POP MUSIC REVIEW : Iggy Can Still Rock ‘n’ Rage

When Iggy Pop formed the Stooges and invented the sound of teen-age Angst in the late ‘60s, there was no reason except the need to do it. No audience, no support community, no respect.

Some 20 years later, he’s acknowledged as a seminal influence. The last song the Sex Pistols ever played was a Stooges tune, and Guns N’ Roses are doing two of them on their upcoming album of old favorites. Punk, metal, maybe even industrial-rock and performance art wouldn’t be what they are without him. Imagine soul music without James Brown.

Now that his vision has become a given in rock’s sonic and cultural vocabulary, and after living a rather, um, colorful life, it’s amazing that Iggy has any urgency left at all. But there he was at the Palace on Thursday, in his trademark jeans-and-no-shirt regalia, his body whipping around like a rubber skeleton before a mural of a severed hand giving the thumb-down sign.

He didn’t milk the survivor mystique, didn’t try to compete with his legend. Backed by three players who sometimes approximated the old Stooges’ legendary crudeness, Pop sang songs from all eras (including bouncy-arty Bowie-collaborations), played a couple from his new album, dropped his pants during “Lust for Life,” expressed his contempt for Hollywood, and even did an “unplugged” encore.

An inconsistent mix, sporadic rather than sustained. But classic blasts of youthful ennui and rage like “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and “Search and Destroy” still rang true. No fun , goes one of his signature mantras. But, of course, it really is.