A back catalogue of classics and some Black Flag birthday action highlighted Iggy Pop's Melbourne concert on Easter Sunday (21 April).
“You guys are probably wondering why the f... we’re opening for Iggy Pop. We’re wondering that too.” The Chats frontman Eamon Sandwith and his glorious mullet wasted no time with their half-hour slot, with slap-in-the-face tunes about pills, the dole, bills, and a sausage roll.
The fuzzy loudness of ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ rings out from the speaker stacks as the shirtless Godfather Of Punk makes his way onstage and off just as quickly, writhing feverishly through the crowd like soap through their grubby paws.
Still the same long-haired yahoo at the tender age of 72 (that day, in fact), Pop teases the audience with official bad decisions anthem ‘Gimme Danger’ and the classic ‘Passenger’.
Next came 1977 title track ‘Lust For Life’ as the aging punk flails his way angrily across the stage like a man who once released the loudest album of all time could. Kicking into another Stooges ballad/ banger ‘I’m Sick Of You’, Pop throws his fists out and reels us in like a salty punk fisherman. Arms outstretched, he crucifies himself onstage as per Easter tradition.
The stage lights hit maximum brightness as he gifts us anecdotes about dirty mattresses before segueing into ‘Some Weird Sin’. The energy of the crowd before him creeps to boiling point.
Pop belted out ‘Search And Destroy’ and ‘TV Eye’ through thick body heat and the sticky smell of bush.
A ‘Jean Genie’ cover made sacred into sleazy, a few mouthfuls of elixir being gulped down from a red paper cup before the remainders were thrown over the adorning crowd. Moving seamlessly into ‘No Fun’, Pop invited all punters onstage – as is his MO – to the bouncer’s disdain.
Pop then shoo’ed punters offstage with a love for scheduling that must come with old age.
Not content to let this birthday thing lie was the surprise inclusion of Henry Rollins, leading the chorus in a rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ to the seedy opening keys of ‘Nightclubbing’.
A cover of Johnny O'Keefe's ‘Wild One’ made an appearance before an inevitable encore that saw ‘Red Right Hand’ somehow made sleazier, sexier, and more suggestive than the original.
Pop shed his satin leopard-print cape, and rainbow confetti stuck to the faces of punters walking down Brunswick Street throughout the wee hours of Easter Monday.
