{"id":1164102,"date":"2026-08-23T02:52:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T02:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1164102\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T02:52:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T02:52:28","slug":"the-greatest-concert-anthony-bourdain-ever-attended-was-in-1973","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1164102\/","title":{"rendered":"The greatest concert Anthony Bourdain ever attended was in 1973"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Anthony<\/p>\n

Credit: Anthony Bourdain Instagram<\/p>\n

Sat 22 August 2026 21:30, UK <\/p>\n

\u201cAs a red-blooded American child, I always wanted to be a criminal,\u201d the late chef, author, and TV presenter Anthony Bourdain<\/a> wrote in his 2007 essay collection, The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones. <\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cMy heroes\u2026 These were guys who did what they wanted, when they wanted, said whatever the fuck they felt like saying, and, in general, avoided the restrictions of societal convention\u2014attractive qualities to a young kid weaned on the MC5 and The Stooges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bourdain gradually saw his romantic ideals of the criminal life tested when, as a cocaine and heroin addict in the 1980s, he was forced to dabble in low-level criminality himself, and found that it actually required a lot more discipline than all those cowboy and mafia movies had suggested. In the end, he set aside his heroes from the underworld and stuck to the bands that had once provided his imagined life a soundtrack.<\/p>\n

Despite his New York City roots, it was the dangerous Detroit sound<\/a> that had the biggest impact on him. The feral and ferocious music of the MC5 and Iggy and The Stooges were already foundational pieces of his teenage record collection when, in 1973, a 17-year-old Bourdain was able to flag down tickets to a rather unique New Year\u2019s Eve gig in Greenwich Village.<\/p>\n

As he recalled in a 2010 interview with the CBC\u2019s George Stroumboulopoulos<\/a>, the show would go down as the \u201cbest concert I ever attended: Iggy and the Stooges at the Paramount Theatre, 1973, with Blue \u00d6yster Cult, Teenage Lust, and a little band called Kiss; they were the bottom act!\u201d<\/p>\n

Bourdain misremembered the name of the venue; the show in question actually took place at the Academy of Music on 14th Street and Third Avenue, and the Stooges weren\u2019t the headliners either, that was Blue \u00d6yster Cult. <\/p>\n

\"Blue<\/a>Credit: Eric Meola \/ Columbia Records<\/p>\n

The details of this rather star-studded concert bill were otherwise correct, however, as the ascending B\u00d6C, still a few years away from \u2018Don\u2019t Fear the Reaper\u2019, joined forces with a nearly spent Stooges and a couple brand new NYC glam outfits in the form of Teenage Lust (who were named after an MC5 song) and the fully costumed Kiss, playing one of their first major shows.<\/p>\n

If the chef and his friends had gotten there early that night, they would have seen Kiss trying out what would become their familiar blend of standard blues-rock riffs and pyrotechnic effects. As a reviewer for Melody Maker, Chris Charlesworth, later reported, the band\u2019s opening set ended with bassist Gene Simmons swallowing some fire, only to let loose a few stray fireballs into the audience<\/a>, one of which apparently sent a random spectator to the ground; the youngster was seen getting carried out by staff, holding his face in his hands. Seems like a great start to a memorable night!<\/p>\n

Melody Maker\u2018s man on the scene might well have bumped into a young Bourdain at some point inside the 3,000 capacity venue, but the writer didn\u2019t seem to sense he was in the presence of future stars in the crowd that night. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe audience are of the more bizarre category,\u201d he wrote, \u201csome dressed as flashily as the bands and others resembling down-and-outs seeking a warm retreat for a few hours away from the cold outside. Within two minutes of arriving, a sallow-looking youth has inquired whether I have any acid to sell.\u201d<\/p>\n

That probably wasn\u2019t Bourdain, but who knows?<\/p>\n

In any case, Charlesworth ultimately found the Stooges\u2019 performance tedious and didn\u2019t even hang around for Blue \u00d6yster Cult, choosing to leave early and check out an even less interesting band, Mountain, at the Felt Forum down the road. Meanwhile, a young Anthony Bourdain was absolutely mesmerised and blown away by seeing Iggy and the Stooges within arm\u2019s reach. Not merely a fan of the punk pioneers, he was something of a convert to their very specific tribe.<\/p>\n

\"Iggy<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Elektra Entertainment<\/p>\n

\u201cIt said something about you in high school if you suddenly showed up with a Stooges album<\/a>,\u201d he told Stroumboulopoulos, \u201cIt meant you\u2019ve really broken with decent society, all your friends; you know, only like meth heads and car freaks really liked the Stooges back then. But, to me, it just spoke to me\u2026 I was not a Loggins and Messina fan, as should come as no surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over 40 years after witnessing the greatest gig of his life, Anthony Bourdain got the opportunity to share a room with childhood hero Iggy Pop once again. Only this time, they\u2019d be sitting across from one another for a meal during a 2015 episode of Bourdain\u2019s CNN food programme, Parts Unknown. <\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have thought back then in my dorm room, all those years later, I\u2019d be eating healthy with Iggy Pop,\u201d the host said in a voiceover during the episode, \u201cBarbecue shrimp for the \u2018Godfather of Punk\u2019; I get wild and crazy with some roast pork. A little white wine: our only tilt toward the debauches of past lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

During their conversation at a restaurant in Miami, Bourdain called Pop a \u201ctemplate for other rock stars\u201d and wondered, after a lifetime full of incredible experiences and adventures, what still \u201cthrills\u201d the former Stooge, to which the frontman responded, \u201cThe nicest stuff right now, and this is very embarrassing, but it\u2019s being loved, and actually appreciating the people who are giving that to me\u201d.<\/p>\n

Those words feel considerably more profound with the knowledge that just three years later, Anthony Bourdain would take his own life at the age of 61. Iggy Pop, now 79, the madman who\u2019d inspired Bourdain<\/a> as a kid, ultimately found peace and contentment in his life that one of his biggest fans, sadly, never quite could.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> The Far Out Classic Rock Newsletter<\/p>\n

All the latest Classic Rock content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Anthony Bourdain Instagram Sat 22 August 2026 21:30, UK \u201cAs a red-blooded American child, I always wanted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1164103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3940],"tags":[91533,259729,23348,72021,4080,66422,30365,6492,77,176786,203257,50292,30929,7413,46627,315960,50293,16,15],"class_list":["post-1164102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-1970s","tag-259729","tag-anthony-bourdain","tag-blue-u00d6yster-cult","tag-celebrities","tag-classic-rock","tag-concerts","tag-detroit","tag-entertainment","tag-hard-rock","tag-iggy-and-the-stooges","tag-iggy-pop","tag-kiss","tag-live-music","tag-punk-rock","tag-the-mc5","tag-the-stooges","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117142563633508629","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1164102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1164103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1164102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1164102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1164102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}