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Aug 21, 2020 Web Exclusive By Mark Moody

As with many live albums of this era, documenting history becomes paramount to the content of the release. However, in this case, Iggy Pop and company put on a scabrous play through of their Fun House album that had been released the prior month. Per the outstanding liner notes (worth the cost of the release), Jaan Uhelszki details that The Goose Lake International Music Festival, put on outside The Stooges’ hometown of Detroit, followed Woodstock and was the predecessor to Altamont, “which would slam the door on the Summer of Love.” The substances on hand and those coursing through The Stooges’ bodies that day would require a flowchart to map out. To think that Chicago played the same festival is more than a little incongruous.

The opening two tracks of Fun House are flipped here, as the band originally intended, and the crossfire hurricane that is “Loose” makes for a fitting opener. It’s apropos that Goose Lake is released on Jack White’s Third Man label, as with The White Stripes, there is little bass guitar on display here. Original Stooges’ bassist Dave Alexander is on stage, but rarely audible (“Dirt” is a notable exception). Alexander was fired after the set and dead within five years, at age 27 of course. But Pop himself as well as the Asheton brothers (Ron on guitar and Scott on drums), put on a molten set. And as with Fun House, the band is joined by saxophonist Steve Mackay halfway through the set to add to the atonal proto-punk timestamp of it all. Fun House turns 50 this year and it is the quintessential Stooges album: dark, foreboding, and as malevolent as anything put to wax. Goose Lake gives a strong sense of the band’s and Pop’s ability to create the same unhinged blues in a live setting. (www.iggyandthestoogesmusic.com)

Author rating: 8.5/10