twice to stir up the crowd.
Even more directly descended from Pop as showman, punk diva Karen O led New York's electro-punkers the Yeah Yeah Yeahs through a tightly wound and high-energy mid-show set. While slightly toned down (no beer spitting, thank you), she fully dominated the stage with her playful dancing and big howls.
Rounding out the bill of the 2003 Phoenix/FNX Best Music Poll show, Hot Hot Heat cut through the sweltering early evening temperatures with their own inferno of arch, angular dance-rock numbers, complete with vocals that ranged from disco heights to punk-rock growls.
Reuters/Billboard