Sunday, March 18th, 2007 at 9:25 am in , , , , . Gotta write fast today, because the hotel is going to kick me out of my room in just over an hour. Long story short, the Stooges kicked ass last night.
There is no way to wrap your mind around the idea that Iggy Pop turns 60 next month. Stripped down to his waist, with his jeans unzipped halfway, Iggy dived headlong into the crowd at Stubb s in the midst of a furious I Wanna Be Your Dog, the second song of the band s 45-minute set (My mom is 62, and she hasn t stage-dived in years!) while the Asheton brothers and Mike Watt rocked furiously.
For the closing number, No Fun, Iggy invited the capacity crowd up on stage, and dozens took him up on it. The set ignored the Stooges third album, Raw Power, which featured James Williamson on guitar, focusing on the first two albums and the brand-new The Weirdness. Like a lot of critics, I ve complained about the distractingly stoopid lyrics front and center on the new record, which dominated the second half of the set, but live, you could get caught up in the rock and not sweat it.
My Idea of Fun (which, incidentally, is killing everyone ) came across the best, She Took My Money probably the worst. I had the pleasure of chatting with two longtime Iggy watchers at Stubb s. Brian Curley, who played with Roky Erickson in the Resurrectionists and with Lester Bangs in the Delinquents, and Bill Kirchen, the Telecaster ace who went to high school with Iggy back when he was still Jim Osterberg, were both knocked out by the show.
Here s the set list: Loose/ I Want to Be Your Dog/ TV Eye/ 1970/ Fun House/ ??/ Trollin / My Idea of Fun/ She Took My Money/I m Fried/No Fun.
I think that was it; I was about 10 feet behind the mosh pit, so things were a little nuts. Awesome show, though.
Here s what else I saw yesterday: It started with the Nick Drake panel at the convention center, featuring producer Joe Boyd, peer Vashti Bunyan and fan Robyn Hitchcock.
I only caught the last 20 minutes or so, but got to hear a fascinating tape of Drake s mom at the piano, playing a song she wrote about her boy toward the end of her troubled life, I Will Try to Remember, as well as a previously unreleased early Drake song, Leaving Me Behind. Got to say hello to Boyd afterward. (See my on Boyd in today s book section, and go check out one of his in-stores in the Bay Area this week if you get a chance.
He s a fascinating dude.)
Gotta speed up Next I saw Future Clouds of Radar, the new project from former Cotton Mather man Robert Harrison. The new double album apparently has an enormous range of sounds, including some heavily orchestrated numbers.
Here they were a six-piece, playing melodic 60s-influenced rock. Can t wait to get my hands on that album. Back to the convention center to see Lee Scratch Perry tape a TV show.
He was backed by the talented young Americans in Dub Is a Weapon. Very nice. After a quick dinner break (OK, a March Madness break), it was time for the Buzzcocks at Emo s.
It was hard to get close enough to the stage to get caught up in the frenzy, but the closing barrage of Orgasm Addict and Ever Fallen in Love was fantastic. The guys were playing great. Apparently, the Meat Puppets set that followed was awesome, but I had to head out to ensconce myself at Stubb s before the place was totally packed with Stooges fans.
There I caught Paolo Nutini, the dreamy young Scotsman who is making quite a name for himself with his soulful voice. His voice is really appealing, but he doesn t have enough good material to fill up his debut album, let alone a headlining show like the one at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Franciso on March 24. He added a cover of festival favorite Amy Winehouse s Rehab to flesh out the set.
Kings of Leon rocked and Spoon did their thing, and then the Stooges, which you read about up top. There was no point in trying to top that with rock, so the night ended slightly after 2 a.m.
, watching Friends of Dean Martinez playing mellow instrumentals at Habana Calle. The set ended with a lovely version of Sleepwalk, which is about what I was doing on the way back to the hotel. That s it.
Gotta check out and catch a plane. Go Hoos!
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