Iggy and the Stooges
Raw Power Live
MVD Visual
Just about every ’60s
legend that hit the
road over the last few decades, from the
Stones to the Who, could have taken a lesson
from the Stooges. When the original
lineup that made
The Stooges and
Funhouse
was resurrected (with Minutemen bassist
Mike Watt in the place of the deceased
Dave Alexander) in 2003, they were nearly
as savage as they’d ever been. With no horn
sections, no backup singers, and no auxiliary
keyboard army to dilute the energy, at their
rippingest the Stooges are contenders for the
best rock ’n’ roll band to ever take the stage.
By 2010, original guitarist Ron Asheton,
the forever-reigning king of psych-punk
guitar, had passed away. But James
Williamson, who took over the guitar
throne for Asheton for the band’s most
famous album, 1972’s
Raw Power, was back
in the fold. And in September 2010, the
band performed the record in its entirety
at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in
Monticello, New York.
That performance is captured on
Iggy
and the Stooges, Raw Power Live. And while
the DVD doesn’t quite capture the crazed
electricity in the building that night, it’s a
study in how vital a band can remain when
they shed the glitz and strip things to their
essence. The centerpiece is, needless to say,
the impossibly ageless Iggy, who despite
what looks like a nasty limp at times,
throws himself at the crowd and at and off
of monitor towers like a berserker under
a voodoo spell. Mike Watt and original
Stooge drummer Scott Asheton add up to
an amphetamine steamroller on most tunes,
and a scary low-and-slow-riding Cadillac
junker in others, including the smoldering
set highlight “I Need Somebody.”
The DVD includes fan interviews that
reveal a thoughtfully reflective Iggy, Scott,
and Asheton talking about making
Raw
Power, and the aspirations of assimilating free
jazz, electric blues, and primitive instrumentation
that brought the band together before
they evolved into one of the most brutally
rockin’ combos of all time.
Must-hear-track: “Your Pretty Face is
Going to hell”