Iggy Pop wasn't in the house at the Xponential Music Fest in Camden on Friday, but he was there in spirit. First, San Francisco rocker Chuck Prophet closed out his terrific set with "I'm Bored" ("I'm the Chairman of the bored, I'm a lengthy monologue, I'm livin' like a dog") from the Igster's 1979 album New Values.
Then, after Philadelphia's The War on Drugs' sneering singer Adam Granduciel led his four piece band that included keyboard player B.C. Camplight (pictured below) through a tour of the winningly verbose Wagonwheel Blues, Alejandro Escovedo got back down to Iggy business. Escovedo (that's him pictured above) brought along violinist Susan Voelz and cellist Brian Standefer, but his tight festival set mostly used those chamber rock elements to deepen a cranked up, propulsive wall of sound.
Real Animal, Escovedo's new album - produced by Tony Visconti, who helmed Iggy's The Idiot, along with David Bowie - is the Texan's hardest rocking, and strongest, offering in years. To bring it to a crescendo, he brought out Prophet, with whom he wrote several of Animal's songs, and did the title cut, which is a tribute to the untamed life force that is James Osterberg.
Friday night was the only night I made it out to the annual WXPN presented fest, which carried on through Sunday with the Spinto Band, Mutlu, Shelby Lynne and others. But it was enough to make me think the same things I always think when I go to a show at Wiggins Park. Such as: How come there aren't more shows there? Sure, it can be a bit of a logistical challenge to get to Camden on a shore traffic Friday night (though with no big Susquehanna Bank Center show next door it was easier this year). But as a grassy, tree lined venue with a picture postcard view of the Philadelphia skyline across the river, it could hardly make for a more inviting small festival setting. So, how come there aren't more shows there?
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