Review - Iggy and The Stooges at Gröna Lund

At Gröna Lund, Stockholm Aug 10 2012

The Event

Iggy Pop often together with Lou Reed given credit as the Grandfathers of punk, was in town, last night on the amusement park Gröna Lund, a place that have seen many classic rock and punk bands onstage.  I´ve seen Iggy a couple of times. He has been brilliant, less brilliant and one time surrounded by a terrible band being a let down. Tonight he was back at Gröna Lund where he have been a busy visitor. I think I´ve seen him twice there before. And one of them was really a terrible experience.
This time he brought his old band, the Stooges. James Williamson have replaced Ron Asheton on guitars since he passed away in 2009. And it is logical because James replaced Ron in the 1970ies during the heroin years. James was Iggy´s and drummer Scott Ashetons (Ron´s Brother) drug pal so he took over the axe and Ron was to play bass replacing the Dave Alexander that got fired after being too drunk to play (!). Mike Watt and Steve MacKay are now in the band as well.

Iggy and the added value of the Stooges was a good reason to see the spectacle.


The Crowd

Everyone was there. The Swedish rock journalist (Swedish Television) Per Sinding Larsen claimed, on Facebook, there was 15 000 people trying to see Iggy and the Stooges. Note that Bob Marley´s unbreakable 1980 crowd record counting 32 000 visitors is legendary. 15 000 was an incredible and likely number of people it was paced! There were people everywhere. And I recognized half of them, haha. Everyone was there.

The Crowd might been big, but a bit stiff, not as vivid and lively as the Dropkick Murphy´s crowd at the same place a two month earlier.

The Band
Iggy and the Stooges

They couldn´t hardly walk. Iggy and bass player limping like some wounded wildebeest. But when they were there, on stage, they delivered one hell of a rock show.

What strikes me with most old rock, blues and punk legends is the lack of aggression in their playing in later years. Eric Clapton, Mick Jones gone soft by the years. Compare the solo´s played by Clapton when he was God and today you will get what I am after here. The Stooges and the Sex Pistols are exceptions. The Stooges proved last night that they still know how to be bad ass. Behaving like the mad man he is, Iggy is still going strong even if is 65 of age. OK, not as wild as during the crazy years, but still much more than most rockers and punk singers do together. The Bass player Mike Watt behaving like a drunk in a minefield, hilarious! The sax player Steve MacKay playing as mean on saxophone as John Zorn. After starting with three well known numbers, “Raw Power”, “Search and Destroy”, “Gimme Danger” the set slowly turn into a punk jazz festival with unpredictable jazz punk as in the early years, in the end of the sixties. With James Williamson in the band it is a guarantee the songs from his era in the band are played such as “Beyond the Law”, “Johanna”, “Shake Appeal” (with the crowd invited on stage) and “Kill City”, “Johanna” and “Beyond the Law” much faster and harder than on the original records.

Best songs? Well it would be easy to say all of them. But I think I choose Kill City, at least it made me get going.

One non Stooges song was in the repertoire, Iggy Pop´s  classic hit “Passenger”.  As well as Stooges classics as “No Fun”, “Cock in Pocket”, “Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell”, “1970” among more songs. Note that such brilliant songs “1969”, “Down on the Street” and “TV Eye” wasn´t played.


Worth the money?

With the “Grönan kortet”, a season card a 199SKr (20 Euros) I got to see all the concerts and free admission to the amusement park all season. I have already seen Dropkick Murphy´s (didn´t see Jimmy Cliff) and still the Hives left to see.  So that is a totally yes on that on that question, it was like  winning on the lottery, all this for this small amount of money? This was one of the better concerts this summer. Not top three but good enough.

As you might read, I complain about how the Grönan stage is an act killer, Not last night, Iggy knew how to both get a  good sound and put on a great show.

Concert Review - Dropkick Murphy´s at Gröna Lund

Dropkick Murphy´s at (the amusment park) Gröna Lund in Stockholm

The Place

Dropkick Murphy´s said they were proud that so many people showed up to see them on this particulary stage at Gröna Lund. Proud to be performing at the stage that been hosting performances from acts as Runaways, The Sweet, The Clash, The Who, The Eagles,AC/DC, Bob Marley, Iggy Pop, PIL and more (my note), Many of those band in their prime or in the early stages of their career. Bob Marley made one of his best concerts ever when he broke the attendance record in 1980. Murphy´s pointed out The Who, the Clash and Eagles as their heroes on that stage.

But that doesn’t tell the whole story. The fact that that stage been a place where those band been doing pretty lame or weak performances. Iggy Pop Ive seen way under his normal level, as same goes for The Ramones, Soundtrack of our Lifes and more. Beck did a completely disasterous dull performance there. So as well as proud they really should be alert.
after all, Gröna Lund is a rollercoaster, merry go round amusement park in the first place.

To make things ever worse. At the same time, a few hundred meters away, there was a Live broadcasting of one of Swedens most popular TV shows. A sing a long music show, “Allsång på Skansen”. It is possible that that made them play at a disturbingly low volume at first. But they fixed it a bit after half the show. Anyway the overall sound was far from perfect. Everybody knows what too low volume on the guitars does to punk rock.

Besides that most other things were great.

The Crowd

The Crowd was great and huge. The regular tourist visitors were by far outnumbered by Murphy´s fans, punks and rockers in general. Me and girlfriend spoke to some Murphy fans that seems to be from all over this part of the country. From places like Västerås and towns like that. And possible why the crowd was so jolly. If you read what I written before, you might remember that I whine a bit about the Stockholm crows tendency to be standing silence like statues at concerts. Here was the crowd loud, handclapping, fists in the air, dancing and mosh pitting all in a turmoil. The singalong factor was almost as high as it probably was at the singalong Tv show next to us. And the response from the audience seems to fuel up the Murphy´s. Because they managed, despise the low sound, the dull stage put on a high energy show.

The Songs

They played most of their well known songs as well as two new ones, "Tattoo Rose" and a song don´t know the name of.yet, except “ For Boston”, “Wicked and Sensitive Crew” and “Skinhead on the MBTA”. The last mentioned, possibly because that the park security didn´t allowed the crowd to go onstage as usual during that song. A fact that made the bass playing singer Ken Casey go into the crowd singing "Kiss me I´m Shitfaced". Sometimes sitting on some ones shoulders, sometimes drowned in the crowd, sometimes crowd surfing, a peak of the performance. Its Celtic, its working class and punk all in the same. Florence Reece old “Which side are you on” are on their repertoire as well as the lyrics of Woody Guthrie on "Shipping Up to Boston". It´s traditional Irish and it´s sentimental more than it is angry. It´s hard to get feeling of a dirty factory in the lovely summer evening, but that doesn´t matter, because they do it with a heart and it affect the people in the crowd a lot, And that turn it into a big summer party. The true qualities this night comes from the way they use their chanting choruses, that they master to an Oi! perfection. However as my brother pointed out, they could left AC/DCs “TNT” at home, because they can´t reach their own level doing a bad cover on a good song. They got enough good songs themselves to keep it up the whole concert. So many songs that they could change them a bit. The fast song, "Citizen CIA" was played as a mellow slow beat, acoustic version. My personal favorite this Nordic sun light June night was “Sunday Hardcore Matinee, it sounded just as it should.

Was it worth the money?

Was it worth the money? Yes. I payed 200 SKr (20 Euro, 28 USD). But it´s even better than that because from that I got a card that give me free access to concerts with Iggy and the Stooges, Jimmy Cliff, Lenny Kravitz, Opeth and more at Gröna Lund this summer. Or just free entrence to the park any day.

It was a great perfomance, if it was held somwhere else it would been a great concert. Or as my brother put it, "If they have got louder volume somewhere else they would have tore the place apart".