Customer Reviews

Escaped Maniacs

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Close your eyes, and you might be fooled into thinking this show is an early `70s Stooges set. The performance quality is as raw as ever, Iggy howling over the treble-heavy explosions and shrieks behind him. Open up, and you see a few more pounds, minimal stage violence and even the replacement bassist, the legendary Mike Watt (who knows these songs by working for years with brothers Scott and Ron Asheton), looking old. Though admittedly a "for the money" show, you won't notice the bad blood just under the surface of this shaky reunion as the band tears through their compact-yet-fabulous repertoire (minus "Search and Destroy", sadly). More interesting, however, is the hour-long, unedited interview with Pop by a nervous Tracy Landecker; an amiable Iggy discusses the early days, quotes Marshall McLuhan dishes dirt on Velvet Goldmine producer Michael Stipe and stands up midway to pop his back, shout a curse word and ask "how much time do we have left?"

If you are a Stooges / Iggy fan, you must get this! Not only do you get the very cool Stooges show from 2006 on disc one, the second disc contains additional material from Iggy's early years as well as a couple of informative interviews.

Interestingly, I find the interviews more compelling than the concert footage. For one thing, they avoided playing any songs from Raw Power, which to my mind is the strongest Stooges album. [Update: I just now see from an Iggy docu on the disc that on the third album, the Asheton brothers were not there. I don't know how they could call it a Stooges album. By the way, Ron Asheton just died in January of a heart attack.] [Update: according to wiki, the Ashetons were actually on it. Odd error in the documentary.] And in extension of that, I don't think Iggy is the greatest song writer on the planet, all my favorite records of his were done in collaboration with Msr. Bowie. (Bowie produced Raw Power. Iggy claimed he ruined it, but see what a classic it became.)

I am sure the girls still love Iggy, even at sixty. His stage persona is as kinetic as ever, he is fit, and he's continually fighting the tendency of his trousers to fall down. (I don't understand why he doesn't just buy a belt or suspenders...)

I always find it interesting when an artist manages to still be on top after 40 years. That's just a super-human accomplishment.