By now, the story of the Stooges should be familiar: Between 1969 and 1972, the Stooges recorded three near-perfect albums: The Stooges, Fun House, and Raw Power. The band broke up after being dropped from their label in 1974. After nearly 30 years, the band reunited for the Coachella festival in 2003, with Minutemen frontman Mike Watt replacing the deceased Dave Alexander on bass. Since then, the band has played numerous shows, mostly large festivals (including Bumbershoot in 2005). Earlier in the year, they released The Weirdness, their first record in 35 years. The band is in the midst of a tour to support the album, which includes tonight's stop at WaMu Theater.

Last week, as Dana blogged about here, frontman Iggy Pop turned 60 years old, yet this tour does not seem like a nostalgia concert for some aging band of yesteryear reunited for large sums of money (although they are making tons of it). The band rocks almost as much as it did 35 years ago. I say "almost" because then Iggy (known at the time as "Iggy Stooge") was notorious for writhing around on stage amongst shards of broken glass and walking off-stage covered in blood. Today, the band still plays hard, driving punk that's only a little bit milder than in the late 60s and early 70s.

Tonight's set will likely draw from their first two albums (The Stooges and Fun House) and The Weirdness. A cover story in the April issue of Harp magazine explains that there were too many bad memories from Raw Power to continue playing its songs (which includes one of the Stooges most well-known songs: "Search and Destroy"). While the new album lacks the immediacy and the urgency of its predecessors and is ultimately a disappointment, the band's live shows (from what I remember of Bumbershoot and have seen on television), are loud, raw, and powerful.

So go pay your respects. And double-check to make sure you haven't forgotten earplugs.