A Night To Remember with The Stooges

The sky opened up last night and shot a rock-n-roll lightning bolt down on The Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, Michigan and teleported all of us back to 1971...

THE STOOGES came home to Ann Arbor last night for the Ron Asheton Tribute concert.  Song writer / Co-founder of the legendary Rock-N-Roll Hall Of Fame inductees, RON ASHETON passed away at his home in Ann Arbor in Janurary 2009.

The three hour tribute sold out in one hour's time once tickets went on sale in mid Feburary, and the event was organized by Asheton's sister, KATHY ASHETON.  All proceeds from ticket sales were put toward the Ron Asheton Foundation which supports the local Humane Society and musical education for children.

The evening began with a teenage group of punk rockers from the local Ann Arbor Neutral Zone community center taking the stage to perform a quick and nasty set of Stooges covers.  With no intermission, legendary punk rocker/writer/television host HENRY ROLLINS took to the stage with microphone to explain the profound impact THE STOOGES had on rock-n-roll history.

This was followed by a quick and emotional RON ASHETON slide show of behind the scenes photos.

Violently, IGGY AND THE STOOGES stormed the stage, in their current line-up of MIKE WATT (Bass), SCOTT ASHETON (Drums), JAMES WILLIAMSON (Guitar), and STEVE MACKAY (saxophone), and gave the audience a mind destroying  mother fuckin' 2+ hour set which included an almost complete performance of their landmark FUNHOUSE album but out of track order, a chunk of it's follow-up LP, RAW POWER, and a few from the band's seminal debut, THE STOOGES.

In climax, the band was joined on stage by a 20+ piece orchestra that joined the band through their classic song, T.V EYE and others.
During the show, IGGY STOOGE attempted to induce crowd anarchy several times by inviting the entire sold out audience up onto the stage to dance and get naked with the band.  While dozens and dozens of the house did manage to make it to the stage, the show quickly petered out to a quiet, due to overcrowding and security had to shut it down, and assist the audience back down to their seats.  In addition, the chief officer of the Michigan Theater on behalf of the city's mayor presented IGGY and the ASHETON's, each with an honorary key to the city.

It was a romantic, historical, and once in a lifetime performance for THE STOOGES and all of us fans that had been awaiting this moment for most of our adult lives.  It was THE STOOGES coming home to Ann Arbor.  Where this music was born.  Music that is important to a lot of us. And as HENRY ROLLINS said at the beginning of the night, "It's essential to you, this music that all of you here can't live without. And if you don't get it, you never will."  Ann Arbor is their town, my town, and it will always smell like THE STOOGES.

Last night we were all finally transported back in time.  And RON ASHETON was looking down as our tour guide.

Written by :

Justin Bozung