Iggy Pop is pushing 50, and he's doing a great job at it. I saw him in the Capitol Ballroom in Washington, DC and the sheer energy of the show completely blew me away. From start to finish, he was always moving up and down the stage, gyrating his hips to the tight groove, wiggling his butt to the audience, and swinging the microphone around in his trademark way.
Psychotica was a good opening act for this event. The male lead singer came out dressed in white tight skinsuit and the bass player appeared to be copying Sid Vicious image. They also had a female vocalist who had a unique raspy voice and the duets between the two vocalists were pretty cool. The music was pretty catchy and I think this band definitely merits further exploration. Apparently they will opening the main stage of (read: selling their souls at) Lollapalooza '96, so look for them there! The second opening act was a blues band from Missisippi whose name I didn't catch. They were okay, but nothing to write home about.
After what seemed like an eternal wait, Iggy Pop walked out on stage wearing a waistcoat with the U.S. flag on it and long platinum blonde hair. I am not familiar enough with his music to list all the songs he played, but from what I can recall, his setlist included The Passenger, Mixing the Colours, Hate, It's Our Love (?), Plastic and Concrete (?), Social Life, and a bunch of stuff from his latest release Naughty Little Doggie, which I don't own.
Assuming that the same line up that was used to record the latest album and the release before that played live with him: Eric Schermerhorn did a great job on the guitars, playing catchy aggressive riffs and keeping the energy high. Hal Cragin on bass and Larry Mullins on the drums made for a strong rhythm section. The show was very tight, and the crowd really got into the music. The music was original Iggy Pop, still raw, fresh and as energetic as it was when he was with The Stooges, who are woefully underrated. In fact, there was one new song that sounded quite a bit like the Stooges' classic, Search and Destroy.
Great show: definitely worth checking out if you have a night to spare.