At first the idea of  “sweatin’ it” at Sweat Records was fun. But that was back in March, when the A/C at the record store-come-hipster meet-up-come cupcake and coffee shop had just gone on the fritz. Plus, the weather was still kind of cool. Six months on, the joke is beginning to wilt in the summer heat.

So comes Iggy Pop to the rescue. Miami’s adopted rock star/iconoclast agreed to let the little record shop that could offer up limited edition t-shirts bearing his rugged mug at a benefit concert where — well, Iggy didn’t perform, but he did peer down beatifically from his perch in a loft above the dance floor in the art and studio/performance space Awarehouse.

He even descended for a few minutes to watch Francesco LoCastro paint a triple-portrait: here’s Iggy looking straight on; no, he’s looking left; no, he’s swinging right. The punk god stood staring with pretty much the same look on his face as he’s wearing on the t-shirt, while nearly everyone (yes, me too) in the two long lines for the bathroom whipped out some kind of camera to get a shot.

Meanwhile, the Jacuzzi Boys tried to get right onstage in front of a mostly immobile crowd. Later Awesome New Republic alternately thrashed and noodled about to a slightly less immobile crowd (major points for the face paint, ANR). Perhaps to remind us what this was all about — air conditioning! — the Awarehouse kept the artificial chill to a minimum, leaving fans sticky and stuck.

There was a ripple of excitement through the crowd when a man in a red suit with a yellow lightbulb head marked Bad Brilliance bopped by. Just about then, ANR covered Iggy’s song “Nightclubbing.” Up in the shadowy loft, the punk eminence smiled.