New review I ran across from the Saginaw News, late January, 1970
Stooges Delight big crowd at Den
By PRUDIE De MERCURIO
A strange dance, loud electric music, a frightening haunting voice.
This is what brought a large crowd to Daniel's Den on Jan. 17.
The Stooges opened up the Den Saturday night dances - and when they open they open. It was hard to decide what was more entertaining - watching The Stooges or the crowd. If you have ever seen The Stooges, you know the main reason they keep the crowd so fascinated is lead singer Iggy Pop, better known as Iggy Stooge. Iggy dances around the stage to Iggy music, singing Iggy lyrics, scaring Iggy fans.
So many people concentate on Iggy and his contortions they don't realize The Stooges have improved 100 percent in the last year. Musically The Stooges have gone heavily into the contemporary hard rock of today. Nevertheless Iggy, as usual, stole the show.
Their set was composed of all new songs to be on their next album, possibly entitled 'See that Boy.'
The Ann Arbor group members agreed Saginaw has one of the nicest crowds they've had.
Ray Silver, The Stooges' manager, defined the groups performance as intimate contact with an audience.
"The Stooges play simple, different, straight-forward music," Silver explained. "Each time they play it's an experience as exciting for the band as for the audience. If the audience feels, the band can feel. They liked what they had with the audience here, Daniel's Den is nice, the kids are unspoiled. We play different shows to different crowds."
Here are some comments from members of the group.
Said Iggy, "The music obsessed me. I'm real - not a fake."
And he praised the Den audience.
Bass player Dave Alexander said he's satisfied to play in the background.
Ron Asheton, lead guitarist, said he felt rushed during the show and did not enjoy the equipment problems which confronted him. Ron, like the others, said he Saginaw audience was especially nice.
Scott Asheton drums for the group.
For the Iggy fans, he writes the music and lyrics for his dance, likes Saginaw people and will be at the Sherwood Forest in February.
It seems nearly everyone likes The Stooges.
Randy Hurry, 17, of Mackinaw Street, said, "they were outta sight."
He liked the music and the entire performance.
Sue Ruthenbeck, 16, enthusiastically said, "I really dig The Stooges, their performance was really good."
Sue thinks the contact that Iggy has with the audience helps her relate to the music.
"Musically they were a lot better than they ever were," said 19-year old Bob Schell. "I think the audience was too concerned with the scare and the stage act to really appreciate the good performance. If you can get into the lyrics it helps you get into the whole band."
Iggy calls his stage performance a facility of expression. Most people call it weird. Call it what you like, it's effective and spelling success for The Stooges everywhere they perform. If you take your eyes off of Iggy for awhile and listen to the music you will find it very good.
Performing along with The Stooges was Half-Life. Guitarist Jim Nash was ill so the group put on a three-man performance. Randy, Bob and Mark did an excellent job on all of their songs.
Frank J. Patrick, Den manager, felt the crowd was good considering the weather. He said the Stooges were good and he's working on bringing the MC5 back to town. When the crowd was asked about bringing the MC5 back it nearly went wild - I guess everybody's a Wayne Kramer fan.
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Subject: Stooge Review - Daniel's Den, 1970 
Tue Jul 21, 2009 7:03 am
How unusual is that.
Seems The Stooges weren't as "despised" as modern music critics often say they were.