I took tomorrow off from work. I’ve got a friend flying in from Minnesota to see the big Ron Asheton memorial concert with me, and our plan is to bum around Ann Arbor all day, visiting the bars that still exist from 20 years ago, when we lived together on Catherine Street, and talking about what an incredible influence the Stooges were on us when we were kids. [If I weren’t so terribly insecure, this is the point in the post where I’d link to a recording of me and this friend of mine covering The Stooge’s I Wann Be Your Dog in my parents’ garage when we were skinny, pimply teenagers.]
I’ve seen Iggy play solo in the past, and with the Stooges, and they were all great shows, but I expect that this will be something really special. It is, after all, as we’ve been told again and again in the press, the first time that the group has played in the Ann Arbor area since the infamous Metallic K.O. show at the Michigan Palace in Detroit, on February 9, 1974. (They did play at the DTE Energy Music Theater in 2003, which I saw, but apparently the band doesn’t count that as local to Ann Arbor and Detroit, as it was in Clarkston.)
I’m expecting a great, emotional show, in spite of Iggy’s recent American Idol appearance and the fact that the show’s going to be MC’d by the Joe Piscopo of punk, Henry Rollins. (While it’s true that I have issues with Rollins, it was cool to hear him refer to Iggy as a “good Ypsilanti, Michigan boy,” and talk so unashamedly of his love for the band in the run-up to this show.) But, I think the good will, by far, outweigh the bad. I’m especially interested in seeing Iggy perform with kids from the Neutral Zone. Here, with more on that, is quote from Iggy that ran in a recent MetroTimes interview.
…Just by serendipity, a guy has been reaching out to me by post from a teen center in Ann Arbor called the Neutral Zone. He’s been sending me letters to the effect of “What can you do with us or for us?” He mentioned that they have a music program and I saw pictures of kids playing in their music space. I’d been to Ann Arbor a few years ago to rehearse with the guys and I realized that it had grown exponentially since I was there. It had changed a little bit and there was more of the typical American troubled kid thing than had existed before — I was the first [laughs]. The Stooges were the first four troubled youths in the Ann Arbor area, or the first to open our mouths about it. I thought it’d be kind of cool to get them to throw a band together. The guy offered to put together a band with some of the people in their music program. It’s going to be the teen openers, and if they haven’t got anybody who can sing decently, I may have to sing with them too. Hopefully, there’s some little savage there who can totally rip it up, in which case I can stick to my own bit…
How cool is that?
OK, so leave a comment if you’re out and about tomorrow and see Iggy buying peanut butter somewhere, getting a massage, or something. I’d love to be able to ask him a question or two about growing up in Ypsilanti, and why he never called me that time Virgin Records had set up an interview with me. (I also need to know if he’d object to my idea of having a statue of him erected in Riverside Park.) Also feel free to leave a comment if you’d like to buy me a drink and meet my friend. Just name the bar, pick a time, and tell me what you’ll be wearing… and how much of a budget you have, of course.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Mr. Osterberg, and what he looks like these days, he looks kind of like this, only a little bit bigger.
For more information on the show, and what the funds that are raised will be used for, check out the website for the Ron Asheton Foundation.
Also, if you’re so inclined, you can join the movement to see a Ron Asheton statue (probably not outfitted in a Nazi officer’s uniform) built in Ann Arbor here.
26 Comments
No fuckin way dude. I’m partying with Iggy right now. I was jest tellin him about how you wanted to build a statue to him and was looking for it to show him Jst asncd here’s iggyL:: yah i m gettinyour idea. good to go man lets get next to each othr aftr the show. make this thing happn. i love comin home. bring me there!!! coming home to roost@
that was Iggy. he just said to throw some of your ypsipanties on the stage and wear some and we’ll get with you after the show. if you throw them onstage hell wear them but you gotta be wearing them on the outside or on yur head just make sure you wear them so we knwo who you r. you should come party with us tonite or tomorow but we shold party and get that fucking statue!!!!
You’re cute!! Have fun.
There are going to be a lot of near-deaf middle aged fanboys nursing hangovers tomorrow. Good luck to you all.
Who’s Iggy Pop?
Have you thought about camping out at the trailer park on Carpenter, in case he rolls by to take a look at the old place?
I think he’s related to Gran’ Pop: http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/fiction/images/wood_l.html
The Joe Piscopo of punk. That’s fucking funny. So true. Though actually, he’s more the Howie Mandel of punk because he will do absolutely anything they ask him to do. “Host a Republican dating gameshow…sure!” I don’t think any less of Iggy for doing American Idol though. There is really no reason for him not to do it. I thought his explanation made a lot of sense. Can’t wait for the show.
Pete, Iggy Pop is an alias used by former Pioneer High class president James Newell Osterberg. He’s known for falling down a lot, and for being impervious to shirts.
I’ve never heard of him. Perhaps he’s got a mySpace page.
Can you imagine being a parent, visiting EMU for the first time with your son or daugher and seeing that fucking statue? Jesus.
Iggy looks like his own Body Worlds exhibit.
Well, my friend should have landed about two hours ago now, but he’s still in Chicago. American cancelled his flight into Detroit this morning. They didn’t tell him why, but my guess is that they didn’t want to send a half empty flight. So, they bumped him to a flight six hours later. And, now, instead of hanging out all day in Ann Arbor with my old friend, shooting the shit over beers, I’m back home, catching up on work. We’ll still make the show, just barely, but I’m pissed off. And so is he. He had to leave for the airport at 4:00 AM this morning… I hate airline companies.
I don’t think a lot of parents tour our local parks before allowing their children to attend EMU, Burt. And, personally, I think the fact that a young woman was murdered in her dorm at EMU a couple of years ago is probably more of a concern to folks than who the bronze statue in the park is of, but maybe I’m unusual. Maybe parents would pull out their beloved children in droves, concerned that they might catch a glimpse of the statue.
Nice picture, Doug. It reminds me of a racist email that was forwarded along to me a few days ago from the neighbors of a relative in Kentucky. I’m sure, as we speak, someone is trying to come up with a hilarious caption about Obama addressing his Czars.
Um, are you saying that all monkey cartoons remind you of Obama? I hope not…
Sarcasm Mark. Jeebus.
However, in the honor of full disclosure, a shirtless Iggy Pop does scare me more than murder.
Not at all, Doug. It’s just that I’d received that racist email a few days ago, and saw this morning that it was getting coverage in the press. You just happened to be the wrong place at the wrong time with my adorable little piece of anthropomorphic pop culture. When I saw it, the first thing that came to mind is that, in the wrong hands, it could be used for evil.
And, Burt, I’m afraid that, at some point, we as a nation are going to have to come together and ask him to keep his shirt on. It’s inevitable. Like how, sooner or later, each of us with fathers are going to ask for the car keys. We’ll need to do a giant, national intervention.
So, no one has seen him yet?
I am pretty sure he is a strict vegan…so if he does go out before shows at all those types of restaurants is where I would look for him. Happy Hunting.
You must not use Gran’ Pop for evil.
impervious to shirts! Thought that was a skinless cat on Idol last week.
nostalgia kills
That’s what they always used to say, kjc
It looks as though his age is finally catching up with him: