Iggy Pop, Glasgow review: 'remarkable'

Iggy Pop is remarkable. This garage rock legend is living proof that rock'n'roll can keep you young, as long as you can navigate that tricky drugs, excess and general nihilism period to emerge miraculously unscathed. Sometimes it feels like he will always be with us, leather-bound and Teflon-coated. But the audience at this show were conscious of the occasion, that this may well be the last chance to see Iggy in Glasgow.

No one is taking anything for granted, least of all the 78-year-old on stage, stripped to the waist and silken-haired as always, helming a youngish band and charging through a set replete with Stooges classics. After launching at full tilt with TV Eye, he switched to prime punk rock crooner mode on Gimme Danger, while the pure punk expression of Death Trip featured some magnificent but economical shredding.

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Iggy had a quick sit down while the band handled the iconic intro to Lust For Life, with the brass section doubling up as the shouty chorale. We were treated to some choice Iggy wisdom - “if you are feeling depressed, it might be because you are surrounded by assholes” – and a foray down to the front row during Loose. “Sometimes you've got to get close,” he declared.

People who haven't moshed for decades reacted spontaneously to the evergreen power of I Wanna Be Your Dog, with bonus brass charge. Search and Destroy was another super-turbo-charged dispatch. For all its anarchy, it was delivered with such joy by his band.

The set drew to a close with some solo Iggy nuggets. Frenzy was a great advert for Iggy’s enduring potency, Nightclubbing remained the ultimate in gutter-trawling sleaze and the celebratory cacophony of Real Wild Child (Wild One) revived the spirit of Fifties rock'n'roll. This was some privilege.

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