The band scrambled to safety, and while appearing on radio station WABX, Iggy challenged the Scorpions to show up at the Stooges' upcoming show at Detroit's Michigan Palace, which would also be their last. They made their displeasure known by whipping eggs at Iggy, who leapt into the crowd – promptly stopped cold by a powerful biker fist. The Rock & Roll Farm in Wayne, Michigan was their bar, and they were not amused by the skinny dude in the leotard onstage. ![]() In some perverse way, Iggy might’ve been pleased: His audience didn’t want to see him commit suicide onstage - they wanted to murder him themselves.In February 1974, the Scorpions, a Detroit biker gang, became Iggy Pop's most celebrated foes. (and their last gig until 2003), the Stooges took the stage despite a local biker gang’s death threat against Iggy, and the tension is palpable in the recording. The chaos is best captured on the semi-legit live album Metallic K.O., which, in Lester Bangs’ famous words, “is the only rock album I know where you can hear hurled beer bottles breaking against guitar strings.” For the final performance captured on Metallic K.O. What might have been the band’s chance at some level of commercial acceptance ended up destroying them, as sets from their early ’74 tour devolved into audience baiting and actual physical violence. The Stooges went through a series of breakups and make-ups during the next few years, re-emerging in 1973 with the David Bowie-produced Raw Power, credited to Iggy and the Stooges. Michigan Palace, Detroit, February 1974: “Louie Louie” You Want My Action) are still essential listening, not only for Iggy’s typically gonzo performance, but also for being one of the first shows featuring James Williamson as the Stooges’ lead guitarist. In Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain’s Please Kill Me, future punk avatar Dee Dee Ramone set the lurid scene: “They went on real late because Iggy couldn’t find any veins to shoot dope into anymore because his arms were so fucked-up … The band finally came on and Iggy seemed very upset … looked at everybody and said, ‘You people make me sick!’ Then he threw up.” Regardless of his and the band’s condition, the audience tapes of the Electric Circus performances (released in limited quantities in 2009 as You Don't Want My Name. But they soldiered on somehow, and armed with a set of new songs, played NYC’s Electric Circus in May of 1971. Less than a year later, the Stooges were falling apart, having been dropped by Elektra and quickly succumbing to serious heroin addictions. The Electric Circus, New York City, May 1971: “You Don’t Want My Name” The set ends with a blowout rave-up (consisting of a new tune, “Have Some Fun,” and a demented improv, “My Dream Is Dead”) that makes the Velvet Underground, who at the time were in the process of breaking up across town at Max’s Kansas City, sound like the Carpenters. ![]() Powered by the relentless riffage of Ron Asheton and the single-minded stomp of his brother Scott on drums, they rip through all of Fun House, Iggy’s vocals at their unhinged best. ![]() ![]() A&R man/tastemaker Danny Fields, who signed the Stooges to Elektra Records in 1968, brought a cheap tape deck to the first show, and his recording (belatedly released in 2010 as Have Some Fun) is a raw audio vérité of the band at an exhilarating peak. The crowd at the Cincinnati Pop Festival looks pretty into the Stooges, but what about New York crowds? Ready or not, a few months later, the band played a brief residency at small Manhattan club Ungano’s, bolstered by the addition of second guitarist Billy Cheatham.
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