Iggy Pop: grandfather of punk still a real wild child
Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, April 15
★★★★★
James Newell Osterberg Jr, better known by his untamed id stage persona Iggy Pop, turns 72 this week.
With all due respect to septuagenarians, this raises several questions: can Pop still summon the feral energy that’s cemented his position as one of rock’s greatest frontmen? Can a man of grandad's age still be punk? And, most importantly, can he still pull off not wearing a shirt in public?
The answer to all three, it turns out, is a resounding, “Hell yes”.
Bounding onto the stage in a leopard-print jacket that doesn’t even make it to the first chorus, the lean and wiry-as-ever Pop and his muscular six-piece band charge through a blistering take on the Stooges’ classic, I Wanna Be Your Dog, commanding the packed Concert Hall audience to its feet.
Fuelling the crowd's excitement, the band segue into a second Stooges cut with Gimme Danger, followed by The Passenger and Lust for Life, both given extra punch via soulful keys and horn stabs from a two-man brass section.
Prowling the stage and gleefully deploying classic Iggyisms - writhing about, pulling faces, shoving the mic down his pants - Pop curates an impeccable greatest hits setlist that cherrypicks key tracks from across several decades.
Seventies-era solo songs are well represented with the likes of Sixteen, Some Weird Sin and Nightclubbing (the latter performed in a cape that lasts even less time than the jacket), as are a slew of Stooges classics including Search and Destroy, 1969, TV Eye and a raucous version of No Fun, where forty-odd people join Pop onstage for an impromptu dance.
A trio of well-chosen covers is dotted throughout the show. There’s a nod to Pop’s old creative sparring partner, David Bowie, with a faithfully rendered The Jean Genie, as well as takes on two iconic Australian tracks with a sleazy barroom version of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ Red Right Hand and Pop’s enthusiastically received synth-heavy stab at Johnny O’Keefe’s Real Wild Child (Wild One).
Triumphantly leaving the stage after a display of livewire energy that would make people a quarter his age envious, Pop, one of the last living legends of rock’s golden age, proved he’s still got plenty of punk-fuelled fire left in him.
Iggy Pop plays a second and final Sydney show at the Opera House Wednesday, April 17.