Sat. April 7

If you read the brief bio of the writer posted on this site, you know that Iggy & the Stooges played an important part in my young life. Their's was the sound of ferocity and energy. They were raw, decadent, unbridled. Has there ever been a better opening line than the one used in "Search and Destroy": "I'm a street-walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm/A runaway son of a nuclear A-Bomb/I am the world's forgotten boy/The one who searches to destroy." (Metallica saluted the Stooges with their "Seek & Destroy.") That pumped me up for high school baseball games, and has continued to motivate me over time. The Stooges, of course, broke up for all the usual reasons, and Iggy Stooge became Iggy Pop and soldiered on - sometimes successfully, sometimes not. He got a boost when punk came along and everyone cited the Stooges as a major influence. I saw him at the Paradise one December night, and was readying my thoughts for a Boston Globe review when news came - John Lennon had been shot. A change of course. Iggy's done too much to encapsulate here. (His "Lust for Life" is used as a luxrury ship line TV advertisement - they edit the line about "liquor and drugs.") Iggy reunited with the Stooges a few years back and played a low-amped gig at a local Newbury Comics. And now, they continue on as a band, with the disc "The Weirdness." So, at the Orpheum Saturday April 7 you can expect a hearty dose of that and classic. proto-punk songs from back in the day. Iggy should possess about the same percentage of body fat as ever - as close to zero as you can get and throw himself about with abandon. He probably won't roll around in peanut butter and broken glass. You've got to grow up a little, you know. Show starts at 7:30 Tickets: $45-$35.

1 Hamilton Place, 617-931-2000 livenation.com