Iggy Pop is so much cooler than anyone else, it makes you wonder why anyone even bothers trying.

Twenty minutes into Iggy Pop’s Good Friday show at Bluesfest, we heard that iconic, thumping drumbeat that opens his most iconic solo hit, 1977’s ‘Lust For Life’.

This, in and of itself, was nothing special. Of course he was gonna play it.

But given that we’d just witnessed the punk rock icon – who turns 72 this weekend – tear through ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’, ‘Gimme Danger’ and ‘The Passenger’, it was all starting to feel a bit overwhelming. How long could he keep this up?

Of course, Iggy was just getting started. Across over 90 minutes, the Godfather of Punk whipped this audience into frenzy after frenzy after frenzy after frenzy.

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The setlist was geared to pleasing as many people as possible.

It was jam-packed with The Stooges’ most enduring proto-punk classics – a mammoth ‘Search and Destroy’, an unrelenting ‘TV Eye’ (during which Iggy pegs his microphone stand across the stage; the most beautifully brazen rock’n’roll move anyone will ever perform on this stage) and the almost unbearable double-play of ‘1969 into ‘No Fun’.

Almost all of his biggest solo moments got an airing as well, which meant numerous nods to his close friend and collaborator David Bowie.

Firstly, there was the story of ‘Some Weird Sin’, Bowie stole one of Iggy’s poems and made him record it.

Then a faithful rendition of Bowie’s ‘The Jean Genie’, and The Idiot highlights ‘Nightclubbing’ and ‘Mass Production’, the latter a deep, dark, spooky-sounding cut that served as a middle-finger to anyone who doubted Iggy’s relevance at a blues festival.

There was nothing bland about this show. Even Iggy’s patter between songs should be taught in schools.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” he hollered into the microphone at one stage, as he sipped red wine from a crystal chalice.

The crowd – which ranged from young children to people well into their 70s – hung on every word, move and note that came from that stage. Keeping our eye on Iggy was as exhausting as moving to every beat of his incendiary songs. I’d say it was all over too soon, but as he finished on 'Real Wild Child (Wild One)', it felt astonishing that this force of nature was still in full flight.

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His age and stamina is not what makes the Iggy Pop show such an incredible experience though. Looking at photos of his skinny, wrinkled torso writhing about, it’d be easy to discount this as some kind of nostalgic novelty act. But this is not so. This was a rock’n’roll show as pure and exhilarating as they come. The kind of rock show that makes you realise why you fell in love with this music in the first place.

As we breathlessly stumbled out of the Crossroads tent, it felt like we’d witnessed one of the truly great sets of Bluesfest’s 30-year existence.

Iggy Pop is a living treasure. To celebrate that with him is nothing short of a joy and a privilege. His set was a salient reminder that we need not grow old quietly and that quality rock’n’roll can sound as dangerous and refreshing 50 years on if it’s coming from the right place.

I’d say that we can all hope to be as cool as him at his age, but the truth is that we have never stood a chance.

This might be the last time we see Iggy Pop, it might not. It doesn’t matter to him; he’s played every show like its his last for half a century.

Iggy Pop plays Melbourne’s Festival Hall on Sunday 21 April.