Iggy Pop might just be the last living punk legend that we have. And for the life of me I cannot think of a single relevant band in the last 40 years that has not been influenced in one way or another by him.
Seeing him perform live is not for nostalgic purposes, at least not for me, it was about the fact that this 69 year old artist is still running around, jumping, dancing, singing, creating, inspiring, etc. I believe he is one of the few (old) artists that would still create/earn new younger fans. That’s the type of legacy that he has. It’s the type of influence that he carries. It’s the persona where we can almost feel that he might be forever, and in a way he will be, but not on this earth.
Which brings me to the show on April 28th, 2016 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, CA. The set list was amazing:
- Lust for life
- Sister midnight
- American Valhalla
- Sixteen
- In the lobby
- Some weird sin
- Funtime
- Tonight
- Sunday
- German days
- Mass production
- Nightclubbing
- Gardenia
- The passenger
- China girl
- ENCORE
- Break into your heart
- Fall in love with me
- Repo man
- Baby
- Chocolate drops
- Paraguay
- Success
The backing band that he had consisted of Dean Fertitia, Troy Van Leewun, Matt Sweeney, the drummer from the Arctic Monkeys (Matt Helders) and the band leader was the ginger Elvis himself, baby duck Josh Homme. To say that they sounded tight and amazing is an understatement, they sounded like they were honored to be Iggy’s backing band. And they acted the part to the fullest letting him run the show, run around and call the crowd out.
Below are a couple of short videos.
There did come a time during the show where something was felt, I don’t know by how many but something was there. The crowd had been something weird as far as enthusiasm went, however when the 1-2 of “The Passenger” and “China Girl” came on and apparently half the crowd’s phones too a sense of sadness came over me. Granted, this was due to the fact of both Bowie and Prince passing away so recently, but it also felt like the crowd all of a sudden remembered why they were there it was almost like if they were not paying attention to the stage for the last 65 minutes. It was this sense of mortality that came over me.
If this is in fact Iggy Pop’s swan song and there will be no more records and no more tours, then this was one hell of a way of saying goodbye. He sounded with energy, and he ran around more than your typical punk band. He will always be Iggy Pop.
i think i better follow you around 