Iggy Pop had not played Seattle for years due to an infamous lawsuit incident
relating to a minor riot and a speaker stack falling over. He had chosen not
to enter the state rather than risk being arrested.
With the release of Blah Blah Blah, his best record in years, he was out on tour but
the closest
he would come to Seattle was Portland. We managed to hustle ourselves on as opener
for the Portland show at the Graceland Ballroom.
We had played Portland and Salem enough times to know we had some fans but still,
opening for a performer like Iggy I wondered how we'd be received: after all we
were just the time-filler till the legend appeared.
We opened with our standard opener "Freeway" and got a great response. By the end
of three songs, the applause was indicating that we would do fine. I heard later that the
only guy booing us loudly was sitting up in the mezzanine. Wouldn't you know it, it was
the same singer from the Seattle band that had try to screw with our Hall of Fame
gig. This guy idolized Iggy and thought that his
band should have the opening slot instead of us. Sorry, pal.
I passed Iggy standing in the darkened shadows of a backstage corner. He was standing
back by a big Leslie speaker cabinet they had as part of their band gear, waiting to go on.
I quickly put away my things and went out
front so as not to miss a thing.
Iggy was taut and wired and "on."-- clean and sober and back to reclaim this crown.
His band was automotan-tight, just unbelievable. Really really great. What a show!
|
© 2006 variantcause.com except where noted
|
