Hello Punk Rockers,
I recently attended the Mosswood Meltdown punk rock music festival in Oakland California where Iggy Pop was the headliner and John Waters the host. It was pretty small compared to the massive music festivals you see these days like the Chicago version of Lollapalooza and Coachella. But the line-up was pretty good and the location was convenient, so I gave it a shot and enjoyed myself.
Punk is like any other music genre these days where it’s a mix of nostalgia acts that were there in the 80s and retro acts that sound like they were there in the 80s. In that way it is just like pop and metal music in the 2020s: a rape of the grave of the 1980s with improved production values added. As a teenager I resented my boomer parents when they told me all the 90s bands I liked were just ripping of the 60s acts they grew up with . . . well, now I’m getting older and know what they meant.
The show gave me ideas for a few three-minute essays. And the premise for this one is pretty great: what if I mocked an old man for having scoliosis?
Hilarious, right?
“NO!” say you.
Ok, fine. This really turned out to be about aging rockers failing to age gracefully. But I am tender enough not to be too hard on Iggy. While watching some old videos of his performances it refreshed in my mind that his greatest innovation was about how to contort your body on stage. Not how to dance in a traditional sense, but how to emote a chaotic charisma. Many copied him, but they can only copy him well if they have the lean muscled physique he had in his prime combined with a manic energy.
This isn’t about music at all, for which there is little to say. He’s a nostalgia act who plays his old hits. His band sounds good and his voice is still good enough. He hasn’t completely blown out his vocal chords like David Lee Roth has, but he still needs the cover of a loud band behind him.
Enjoy.
‘Nuff Said!
