IGGY POP: LIVE AT THE A VENUE B

Director Serge Bergli / 2000 / Belgium

The hard facts are that Iggy Pop is now, at 55, the age of most grandfathers and can still rock, shock and roll harder than most pups half his age. A veteran of more than 30 years in the music biz (and now some 12 films), Iggy is still a mean and muscled mayhem machine in concert. This shirts-off, bone-jarring, bong-rattling Belgian gig is positive proof!

In between goading his audience ("Will you shake your lazy Belgian asses!!") and terrorising his band, Iggy peels off 21 all-killer-no-filler tracks without a pause. Always the best editor of his own live material, he relies on a mix heavy of Stooges classics (Raw Power, Search and Destroy, I Wanna Be Your Dog, TV Eye, I Got a Right, No Fun, Death Trip), the best of early solo and 80s Pop (Lust for Life, The Passenger, Sixteen, Real Wild Child, Home), the cream of the last decade (Cold Metal, No Shit, Nazi Girlfriend, Espanol, Corruption) and a couple of cover version chestnuts, Shakin' All Over and his perennial show closer, Louie Louie.

There is not a wasted minute in an hour and a half unless you count Iggy daring two dozen over-excited Belgians to join him onstage and then choreographing their perilous dives back into the seething mosh pit. A genius at work and play.

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