Let’s remember when Iggy Pop played his first show in Seattle, with David Bowie in his band, on this day in 1977 (April 9)
If there ever was a time for some retroactive FOMO, this is it.
It’s sort of hard to believe the Stooges never played a Seattle show in their prime, and it wasn’t until 1977 that Iggy Pop actually played a show here. But when he did, he was only the second most famous person on stage, as his keyboard player was David Bowie.
As Peter Blecha notes in HistoryLink:
On the evening of Saturday, April 9, 1977, Michigan’s veteran proto-punk icon Iggy Pop (b. 1947) finally makes his Seattle concert debut before a crowd of devotees — some of whom have been fans of his incredibly influential recordings since the late 1960s. Among the quartet of musicians backing Iggy at the Paramount Theatre show is a very notable admirer: the famed British rocker David Bowie (1947–2016), who first conquered rockdom back in 1972 with his Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars album. The concert is phenomenal, but the best part of the visit may have come the prior night: Iggy — along with a few members of the concert’s opening act, the New Wave band Blondie — jammed on some sixties garage-rock classics with several young local punk rockers at a post-midnight beer bash at their Ballard flophouse.
A bootleg recording of the show goes for €50 on Discogs.
Read the whole essay here:
