Iggy Pop-Kiss my Blood: Live at the Olympia '91 (1991)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Discography Trailer-Iggy Pop- Jesus? This Is Iggy, Jimi Hendrix - Rainbow Bridge
Rating
Year Of Production	1991
Running Time	110:01 (Case: 107)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Tim Pope
Studio Distributor	Revenge Video Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Iggy Pop Whitey Kirst Craig Pike Larry Mullins
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

“I would rather be a real dog than a ****ing scumbag rockstar”

    Iggy Pop (born James Newell Osterberg, Jr.) burst into the public spotlight as lead singer of The Stooges, a band heralding from Michigan widely regarded as being a pioneer of the emerging 1960’s punk movement. Iggy and The Stooges became infamous for their stage (and off-stage) antics which included nudity, verbal and physical abuse, self mutilation and the unusual use of household products as homemade instruments. The Stooges, and Iggy in particular, were an obvious inspiration for the confrontational stage antics of subsequent performers such as the late GG Allin and Suicide. Following Iggy’s descent into heroin addiction The Stooges disbanded, having enjoyed only moderate commercial success. A second reincarnation of The Stooges, largely facilitated by David Bowie, saw the landmark album Raw Power released – an album which many consider to be a cornerstone of 1970’s punk rock.

    Following The Stooges (mark 2) breaking up in 1974, Iggy turned again to Bowie for inspiration, eventually moving to West Berlin in an effort to overcome his chronic drug addiction. The subsequent collaborations with Bowie provided perhaps his best albums in The Idiot and Lust For Life, with solo albums continuing to be released regularly to the present day. Unlike many of his compatriots Iggy seems to have reached his 7th decade of life in remarkably good shape – under the circumstances an achievement perhaps more attributable to good genes than good judgement.

    The Kiss My Blood concert DVD is taken from a performance at the Olympia music hall in Paris, March 1991. Iggy would have been 43 years old at the time however “middle” age certainly had not subdued the “wild child” of rock. In trademark ripped jeans and bare torso Iggy cracks across the stage like a stockman’s whip, only stopping long enough to harangue the audience who are anticipating the abuse like coke addicts eyeing a line of “snow”. Iggy’s band, looking rather more like heavy metal pioneers than punk rockers, maintain a forceful and commanding accompaniment to Iggy’s flailing body and vocals. They, along with the camera operators, security personnel and nearby audience members need to maintain vigilance to avoid being cleaned up by microphones, stands and guitars flying through the air as Iggy spins and whirls like a dervish. Fortunately the only blood that is spilled on this night is his own – later licked up by some helpful members of the crowd. In a somewhat touching moment Iggy draws an enthusiastic female (of course) audience member onto the stage with whom he in turn chats, sings to, and dances with for quite some time. Grave concerns might have been held for her moral safety, especially when Iggy decided that he would perform I Wanna be Your Dog and No Fun sans clothes. Fortunately, however, she appears to survive the experience unscathed and is probably still dining out on her brush with fame to this day.

    Iggy Pop could be dismissed as just another foul mouthed, drug affected punk who has refused to grow old gracefully – but that would be a huge disservice to the man. Punk, and Iggy Pop, grew out of the frustrations of disenfranchised youth and the music is just as relevant today as it was 40 years ago. Iggy is a master performer and his songs, energy, and idiosyncratic showmanship as showcased in this DVD is arguably unmatched by anyone in this genre before or since.

    Highly recommended for those not easily offended.

Video

    The video transfer is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio as per the original source. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

    As you’d probably expect for a 20 year old recording the video quality is not outstanding but it is nevertheless quite acceptable. There are minimal film artefacts although a sequence at around 50:46 displayed some instances that were noticeable. The overall look of the concert is quite grainy with mpeg macro-blocking evident, low level noise and crushed blacks. Colours however were vibrant and smearing was minimal considering the handicap of stage lighting. Some of the camera work itself was unintentionally shaky – probably due to the hazards evident on stage. Segments shot from within the audience were of “bootleg” quality but did convey the mayhem in sections of the crowd. These “bootleg” inserts seemed to have been shot deliberately judging by the end credits.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The DVD cover boasts a digitally remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack however I found that the results, while technically 5.1, were basically 2.0 with minimal output coming from the centre and surrounds. Subwoofer activity was there – but not as pounding as expected for this type of performance. The audio encoding was at 448 kilobits per second.

    The dialogue was occasionally difficult to understand – largely due to Iggy’s delivery rather than through a recording defect. There were no significant problems with audio synchronisation.

    Surrounds, although evident with close listening, were not used significantly.

    The subwoofer was underutilised for what should have been a thumping bass.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu was static with no music.

Discography

    A selected discography of album releases ranging from 1969 to 2003.

Umbrella Propaganda

    Trailers for the following DVDs are included. These are presented at 1.33:1 aspect ratio with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio at 448 Kb/s.

• Iggy Pop - Jesus? This Is Iggy
• Jimi Hendrix - Rainbow Bridge

    This release appears identical to the region 1 offering.

    Kiss My Blood provides a compelling demonstration of the talent, intensity and manic personality that is Iggy Pop. If swearing, minor bloodletting, full frontal male nudity and highly suggestive lyrics aren’t your thing then best give this a miss. If you want to see a great performance by a true legend and survivor of punk rock then pick up a copy of Kiss My Blood now.

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is good.

    You can skip the extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall