Live at Spark Arena
29 January 2025
Live Review by Music Journalist: Paul Marshall
Bare Chest, Bared Nerves: Iggy Pop’s Immortal Night at Spark Arena.
Some artists walk on stage. Iggy Pop lands, like a silver-backed gorilla bursting into daylight, owning the room before the lights even finish finding him. From the moment he hits the stage at Spark Arena, there’s no easing in, no pleasantries. He peels off the cut-off top almost immediately, revealing that now-mythical bare chest, and detonates straight into “T.V. Eye.” We’re off. No seatbelt. No mercy.
Backed by a razor-tight seven-piece band, this isn’t nostalgia, it’s propulsion. Every note is nailed with feral precision. The drummer is a wild man, lashing and thrashing like the rent’s overdue. The keyboardist’s fingers look like they’re on fast-forward, VHS-style, and the two-piece horn section does something genuinely inspired: they bend punk into punk-soul, adding texture and danger without blunting the edge.
By the third song, “I Got a Right,” Pop collapses flat onto the stage, arms splayed, the crowd losing its collective mind. At times he moves like an orangutan having the time of his life, pure, unfiltered physical expression, reminding everyone that Iggy’s body has always been as much an instrument as his voice.
“Lust for Life” lifts the arena to its feet, including the seated diehards who didn’t expect to stand. During “Death Trip,” a woman in the crowd strips her top off and is hoisted skyward, breasts bouncing as the band roars on. Pop clocks it instantly, eyes lighting up like he’s been teleported back to his heyday… or maybe just reminded he never really left it.
One of the night’s quiet revelations is the crowd itself. There’s a striking number of young women packed in tight near the stage. I ask a couple why they’re here. They don’t hesitate: “For Iggy Pop.” That says everything. This is a career that has outlived trends, genres, and entire scenes. Timeless music. Eternal menace.
Between songs, Pop takes a moment, just standing there, swaying, soaking it all in. He smiles like the cat that got the milk.
“Hi back there. Hi up here,” he grins, fist punching skyward.
“Fucking thanks for showing up, ay. Fucking hell, right on!”
The arena erupts like a volcano.
He works the stage like a prizefighter, side to side, locking eyes with his bandmates. The connection is real. (Though seriously, someone needs to have words with the lighting engineer. For Iggy Pop, no front light should be a criminal offence.)
“I Wanna Be Your Dog” sees Pop launch himself off the stage into the pit, pressing flesh with the faithful. It’s reckless. It’s intimate. It’s gloriously rock ’n’ roll.
At the start of “Search and Destroy,” he barks into the mic “Water! Water!” a stagehand sprinting in like a medic mid-battle, as the mosh pit ignites.
Then comes the setup.
“When I was a high school student in the ’60s, we used to hitchhike… things felt a little safer then. I’m still a fucking passenger. Will you pick me up?”
The roar confirms what’s coming.
“The Passenger,” followed immediately by “Lust for Life,” is the knockout one-two. The arena explodes, young and old dancing in aisles, pogoing at the barricade, drinks spilled across the floor, cascading from hands that no longer remembered their own strength. It’s one of those rare moments that lodges itself into Auckland rock folklore.
There’s a passing nod to David Bowie, Pop’s early collaborator, saviour, and brother-in-arms, who helped pull him from heroin’s grip and produced Raw Power in 1973. It’s a reminder of how deep the roots run.
At one point Pop mutters, “’Spose I’m gonna have to die soon.” It lands hard. He’s 78. But judging by what he’s just unleashed, there’s no exit music queued yet. It feels less like resignation and more like self-awareness, a man who knows time is finite but refuses to let it win quietly.
The night crashes home again with “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” mosh pits multiplying, bodies moving in unison, sweat and joy spilling into every corner.
This wasn’t a legacy set. This wasn’t a victory lap.
This was Iggy Pop reminding Auckland and anyone else who needed convincing that rock music doesn’t retire.
It survives.
It sweats.
It jumps into the crowd.
Set List:
- T.V. Eye (The Stooges song)
- Raw Power (Iggy and The Stooges song)
- I Got a Right (Iggy and The Stooges song)
- Gimme Danger (Iggy and The Stooges song)
- The Passenger
- Lust for Life
- Death Trip (Iggy and The Stooges song)
- I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges song)
- Search and Destroy (Iggy and The Stooges song)
- Down on the Street (The Stooges song)
- 1970 (The Stooges song)
- Cock in My Pocket (Iggy and The Stooges song)
- Real Wild Child (Wild One) (The Dee Jays cover)
- Frenzy
- Apocalypse / Nightclubbing
- Funtime
- Louie Louie (Richard Berry & the Pharaohs cover)
Reviewer: Paul Marshall
Photography by Knight Bilham
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