Athens, as you know, is a city that iggy truly loves. during the 80's-90's he was worshiped like a greek god here and became something like emperor of greece. his concerts were always absolute triumphs. however, as sad as it is for me to say, the greek crowd doesn't deserve iggy anymore. as i'm still very tired and still in shock, i'll just give you the plain facts in brief: iggy came onstage like a storm and just gave everything and more. he did one stagedive after the other, and in fact spend a lot of time of the first part of the show in the crowd. he was unbelieavable, even with his own unique standards. just incredible. during "i feel alright" he hit some notes so high i've never heared from him before. actually i was expecting him and the band a bit tired as they had played so many gigs in the previous weeks, and paris just two days before, but he performed like there was no tomorrow. even after the show was over, the band was packing instruments and people were leaving, he returned on stage, called the band back, and said "i will do one more song for you guys, 'cause you're weird". and this was when it all turned bad, for a gig that otherwise would have been a top one. as iggy had kneeled at the front of the stage to introduce "i'm fried", a squeezed tin can was thrown by a total jerk, flew like a ninza weapon and hit iggy on the forehead, right above his eye........... iggy started bleeding badly and was dizzy, this was all too bad, too freaking bad. still, GOD iggy pop went on and sung the song, holding a towel on his face to stop the blood.... he said "you can't stop me, i am immortal!" and yes, he IS!!! we all know that. even if his body dissapears in, say, a century from now, he will still be immortal!!! we all KNOW. this time he said it himself as well; we'd better all believe it. however, and as it's the second time a thing like this happens in greece, and as sad as it is for me to say, the greek audience -that was as well very cold this time- doesn't deserve iggy pop giving his heart and soul for them, let alone his blood... …
Yiannis Karantonis
...We do our pacing, gig's running about ten minutes late. tourboss henry leads us down some halls, ig says it's a "tap moment" (as in "spinal tap"), we get put in a minivan and do the drive over. I just get my bass now, no warmup on her tongiht, ok... ig asks if we're ready - yep - "let's do it!" I run up the ramp and over to my amps, take my glasses off and put them on the drum riser by the tuner (damn, it's a high riser) and wait for the asheton's to bring the show on, just a matter of seconds and "loose" is unleashed - boom. water, water bottles, spit - all kinds of shit come flying up on stage most of it getting dodge by iggy, he's whirling and twirling - the band is motoring down, right out the gate. then "down on the streets" and again ig doen't jump on my amp but rather hurtles himself into the sea of greeks. "1969" time w/a dry warm wind blowing, I can hear the guitar drift some - it's a problem w/these oustide kind of situations. here comes another lighter... I dodge it w/a head move. being back here 'pert-near against the amps (to feel it, not to get propped up!) helps w/that. ig runs the tunes really close but extends out the front end of "tv eye" out w/some pretty burbly and primeval snarls but loosing the "llllllloooooooorrrrddddd!!!!" - we nail the "ram it!" parts good... seems scotty wants to stretch out the ending as long as possible, after iggy's "yeah" and ronnie's little solo - ig even points back but scotty's gonna end it when he ends it... I wait ready w/the one fat "a" to tag w/everyone else. a hiked-up "my idea of fun" next and the first phrase after the intro has me clam and be on the others side of the chord - dumbfuck! it lasts for a second at the most but I finally like a total 'tard, like how did that happen? cuz you clammed, watt! inside, I laugh at myself enormously but linger not long on it, rather double up my anti-clam mechanisms like fucking trying to get it the god damn together - think a little ahead? blam, it's done and we're right into "dirt" - look, there's a red bra that got thrown up at me but didn't have enough toss to get it far enough, dropping a couple feet in front of me. the lighter's make it - I get hit in the ches w/one but it doesn't hurt... ronnie's lost his so I'll give this one to him later, he chords us into "real cool time" after scotty's clicks (every tune in the set gets scotty's clicks except for the ones he starts w/a fill, of course "mindroom" and "l.a. blues" and then my lone starter, "fun house"). ig calls on the dancers and they charge up hard but no firebombs or machetes - it's ok that way. I get many man kisses while we're playing. it's pretty wild but not dangerous, it's much fun - it's a joy watch these young cats leap and act out their trips. of course lots of them mob iggy but I can't really see much of that, mainly just the folks who come by to give me a visit. ronnie's behind his amps - he moves back there just as iggy finishes singing the "we will have a real cool time tonight" refrain. he tells the dancers to stay up on stage for "no fun" and we roll that baby out - more hugs, slaps and kisses... funny trying to play w/that going on but way worth it, I'm digging it. of course I have the most fragile knees and one blow in the wrong place from somewhere unexpected will cripple me but I try not to think of that. band intros - iggy hasn't said hi own name here in a long time, I think about that... he's very kind to make sure we all are called out though, grazie mille. I think I get louder here... don't know why - the marshalls are sounding good these cabs w/no ports either bury some notes of boom out others, ampegs or marshalls - I'm way more into my eden ones - not the ones I used on this last u.s. tour cuz those had rear-firing ports I had to plug up w/towels but my 410xlt ones... anyway, here I am in athens using what they got and it's not terrible. it's all about the hands much too - being there for the guys w/some playing... like ig says before "1970" when he goes "ok, show time's over - this is for the music!" (that always cracks scotty up) we storm it hard, ig too - last verse comes and he says he's gonna kill somebody if he doesn't get water, jos gets some over to him. I'm sweating like crazy but the aridness keeps me from being drenched, it's a trippy. the breeze even being warm helps too. I keep my eyes glued to ig for his ronnie's duet for "mindroom" (where steve gets his introduction from iggy - like I got a fist in the air for scotty and ron, I got one here for steve too) and waiting for ig to cue me into "fun house" which comes usually while he starts to get the mic up in its stand holder. "blow steve!" he hollers, yeah! a little bit he later he wants to do the verse, "let me in!" - ronnie's shakes his head at me, not a nod but "no, not yet" - funny. we let him in of course and song has him stepping and james brown dancing like nothing else. it eventually crashes into "l.a. blues" and this is where I think I broke of the treble control on the little bass' preamp - not just the knob but half the stem of the post it goes on. oh well, I have it bypassed for stooges gigs anyway. that tune is hard on tuning too but the 'e' and 'a' survive enough for "skull ring" and we finish w/up having "trollin'" taking us out - the days of clamming our abbreviated version long go though scotty always laughs over at me when the end is coming up for it. off to the side to pow wow and ig says to do what we've been doing so it's "not right" and then "little electric chair" - everyone has a solo but scotty - maybe he should get one, huh? should I say something? not now, we just got the double dog to go - ig calls for it. lots of fluids flying - more lighters, some bottles - ig jumps from the stage to the dirt deck and I see road boss eric's face go weird as he's looking down though he doesn't reach down to help - I can't see it cuz of the lip of the stage in the way, what's wrong? ig does get up and I'm so relieved. shit, just a little landing wrong and it could be knee pop - that's what I'm thinking cuz of my weak knees, they're very vulnerable. we get done and down the ramp to the van but ig calls us back so I run up and get the bass, he calls for "I'm fried" and crotches a little when I iced-up bottle of water comes arching over and smacking him right above the left eye, a real lucky hit that opens an t-shaped cut and blood starts streaming. I heard the smack but actually didn't comprehend the object - thinking it was yet another lighter cuz I saw that right under his feet and pick it up, I seen a flattened out juice can too but that's been up for more than a few tunes. the water bottle skidded under the drum riser. anyway, ig takes like one step towards where the ramp is but then turns around to the people and says "fuck it - we're doing this fucking song... give me a towel." he mops the blood as it pours - he hollers, "you can't kill me, I'm immortal!" we start up "I'm fried" and he sings it like no other time I've heard him do it and that puts into me a feel on the song I got both my hands around and torquing it into the groove like nothing else in the world matter right now. we pile in except steve who's trying to take his horn apart, having done it once already but we gotta gig ig backstage and tended to by the doctor. he comes to our room and the paramedics - one cat has "doctor" on his laminate, ig says he likes that and wants one. he's in good spirits the whole time and they put some disinfectant on it and then right after they put a butterfly stitch on it, he says I can get a shot so I snap one w/the digicamera. he stays w/us like an hour and talks about all kinds of stuff. the crew joining us later - it's a big room and we're all having fun shootin' the spiel, all ten of us in here. the ride home seems quicker. I finally get out of the boilersuit and soak some in the tub, the adrenaline gone and now the show getting felt in the joints. much better than usual though... ronnie's idea about taking the ibuprofen an before the gig is working better than taking it after. tomorrow I pop to visit a new land for me, I konk wondering about that... sure glad iggy's ok though.
Mike Watt
