Do Yourself a Favor and Watch a Shirtless Michael Shannon Cover Iggy Pop on Stage
We’re eight days into the new year and I’m both pleased and saddened to inform you that 2018 has officially peaked. We’ve had two legendary awards acceptances speeches, from Oprah’s shattering Golden Globes speech on Sunday to Tiffany Haddish’s 18-minute speech last week, and today we have been graced with the single greatest video in existence: Michael Shannon covering an Iggy Pop song shirtless. It’s not gonna get much better than this, folks.
A video surfaced online over the weekend of everyone’s favorite eccentric character actor/the best red carpet dresser cosplaying the punk icon. And if you thought the Shape of Water actor was merely singing an Iggy Pop song into a microphone passively, oh my are you wrong. Shannon gallops around the stage shirtless (of course), flailing his arms in circles, rubbing his chest, and singing his heart out. And not without playing the cowbell. It’s utterly glorious and if a studio doesn’t hire Shannon to portray Iggy Pop in an eventual biopic I will protest.
While it’d be fair to assume Shannon simply stumbled into a concert and randomly decided to hop up on stage with a cover band, this was actually a planned affair. Shannon was invited as a guest by band Sons of the Silent Age. Last Friday was their sixth annual David Bowie tribute concert and charity event hosted at Metro in Chicago – today is actually his birthday so go breakout a Bowie record to soundtrack your Monday. This year’s theme was “Berlin trilogy,” so rightly the band asked Shannon to come play Iggy Pop on stage. This should come as no surprise, as Shannon already showed off his A+ karaoke skills on Jimmy Fallon last year. Please treat yourself to him performing “Lust for Life” in its entirety above. Then, if you want need more, below is Shannon covering The Stooges’ “Down on the Street.”