Iggy Pop Performs Stooges Classics

“It’s not easy being alive now … It’s not easy to be old … it’s not easy to be young,” Iggy Pop said from the Mojave stage at Coachella on Sunday. “It wasn’t easy then,” he added before launching into Iggy and the Stooges’ “1970,” a track marking the time and era it came out.

The Godfather of Punk turns 79 on April 21, and though he addressed the passage of time, he was full of vigor onstage, belying his seven-plus decades around the sun. He was also in his natural element: shirtless and commanding the stage while he led the crowd through a greatest-hits set on Sunday from the Mojave tent.

It was tailor-made for an audience that was ready for his “Raw Power,” which he also performed alongside other Stooges classics, including opener “T.V. Eye,” “Search and Destroy,” and the crowd scream-along, “I Wanna Be Your Dog.” Pop bounced around alongside his band, which included a horn section and Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ guitarist Nick Zinner.

While the set list was Stooges-heavy, he also delivered the one-two punch of “Passenger” and a raucous “Lust for Life,” from his 1977 classic second solo album, Lust for Life. “Let me see everybody,” he declared as he surveyed the audience before launching into “Passenger.” “I know my way around here.” That he did, and it was evident performing continues to fuel him; from delivering his great, gritty vocals, to his physicality as he strutted the stage.

Pop is a Coachella vet, having first played solo in 2001 during the then nascent fest’s second installment. And then, back in 2003, Pop reunited with the Stooges for the first time in 30 years, closing out Coachella then. Their raucous return has been hailed as one of the fest’s most iconic historical moments. His show on Sunday was another one for the books.