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Iggy Pop - Live at Montreux Jazz Festival 2023


by Kevin Wierzbicki

The godfather of punk is a septuagenarian now but as this live recording from 2023 proves, Iggy Pop remains at the top of his game. Formerly the leader of the highly-influential band the Stooges and with a long solo career after that band's demise, Pop has an extensive repertoire to delve into for live performances. Here he plays a generous 17-song set featuring material from the Stooges and solo favorites, beginning with a raucous take on "Five Foot One" from 1979's New Values album. Pop works with a big seven piece band here which includes a two-man horn section comprised of Leron Thomas on trumpet and Corey King on trombone and it becomes obvious early in the set that they are not on stage just to add occasional flourishes as they feature prominently throughout, adding contrast to and melding seamlessly with the squalling guitars of Sarah Lipstate and Greg Fauque. The first half of the set features Stooges favorites "Raw Power" and "T.V. Eye" as well as a taste of Iggy's latest studio album Every Loser with the lyrically potent "Modern Day Ripoff." Another cut from the Raw Power album is performed with the ominous "Gimme Danger;" the song has a sound that Iggy would explore on the entirety of his Kill City album, an excellent but overlooked release with guitarist James Williamson. Iggy asks "Will you pick me up" as an intro to "The Passenger" which leads into one of Pop's signature tunes, "Lust for Life." A return to the New Values album finds Iggy performing the rhythmic "The Endless Sea," an atmospheric cut with a soundscape performed on keyboards by Lipstate. The crowd goes berserk when Pop announces "We're gonna have a death trip" and the band, all flailing guitars, horns and pounding drums goes nuts with them for "Death Trip," another Stooges cut. The middle of the show is in fact stacked with Stooges cuts with notable songs "Search and Destroy," "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and the sad lament "I'm Sick of You," which Iggy candidly intros with the comment "For 50 years I've been sick half of the time so it was easy for me to write this song" are all played. The show rocks to its climax with the woozy "Mass Production," the slow and funky David Bowie co-write "Nightclubbing" where Pop instructs the band to play it "Nice and creepy" (and they do), Stooges rocker "Down on the Street" and solo cut "Loose" from Zombie Birdhouse, ultimately finishing with another cut from Every Loser, "Frenzy." Full of F-bombs and endless energy that translates to the listener, this live set can be considered essential Iggy. For those who'd like to see Pop jump around shirtless while they listen, Live at Montreux Jazz Festival 2023 is also available on Blu-ray.

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