November 12th 1990, Iggy Pop at The Concert Hall

It kind of feels like this blog would be missing something if I didn't have a post about Iggy Pop. Over the years I've seen him a few times and he always puts on an incredible show, a display of flailing limbs and raw energy, but it was the first time I saw him at the Concert Hall in 1990 that stands out the most to me. I went with Brooke and I feel like our friend Liz was there too and we had a good view of the stage from the balcony on the left side. Alice in Chains opened the night and I think this was the first time they played in Toronto, just before Grunge had really broke. They put on an awesome show, with low deep bass and brooding vocals and I was inspired to buy their first album the next day. Great stuff...

But as good as Alice in Chains were as openers, it was Iggy Pop that we were there to see and true to form he played an awesome set. He had a boundless enthusiasm, literally hopping to the centre of the stage at the start of the show, and then bouncing and contorting and shaking his thang all through the rest of the night. I'm pretty sure that he had some kind of vest on when he started, but by the end of the first song he was definitely shirtless, and, well, that's kind of what you expect at an Iggy Pop show, so it had that going for it.

He played a bunch of songs from his new album at the time, "Brick by Brick" and they were all fine, but it was the older songs that really stood out for me. My initial introduction to Iggy Pop years prior had been through the Bowie produced "Lust for Life" and "The Idiot", so I was happy to hear a handful of tracks from those two albums, and of course he played a bunch of songs from The Stooges, and they were all kinds of raw and grimy and passionate and awesome. I feel strongly that everybody should see a live version of I Wanna Be Your Dog at least once in their lives, and if there's the chance to see Search and Destroy played too then that's even better. My thinking is that any opportunity to discover the street walkin' cheetah with a heart full of napalm that lives inside of all of us is a good opportunity...