Posted on May 7, 2010 - by Imelda

Iggy And The Stooges

Iggy Pop © Imelda Michalczyk

Iggy And The Stooges
Hammersmith Apollo
London, UK
Monday 3rd May 2010

Iggy Pop runs onto the stage of Hammersmith Apollo with the energy of a man barely a third of his age. His 60-something, pensioner-defying, rabid stage presence and showmanship from the opening track to the finale is something to behold.

Iggy is back with The Stooges to perform their 1973 album “Raw Power”, although there are a few extras thrown in for good punk rock measure.

Set against a minimalist but imposing set of four massive film-set type lights, Iggy completely dominates the stage and captivates the extremely diverse crowd. We could easily have three generations represented in the audience tonight, with old-timers and new fans alike, all out to see if Iggy still has it. And he really does.

The four-piece band seem happy to let their frontman do all the talking and they stay firmly at the back of the stage whilst Iggy dances, jumps, crowd-surfers, pours water over himself, screams, wriggles, swears and shows he’s still one of the most dynamic frontmen on the planet. An Iggy-incited stage invasion less than half way through the set is a nightmare for security but increases the energy even further.

I last saw Iggy perform at the V98 festival and when he wore see-through plastic trousers. This time his attire is slightly more modest but he seems determined to semi-strip nevertheless, losing his shirt before the second song is through and spending at least half the

Iggy Pop © Imelda Michalczyk

set with his trousers unzipped and descending floor-wards.

With an encore taking the show beyond “Raw Power”, to include tracks such as ‘Fun House’, the night is all too quickly over.

Regardless of his recent forays into the mundane realms of insurance advertising, Iggy is hard to knock as one of the wildest of the old school punk rock entertainers. And that will no doubt ensure him against being forgotten or taken for a has-been rocker for some time to come.