Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Watt Rotterdam

Between 1967 and 1974 Iggy Pop and the Stooges became legendary for their industrial city sound, that kicked against the more and more whailing soft rock. Their intoxicated raw music set the foundation of later punk music. Their sound expressed war, boredom, love, failure but most of all unstoppable energy to keep on going strong.

In 2002 the Stooges brothers Ashton re-joined with a clean slate. Mike Watt replaced the deceased bass guitarist Dave Alexander. Mike Watt has his own credits in punk music with the Minutemen and Firehose. I saw the Stooges tribute concert in 2002 in a small town Tilburg in the Netherlands. It was absurd such good music in such small concert hall, there was no trace of aging in the music. What would happen if Iggy Pop would re-unite with the Stooges? A year later that became a fact and since then they played at many stadiums and mega festivals. I never went to those gigs, being at the back end of a 10.000+ crowd is not my cup of tea. But what would happen, if only, if only it was possible to see Iggy Pop and the Stooges in a smaller concert hall? Lets say a normal Dutch size concert hall with 1200 visitors max?

The impossible became true with the opening of Watt hall in Rotterdam 2 sept 2008. Tickets were sold-out in an hour. And after a month finally the moment was there. It is impossible to describe the chemistry that such close relation between stage and audience creates. While most re-united bands perform more as a reenactment of their past, not so with Iggy Pop and the Stooges. It was wild it was rough it was intensive. This 'still going young' spirit of Iggy Pop and the Stooges comes from Iggy Pop's unique teenage act and -lets not forget- the music itself. While most older bands suffer from backdated topics and moods in their music, Iggy and the Stooges can still perform 1969 on stage and you know just change the year into 2008 and it still holds true. You know there is something wrong with the world, while easygoing boredom is luring around every corner. It is 1969 baby/ war across the USA/ just another year for me and you/ another year with nothing to do/ Boohoo.

The positive message comes from the energy the music expresses, just do your thing and go. It was a yaw dropping experience seeing this band perform as if we were in a time machine to 1972 witnessing a matured version of Iggy Pop and the Stooges.

02-09-2008
Mathilde μP