Iggy & the Stooges on stage
I saw Iggy and the Stooges yesterday night in Colmar (Alsace, near Strasbourg), in a 10,000-people (open-air, but roofed) concert hall, and it was really worth it!
There was the annual Wine Festival all around the concert place, hundreds of cool chicks... It was literally overcrowded. I think I'll go back there next year for the Festival, but that's another story.
After Superbus, a French "pop-punk" group, the Stooges came up and played "Loose" in a delirious atmosphere (we were a few yards away from the stage). Iggy sang the first verse, then the chorus, then... he jumped into the audience standing before him! Ha! Ha! One minute and 30 seconds after arriving on stage, the man started slamming...
The show was Iggy's, visually. But the music sounded damn great. The strange bass player they hired 2 years ago really makes it (I realized yesterday how much Dave Alexander's parts were essential to "The Stooges" and (above all) "Fun house"), and the Ashetons, very concentrated, conscienciously delivered the heavy artillery: Scott played his drums like a robot, Ron (who seems to have lost some weight) played his legendary, definitive riffs, in a very impressively calm mood, considering the big, big flood of decibels. What I also found impressive was his ability to keep on playing the same riff for 3 or 4 minutes, while Iggy was like forgetting about his mike, slamming here and there...
Iggy is a huge performer, all right (I'm so glad they eventually got back together), he sure is a special case in rock history; he jumped down on us maybe 30 times during the show, he invited 20 fans on stage during "No fun", he pretended to fuck a chick on top of the bassist's amps, etc. But I was (well, just a little) disappointed with the three recent songs (from "Skull ring") which were the weak moments of the concert, no doubt. And I never heard the low tone in Iggy's voice, the one you hear on "Fun house" (the album) or his solo records. He sounds rather different on stage, more "squeaky".
It seems they will release a new album in a few months; I just hope they'll be more inspired than they were on the four tracks of "Skull ring".
I don't know if they're going to carry on touring - I know they've been for nearly two years - but if you haven't seen Iggy and the Stooges yet and have an opportunity, don't miss them. You won't regret it.
I like to say that the Stooges were the real punks, even the only ones, some 7 years before a bunch of silly brats tried to imitate Ron Asheton's riffs. But that's something else.
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