At age 78, a vibrant Iggy Pop recently growled and stalked along the front of The Anthem stage as he sang The Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” the chugging 1969 hard rock song that set the three-chord blueprint for punk rock. He got the audience to sing along and then he descended from the stage and into the crowd for a stunning communal moment to sing to people face-to-face.
It was an incredibly memorable moment in an evening bursting with brilliant and enduring songs from one of rock music’s most remarkable living legends.
Iggy Pop, still shirtless and persistent, paraded through a set of well-known Stooges songs and solo tunes at The Anthem on Sept. 29 as part of a short US tour sweep that brought him back to DC for the first time in a long while. Iggy followed “I Wanna Be Your Dog” with “Search and Destroy” (1973), another Stooges staple that solidified the band as the forefathers of punk. While Iggy did (and still does) mix elements of hard rock, psychedelia, garage, and glam into those driving Stooges anthems, they are rhythmically and lyrically simple compositions that inspired the punk movement of the mid-’70s.
Watch Iggy Pop perform “Search and Destroy” live at Sydney Opera House on YouTube:
For many concert-goers in the very full house, the one-two punch of “Dog” and “Search” was the high point of the show. For others, the concert hit a tremendous peak a few songs earlier, when Iggy played “The Passenger” and “Lust for Life” (1977), spotlighting what has become hailed as his greatest solo album. “Lust for Life” of course gained new life about 20 years later thanks to the film Trainspotting, and it still stood out as a concert highlight with Iggy’s gravely baritone. Those tracks also spotlighted Iggy’s great ear for a tune at a time when he leaned into full glam rock theatrics.
Although the Stooges coupling and the Lust for Life coupling formed powerful moments for Iggy’s showmanship, he dropped Stooges songs throughout the set, opening with “TV Eye” (1970) and then “Raw Power” (1973) and closing with “Loose” (1970) (which I first learned to love thanks to a smashing cover by The Blake Babies and vocalist Juliana Hatfield in 1989).
I personally loved hearing two other personal favorite Iggy Pop songs during the show — neither of which were guaranteed — “I’m Bored” (1979) and “Punkrocker” (2006; Iggy and Teddybears), both late in the show.
Following Iggy’s output in the ’70s, you can see his total embrace of glam rock and then his lean into new wave over his solo albums. He landed on a new wave classic with his 1979 album New Values. “I’m Bored” combined deadpan vocals and humorous wordplay, leaving you wonder if Iggy had listened to some Devo at some point during its production. Regardless, I love it when these sympathetic genres have interlocking moments like “I’m Bored,” and what better source to hear than from a master like Iggy Pop?
Watch the official music video for “I’m Bored” by Iggy Pop on YouTube:
For this first time ever this year, Iggy performed live “Punkrocker,” a new rave tune he recorded with Swedish electronica outfit Teddybears back in 2006. This song too found a new lease on life thanks to a film — James Gunn’s “Superman,” which used it in the closing credits as a coda to a conversation in the movie about the titular superhero being “punk rock.”
It was all smartly and superbly done, in my opinion, and Iggy noticed. He dedicated the song to Superman at The Anthem, and it was a pretty cool moment to hear it live. I’ve liked the track since I first heard it locally at DC9’s Liberation Dance Party in its wild early heyday, and Iggy did it right in performance.
In 2025, Iggy Pop is admittedly a little bit slower and a lot more introspective than he was 50+ years ago, but he’s no less thrilling a performer. I was beyond excited that he added DC to his calendar this time around, and I hope we may see him again soon.
Here are some photos of Iggy Pop performing live at The Anthem on Sept. 29, 2025. All pictures by Mickey McCarter.
