The greatest concert Anthony Bourdain ever attended: “It was 1973”

A Far Out Magazine piece revisits chef and broadcaster Anthony Bourdain's account of the best concert he ever saw: a New Year's Eve show in New York in 1973, when he was 17. Bourdain later recalled the bill as featuring Iggy and the Stooges alongside Blue Öyster Cult, Teenage Lust and a then-unknown Kiss, and the gig left a lasting impression on him as a lifelong fan of the raw Detroit sound of the Stooges and MC5.

Bourdain misremembered some details, including the venue's name; the concert actually took place at New York's Academy of Music rather than the Paramount Theatre, and Blue Öyster Cult headlined rather than the Stooges. A contemporary Melody Maker review by Chris Charlesworth described Kiss opening with a fiery pyrotechnic display that injured an audience member, and found the Stooges' set unremarkable enough to leave early, missing Blue Öyster Cult entirely. Bourdain, by contrast, was captivated by the Stooges, whose music he associated with rebellion and a break from conventional society during his teenage years.