Iggy and the Stooges - House of Blues (Atlantic City) - Friday, August 27, 2010

Though I had already seen THE STOOGES three times before last night’s show, this was a first for me on several levels. First off, I’d never before seen a band play in Atlantic City. Furthermore, this was my first time seeing the band with JAMES WILLIAMSON. Thus, it would also be my first time seeing material from Raw Power as well as Open Up and Bleed and the “I Got a Right” 7” performed as well.

With no opener and wasting not a second, they opened with “Raw Power”, which led right into “Search and Destroy”. By the evening’s end, they’d played all 8 songs from Raw Power and had also tacked on “Open Up and Bleed,” “Johanna” and earlier Stooges classic “1970,” “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” “Fun House” and “No Fun”. Any questions as to whether Williamson (who had been away from music for close to three decades before reuniting with his former bandmates last year) would be up for the task were immediately silence once the first super loud, obscenely heavy and menacing riff of “Raw Power” came flying through the speakers. Additionally, they were notably augmented by saxophonist STEVE MACKAY, who not only played on the numbers from Fun House but added another dimension to the Raw Power material as well.

As for the venue, it was considerably larger than the only other House of Blues I’ve been to, the one on Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood, and though it felt a bit cavernous, the sound was reasonable as well.

Overall, we got everything that one could expect from an Iggy and the Stooges show and suffice it to say, I couldn’t hear much afterwards!