Lust For Life Pay Raucous Tribute to a Punk Rock Classic at Manchester’s O2 Ritz [Photos]

Sometimes a simple gig listing is enough to compel you to attend a show. Seeing one for Lust for Life being played in full was one of those. Iggy Pop’s second solo release, another of his collaborations with David Bowie, and one of my all-time favourite albums. I was sold.

Then I saw the lineup of musicians playing this show, and it was obvious that it was going to be a special night.

Blondie’s drummer Clem Burke, Bowie collaborator Kevin Armstrong and a Sex Pistol in the form of Glen Matlock, to name a few – with the host of ’90s favourite The Word, Katie Puckrik, taking Iggy’s spot at the front to deliver vocals… and boy did she!

A mini hurricane of energy, she was full of the requisite ‘Igginess’ to be able to do this properly and do it justice.

Opener “Lust for Life” bounced through its 5 minutes of perfection and got every person in attendance bouncing along with it. Pretty much every track on the album is great; there’s “Some Weird Sin” that is effectively the blueprint for every Strokes track ever written, “The Passenger,” which sounded just as cool as it always did – and gave the floorboards of the Ritz a solid workout – and the brilliant “Tonight” which has pure Bowie running right through sounded incredible.

Favourite track of the night’s first set, though, had to go to “Fall in Love with Me,” which closes the Lust for Life album in fine form and sounded great, soaring into the rafter in Manchester.

After a brief break the band returned to the stage to deliver an encore full of classics pulled from all their respective pasts.

We were given another healthy dose of Iggy with the likes of “Nightclubbing,” his version of “China Girl,” and a raucous “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” which were mixed with truly iconic tracks such as Bowie’s “Absolute Beginners,” Blondie’s “Hanging on the Telephone” – which appears to fulfil a lifelong dream of Katie Puckrik’s – and a really enjoyable, albeit cabaret version of The Sex Pistols “Pretty Vacant” before the highlight of the second set came in the form of The Stooges “Search and Destroy.”

Albums as iconic as Lust for Life don’t come along too often and it takes some iconic performers to do them justice in this kind of tribute format and the Lust for Life band do exactly that. Only Iggy in his prime would have been more enjoyable than this was.

If you see them on a listing’s poster any time, make sure you buy a ticket to one of the most enjoyable shows around.

Lust For Life @ O2 Ritz (Manchester, UK) on March 7th, 2024

31 photos