Explorers have long searched the world for a fountain of youth, but maybe it was hiding in a rock and roll song all along.
Two legends of the trade – punk godfather Iggy Pop and queen of rock Joan Jett – testified to the immortal power of a hard-out tune at Spark Arena Thursday night.
When Joan Jett and the Blackhearts took the stage, it was with the confident and open-hearted attitude befitting rock royalty. Jett kicked off her career at just 16 years old with the all-girl punk band The Runaways and has been a trailblazer for women in rock for decades.
Clad all in black and as dynamic as ever, Jett and the Blackhearts bashed their way through an hour of classic pop-punk nuggets.
The expected gems like ‘I Hate Myself For Loving You’ and the Runaways’ ‘Cherry Bomb’ got terrific airings, but there were also some fine surprises in her fast-paced hour-long set. A cover of the empowering tolerance anthem ‘Androgynous’ by the Replacements was a delight, while a real treat was a guitar-powered take on the late Sly Stone’s ‘Everyday People.’
Jett, a proud New Yorker, couldn’t let the current instability on the American scene go unmentioned, and made a brief but compelling statement on what she called the many in the US who are horrified at what has been happening in Minneapolis and elsewhere. “Change is gonna come… Oh yes, it is,” she said, before a blistering run through her 2006 slice of optimism ‘Change The World.’
Newer songs like ‘(Make The Music Go) Boom’ and ‘If You’re Blue’ had the same fine energy of the classics, but of course it was the anthems like ‘I Love Rock And Roll’ that truly got the arena crowd up and fist-pumping. Jett hasn’t lost a step despite more than 50 years in the business, and the Blackhearts backed her up terrifically, with lead guitarist Dougie Needles particularly sharp.
Now, I only want to say this once, but it’s worth highlighting – proto-punk legend Iggy Pop is 78 years old … 79 in April.
I say this because this leathery icon and headliner stalked onto the stage with just as much passion and raw power as he’s had ever since his legendary band The Stooges put out their first album way back in 1969.
Iggy ripped off his shirt nanoseconds after he took to the stage and immediately tore into a set heavy on Stooges classics and raggedy and raw in all the right ways. His commitment should inspire bands half his age.
Backed by a terrifically tight band and an excellent horn section that pounded their way through an hour’s worth of mostly hard-rocking bangers, Iggy put on a master class in sheer star magnetism that showed you can bash them out as hard at 78 as you can at 25. With age, Iggy has morphed into a kind of punk Yoda, as uninhibited as ever, gyrating across the stage with charm and wit.
The set was primarily Stooges tunes – and why not? Their molten, uncompromising hard rock is the primal ore from which dozens of bands from the 1970s to the present have emerged, and songs like ‘Gimme Danger, ‘Search And Destroy’ and ‘Raw Power’ still quiver with life more than 50 years on.
Iggy strutted his way through nearly a dozen Stooges classics, a real treat for fans of this iconic and still somewhat under-appreciated band, of which he’s the last surviving original member. At one point he talked about how radio stations and record labels sneered at the Stooges back in the day, but “the stoners liked it.” It’s a sign of the uncanny power of those untamed songs that an arena full of folk from gray-haired to mosh-pitting Gen Z youth could all proudly dig them now.
There was a playful, charming edge to his showmanship, with plenty of profane crowd banter and encouraging audience singalongs. The songs may still feel dangerous but Iggy… well, he seems kinda nice, really. He even put in a plug for a Kiwi wine brand, stopping to have a sip of Sauvignon Blanc between tunes, as you do.
There were a few times when the band’s powerful wall of sound felt a bit muddy at Spark Arena, with Iggy’s vocals getting a little lost, and the Stooges-heavy set meant that a lot of Iggy’s still excellent later work got the short end of the stick. Most of the songs were from the 1970s, and there was nothing from his terrific 2016 Post Pop Depression, and only one song from his quite strong latest album, 2023’s Every Loser.
But that’s the problem when you have as rich as catalogue as Iggy Pop, who originally made his name as a hellraiser but who’s also dabbled in lush ‘80s pop and a delightful album of crooning pop and French standards.
When he came off the stage briefly during a roaring take on ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog,’ it wasn’t quite clear if it was on purpose or not, but this septuagenarian singer kept on playing – and when he was helped back onto the stage, the crowd couldn’t help but cheer him on.
“I suppose I’m going to have to die pretty soon … but not tonight,” Iggy joked at one point.
And yet mere minutes before he was belting out the chorus to the Stooges’ ‘Search And Destroy,’ screaming ‘I am a world’s forgotten boy,” and making everyone believe it.
You know, maybe the real fountain of youth was Iggy Pop all along.
This review also up at RNZ!
Nik Dirga 