It was a summer festival, feauturing the Foo Fighters, Moby, Violent Femmes, and the Ig (he played last, after Moby). Way before the festival, Iggy was saying in interviews that he's gona give a hell of a concert, that he's coming to get us, that Athens belongs to him etc. When the night of the concert came, Iggy came on stage like a storm and proved what he had said, but it was just even better. I've seen him live a lot of times, but man, this was unbelievable. He looked totaly determined to give us a night to remember. And he did. During the first song, a bottle hits him on the head. We are all upset and worried, blood is pouring from his head. But Iggy stops for nothing, and what followed cannot be described (if you listen to the recording of the show you can't tell that something happened, 'cause he kept on singing all the way through the song. It's only when the song ends that you understand what happened, when you listen to Iggy screaming "Somebody hit me with a bottle! You can't kill me! I' m Iggy Pop! I'll kill you !!!) Just see the pictures, Iggy looking scarry, his whole body covered with blood ! And we're talking 1996 here, not 1969 !!! This was some concert really. Together with the 1988, and the 1991 concerts, it's among the best ever. He played for almost two hours, and did just everything, including climbing on top of the stage (more than 10 metres high) where the spotligths are, to sing hanging from up there. In the end of the show he even smoked on stage ! Then he got two girls on stage and did... a few things with them (Iggy lying on the stagefloor, one girl over his private parts, the other on his face...) And then, after the last encore, while everybody was leaving shocked and petrified by what they'd seen, Iggy comes out again and calls them back!!! "Where are you going? Did I tell you to leave? I'm not through with you yet"!!! Words are not enough, and anyway I'd have to write pages and pages...
Yiannis Karantonis
