Iggy and The Stooges
Hollywood Palladium
December 1st, 2011
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Iggy Pop is a living legend. Originally scheduled back in November but postponed due to Iggy breaking his foot, the Hollywood Palladium show was beyond sold out by fans feverishly awaiting to be bludgeoned with the charismatic presence and vocal stylings of Iggy Pop.
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They didn't have to wait too long as Iggy and the Stooges tore into the audience with the title track of their classic album Raw Power. The number of bands directly influenced by the Stooges must number in hundreds or possibly thousands as the Stooges have been rightfully hailed as the “Godfathers of Punk.”
Iggy and the Stooges shows are lessons in unbridled chaos and energy. “Search and Destory” unleashed wave after wave of crowd surfers, flying beers and a vicious mosh pit. Guitarist James WIlliamson was focused on his Gibson Les Paul unleashing torrents of noise while Mike Watt thumped on his trusty Gibson SG bass.
Iggy prowled the stage like an unleashed wild animal, ripping through “Gimme Danger” and “Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell.” I could only imagine what the Stooges shows were like back in the 1970's if they were this wild in 2011. Possibly feeling a little lonely, Iggy decided to call audience members up on stage for “Shake Appeal” which gave the security guards up front the fits.
A smooth saxophone segway bled into the boozy blues of “I Need Somebody.” Iggy told the crowd it was time to “rock hard and rock loud” before dropping the audience on its proverbial head with “1970.” The specter of chaos continued as Iggy smashed his microphone stand for “I Got A Right.”
“I Wanna Be Your Dog” was one of the many highlights of the evening with Iggy Pop flipping off the audience before lunging into the crowd for a little body surfing as the crowd chanted along. Iggy later commented how he liked to bleed prefacing “Open Up and Bleed” while viciously scratching at his bare chest.[For the encore, they were still fast and furious, with “Penetration” infiltrating your ears and crushing your skull. Wildly swinging his microphone perilously over the crowd, “No Fun” saw Iggy connecting once more with the audience with another stage dive into the crowd. Boasting it was their last song, he proclaimed, “I Lied!” as he wanted to sing a song about his cock by whipping out “Cock in My Pocket.” They just don't make lead singers like Iggy Pop anymore.
Le Butcherettes opened with their firebrand punk infused tunes. Fronted by Terri Gender Bender, they whipped through a set with Gender Bender summoning up some stage antics probably inspired by Iggy. It was interesting to see Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of the Mars Volta filling in on bass. Whitey Kirst also opened with a Black Sabbath inspired sludge metal tunes that had a few heads in the crowd nodding in approval.
Personal Bias: Who hasn't learned to play guitar by listening to Raw Power?
Random Notebook Dump: Supposedly Johnny Depp was in the VIP section rocking out.
Crowd: Old and new punk rockers alike with good music taste.
Set list:
“Raw Power”
“Search And Destroy”
“Gimme Danger”
“Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell”
“Shake Appeal”
“I Need Somebody”
“1970”
“Fun House”
“L.A. Blues”
“Night Theme”
“Beyond The Law”
“I Got A Right”
“I Wanna Be Your Dog”
“Open Up And Bleed”
“Penetration”
“No Fun”
“Cock In My Pocket”
