Rocking the Queen Mary

Sunday’s second and final day of the eclectic All Tomorrow’s Parties music festival at the Queen Mary in Long Beach was a mellow affair, largely devoid of security hassles and the huge lines reported Saturday. Crowds eagerly gathered in both the ship’s smaller nightclub room and the nearby waterfront park, with seemingly everyone converging on the outdoor space for an electrifying closing set by Iggy & the Stooges.

Curated by “The Simpsons” creator Matt Groening, the program reflected the cartoonist’s skewed taste, with avant-garde noodling (seasoned minimalist Terry Riley), ethereal song craft (Cat Power), bad joke acts (Har Mar Superstar) and lame Zeppelin imitations (the Mars Volta).

With highlights mostly from such veterans as Boston’s Mission of Burma, it felt a bit like All Yesterday’s Parties. The trio featuring three of the original four members vibrantly performed old favorites such as “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver,” while new tunes meshed nicely with their jittery, raging-to-melodic punk-pop.

Another standout was a rare reunion set by New York avant-funksters James Chance & the Contortions, with a mostly original lineup playing enthusiastically distorted numbers such as “Almost Black.”

But Iggy was the undisputed king, backed by original Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton and his drummer brother, Scott, plus saxophonist and longtime associate Steve MacKay and bassist Mike Watt. This lineup appeared at last spring’s Coachella festival, but that didn’t diminish the sheer thrill of witnessing one of rock’s last bona-fide antiheroes do his dance-along-the-edge thing.

Shirtless, rail-thin, tight jeans super-glued down low, Iggy wasn’t exactly a pretty sight at 56, but he remained a powerful, hip-canted, legs-planted punk shaman. Fully engaged, he danced feverishly, fearlessly crowd-surfed and roared as if poised to devour every last listener.

Along with such tight, blazing classics as “TV Eye,” “I Wanna Be Your Dog” (inexplicably performed twice) and “1970,” the band offered an epic, soulful rendition of “Dirt,” which Iggy dedicated to late singer-songwriter Elliott Smith. Even the less compelling new material felt fresh, with the closing “Dead Rock Star” providing an appropriately sardonic kicker for the whole freaky night.