Live at the Channel, Boston MA 1988

AMG Review of Live at the Channel, Boston MA 1988

Lindsay Planer
All Music Guide

Here we go again, with yet another (of nearly half-a-dozen) title to contain material from Iggy Pop at the Ritz on November 14, 1986 in NYC -- a venue known to modern concertgoers as Webster Hall. During his tour to support the album Blah, Blah, Blah (1986), the nationally syndicated weekly radio program The King Biscuit Flower Hour (KBFH), caught up with the artist and captured the show's excerpts that are featured here. Reputedly clean and sober for the first time in decades, the performance is both inimitably Iggy and yet, remarkably cohesive. The set is heavy on new songs, presenting over two-thirds of Blah, Blah, Blah intermixed with a vigorous sampling of Stooges' and solo sides alike. When returned to their sonic essence, newer selections -- such as "Fire Girl" or the X-Generation anthem "Real Wild Child" -- provide a continuity to classics such as "Lust for Life," "I Got a Right" and "Five Foot One." For the uninitiated, Pop's reading of "China Doll'" co-composed with David Bowie, might seem a bit unnerving or otherwise too real. This is a good example of Iggy systematically stripping away the tinsel while delving into darker musical recesses. As mentioned above, the same concert has also been issued under a number of monikers ranging from Live at the Ritz NYC (1986) (1995) to Live in NYC (2000) . Regardless of which you choose, this is among the best out there circa his mid-'80s renaissance. The bonus "I Wanna Be Your Dog" hails off of a July 1988 set at the Channel in Boston, MA and was likewise lifted from an earlier KBFH show, which is available in a considerably more complete form on Pop's King Biscuit Flower Hour (1997) single-CD release.