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SXSW’s defining moment: the Stooges
There is nothing, nothing, nothing in rock ‘n’ roll more powerful than when the Stooges open a show with “Loose.” The bass line is full-on, frantic Motor City madness and then comes Ron Asheton’s riot-in-the-streets guitar and vein-covered Iggy Pop running all over the stage and doing body contortions in time to the beat.
The guy next to me at the Stooges’ jam-packed show at Stubb’s Saturday night said the band would almost certainly open with a song from their new album. “That’s what they’re here to promote,” he said, but you’ve never seen a guy so happy to be wrong. For me, “Loose” was THE defining moment of SXSW, as the world’s first alternative rock band (the grassroots Rolling Stones) put pushing product way behind frying neck hairs on the priority list.
Such new songs as “Trollin’” from “The Weirdness” would come later, but first Iggy and the Stooges had to establish themselves as the undisputed kings of the fest. And guess what? Everyone in line with a badge eventually got in by the time a corny “No Fun,” which had a stage full of ridiculously grinning fans “dancing,” ended the set at the 45-minute point.
How’s this for an opening trilogy? After “Loose,” the Stooges did “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” with Iggy diving into the crowd, followed by “T.V. Eye,” Ron Asheton’s greatest guitar moment.
A couple of disappointments: 1) it appears that the Stooges play to taped augmentation. This was revealed when the bass line for “Skull Ring” kept pumping while bassist Mike Watt was working amp problems with his sound tech. It’s OK to use the canned help, but never let the audience know. 2) Asheton’s guitar wasn’t as loud as it should’ve been. I saw a better Stooges show in New Orleans about three years ago and the guitar and Iggy’s voice were on equal footing. Saturday night posed Iggy as the focal point, and he is a star, but the ugly beauty of the Stooges was when Iggy flailed in the feedback of chaos coming from stage left.
Comments
By Paul Fredrickson
March 22, 2007 9:47 AM | Link to this
FYI, from someone who was there and had a better vantage point than the other dude….. From: ROBERTMATHEU Date: March 20, 2007 To: brianjbowe BULL**! there wasn’t any bass when that was going on. At this point of the show I was taking photos of mostly Ron, and waiting for Iggy to run into the picture while I was focused on Ron. I heard the bass drop out and then looked over at what Iggy was doing he was riding the barricade fence from inside the pit, toying with the crowd, I then looked at Watt and Chris (the tech) fighting over what could be wrong, Iggy stayed in the pit until almost the end of the song, climbed back onstage are drove feet first into the bass stack, if it had been canned bass, why would Iggy know the amp was out? Feel free to forward my rant to anyone. Also, Iggy looked at me at one point and yelled “Fking Boy Howdy!” and waved…have it on the iPod!
By Steve Mackay
March 28, 2007 4:10 PM | Link to this
I guess I should be flattered to have been mistaken for a taped augmentation but I was right there on the stage playing the riff on my tenor sax, just like always! Steve Mackay