All the Concerts Fit to Print

The 50th anniversary of Patti and Lenny working together was on February 10th, so they put on a little online show to celebrate. They played some songs, and told some stories about the old days. Tony accompanied on bass and keyboards.

"Ballad of A Bad Man" was a poem she read that night at St. Mark's Church. Lenny accompanied her, then and now. Patti described his playing as impressions of a stock car race. I think this has been repeated, but changing it to "imitation of a stock car race," or "sounds of a stock car race." At least that's how I'd heard the story in the past.



Setlist:
Redondo Beach
Pale Blue Eyes
Birdland
Ghost Dance
World Book Night (written, played and sung by Lenny, in honor of World Book Night)
A poem by Jean-Luc Godard as intro to
Seneca
Southern Cross
Strange Messengers
Ballad of a Bad Man
Notes for the Future (excerpts read as intro to)
Broken Flag

The show was 70 minutes long.

After Patti's goofy New Years Eve show, this one was serious. She did Horses straight through. She even mentioned between songs, that the story she was telling us was not on the album. :-)

She started the show with one of the all-time greats - Gloria. I was dismayed to see the audients sit down when the song started. What?! How can you sit for that one!

Back in the nineties, I picked up the album to find out what Patti was about. I didn't even really know what she sounded like. I wasn't sure what to make of it. It didn't really do anything for me. I played it again the next day, and I kinda liked "Redondo Beach". But I picked up the energy of "Land". So I played it again and Gloria hit me. Hard. There was so much energy and abandon, it was amazing. The song does it to me every time. But this time I had to sit. I couldn't believe it.

This was by far the biggest place I've ever seen her, and the only one where people remained seated. Of course, I'm always down front where there are not seats, and I never look back at the sections with seating. She said that the show wasn't sold out, but there weren't very many empty seats, as far as I could tell.

Predictably, there were a lot of old people in the crowd (meaning, older than me), but there were a lot of young people in the crowd - 20's and 30's.

Patti was her usual tolerant-to-a-point self. Some guy came up to the edge of the stage to take a photo, and it didn't seem to bother her, but later on the guy did it again, and there seemed to be some sort of altercation between him and someone else. So Patti told a story about some guy getting thrown in jail for trying to film a documentary, and ended it with a complaint about people who miss the show because "they're fucking filming it." Later, she complained about the stage not being a garbage can, and she threw people's crap off it - shoes and socks, apparently. Later, she seemed a bit conciliatory about her outburst, and said that we shouldn't do that because she already does it. One person is bad enough.

The date was March 9th. That is a pivotal date to Patti. 38 years ago, her midwest tour passed through Milwaukee (the last time she was here), and a few days later, in Detroit, she met her future husband, Fred "Sonic" Smith, on March 9th. And in 1989, that's the date that Robert Mapplethorpe died. This time, Mayor Barret proclaimed March 9th, Patti Smith Day. She brought the framed certificate to the show and displayed it on the drum riser. She was tickled by it, and at the end of the show, she was almost offstage before she remembered it and went back to get it.

She had a few stories about the music. "Break It Up" was for Jim Morrison. It was spurred by a dream she'd had about him. "Elegie" was written (with Allen Lanier) in memory of Jimi Hendrix. Near the end of the song, she named artists and loved ones who had died. After Horses, they did three songs that had a connection to her late husband, Fred. "Frederick," of course, and two songs that were written while he was away, including "Because the Night." "Ghost Dance" was dedicated to Standing Rock. She had printed lyrics for "Birdland". The encore was "My Generation." Just Tony Shanahan was about to break into the bass solo, at the point on the record where she yelled "John Cale!", she said "happy birthday John Cale!" It was, in fact, Cale's birthday.

A review of the previous night's Mpls show said "Another highlight in the later portion of the performance was the song “Citizen Ship,” which Smith dusted off for the first time in decades and souped up with additional emphasis on the song’s anti-wall, pro-refugee message." I didn't notice the change of lyrics, but that one's a favorite of mine, so it was good to hear. She hadn't played it in almost ten years? Politics was in full swing, of course. "Donald Trump is 70! I'm fucking 70!" "Now is the time for us to misbehave. We must misbehave in a loving way." And of course, "People Have the Power."

After "Break It Up," she had the album in her hands, and explained that now we had to pick up the record, turn it over, put it down on the turntable, bring the arm over and put it in the groove...

The band was Patti, Lenny, Jay Dee, Tony and Patti's son, Jackson Smith. Through Horses, Tony played keyboards and Jackson played bass. But for a couple of songs, Lenny played bass and Jackson guitar. For Elegie, Jay Dee came out to play bass. For the second half, Tony mostly played bass, and Jackson played guitar.

Horses Set
1. "Gloria: In Excelsis Deo"
2. "Redondo Beach"
3. "Birdland"
4. "Free Money"
5. "Kimberly"
6. "Break It Up"
7. "Land:"
8. "Elegie"
End of Horses set
9. "Ghost Dance"
Fred "Sonic" Smith Tribute Set
10. "Dancing Barefoot"
11. "Frederick"
12. "Because the Night"
End of "Sonic" Smith Tribute
13. "Citizen Ship"
14. "People Have the Power"
Encore
15. "My Generation" (the Who cover)







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Patti is a must-see. We drove down into Chicago on a weeknight. The show was at The Vic, just off of Belmont. The Vic is an old theater, not quite as ornate as many from that era. The main floor was standing room, on three levels. I was a little surprised to hear Patti was on tour, since her latest album was released a year ago. There was, of course, a majority of older people, but there was a wide variety of ages and style.

Her band included Lenny (guitar, bass), Jay Dee (drums), Tony (bass, keyboards, guitar) and Jack Petrocelli (guitar, bass).

The show started slow, with "Kimberly" and "April Fool". The tempo picked up gradually, to "Free Money". The next song, "Fuji San," started low and ominous, in low light, and then picked up the pace. "This is the Girl" and "We Three" are also low-key songs. She got the Chicago dogs in the audience to bark and howl during "Banga". "Beneath the Southern Cross" was one of my favorites of the night. Trancelike. Was that the one that Jack was tearing it up, at the end? Lenny led a garage rock medley of The Blues Magoos, the Strangeloves, The Heartbreakers and The Seeds. That's always fun. They closed out the main set with "Land" and "Gloria". They got partway into "La Mer" (of "Land")... I was really getting into the groove, when they broke into "Gloria." That threw me off. The two songs have a similar amount of energy, but it's a totally different groove. Let's just say "Land" is side-to-side, and "Gloria" is up and down.

They came back from the break with "People Have the Power". That's one of her clean, up-tempo uplifting songs. Then they closed the show with "Babelogue/Rock N Roll Nigger", which is rough and rocking. An interesting combination, but they were both great.

Patti was her usual self. She was really happy to be there. She loves Chicago. She was annoyed with the audience, at time. She "slit her wrists" and sent the blood out to a particular audient who was screaming. Patti said that with her blood she would be healed of her gratuitous screaming. Late in the show, some guy upstairs yelled out something about "... motorcycle... for the love of God!" Strange request. Patti said she had no idea what that meant. And then said, "but if it's for the love of God, I'll do it." She attracts some weirdos, I guess. Someone asked her what's her most favorite song. She said "Stay" by Rihanna. Laughter from the audience. She felt she had to prove it, and recited the lyrics. In her theatrical style. All along it was a fever/A cold sweat hot-headed believer/I threw my hands in the air I said show me something/He said, if you dare come a little closer. She did some more of it after that next song.





Kimberly
April Fool
Redondo Beach
Free Money
Fuji-san
Banga
This Is the Girl
Ghost Dance
Beneath the Southern Cross
Night Time/(We Ain't Got) Nothing Yet/Born to Lose/Pushin' Too Hard
We Three
Because the Night
Pissing in a River
Land
Gloria

Encore:
People Have the Power
Babelogue/Rock N Roll Nigger

Seems like it could have been a little longer, lasting about an hour forty-five, but it was a great show nonetheless.

Patti Smith was at the Barrymore Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin on August 5th. Patti likes to come to Madison after her Chicago shows so she has a whole afternoon to wander around town. While we were eating at the diner across the street, we saw her guitarist, Lenny Kaye, wander up and down the street.

Cyn and I got there early, so we could have our pick of seats, since she hadn't been feeling too well lately. We decided that we'd go up front, up against the stage, rather than take seats. The last time we saw them, we were on stage right, in front of the bassist and second guitarist. It was extremely loud there, so this time we took stage left, in front of Lenny. Patti's mic was set up slightly to that side anyway, and Lenny's pretty cool anyway, so that was a good place to be. We were about ten feet from each of them, for most of the show. Cyn was up against the stage with me behind her. The only problem with being so close, is that we didn't get much sound from the PA. We could hear the drums clearly, and the guitars, since the amps were behind the musicians, but Patti didn't have an onstage amp, so we could usually only hear her somewhat muddy voice from the house behind us. Same for keyboards. It wasn't much of a problem, though. Only once did we have much trouble understanding her. Sometimes we could hear her without her mic. Sometimes I could hear the click of Lenny's pick on his strings when he was tuning up between songs.

The show is billed as "Patti Smith and Her Band." This is:
herself, vocals, she played guitar on "Beneath the Southern Cross" and played clarinet on a song ("Are You Experienced?", maybe?).
Lenny Kaye, guitars, mostly. He sang lead on one song, backing vocals on several, and played bass on one song.
Jay Dee Daugherty, drums. He and Lenny are her last remaining original bandmembers.
Tony Shanahan, bass, guitar a couple of times (including lead once).
Jackson Smith, guitars. This is Patti's son. At least I think that's who that was. He was never introduced.
Did Lenny and Tony swap instruments for "Gimme Shelter"? I forget which song that was.

Her latest album is a collection of cover songs called Twelve. She did eight of those. I was impressed by just about all of them. One that I didn't care for ("Everybody Wants to Rule the World"), sounds much better on the album. They did a smokin' version of the Doors' "Soul Kitchen." One of the first covers they did was an excellent reworking of Hendrix's "Are You Experienced." She led into "White Rabbit" with an amusing story about a rabbit she saw on her walk around town (Who is the statue outside the capitol building? This being Madison, I thought... nah, too easy.)They also did "Gimme Shelter", "Within You Without You" (Harrison), "Changing of the Guards" (Dylan) and "Smells Like Teen Spirit." This last song was much softer, and more acoustic than the Nirvana original, but, like most of the covers on this record, has a dark edge.

She opened with "Kimberly" from her first album. Not a song I would expect to be an opener. The expected "Gloria" was in the encore. I don't remember all the other songs... "Space Monkey", early in the set, apparently by request from the guy next to us. "Southern Cross" and "Summer Cannibals" from Gone Again. "People Have the Power" and "Because the Night." That seems like a short list, but I can't think of any other songs they did - oh, Patti introduced Lenny, and went off to the side to take a seat on the edge of the stage. The band played The Seeds' "Pushin' too Hard." Lenny is a huge proponent of the old garage rock. Patti came back up on stage to sing the too hard backing vocals with Tony.

Being an intimate show - a venue of about a thousand people - the audience was able to interact. People would shout things a lot. Patti tried to play along, but I get the feeling that she doesn't really appreciate it. It sure is annoying to me, and it's not even my show. People don't realize it, but when they shout things, they're really trying to be part of the show. Front and center, there was a woman who asked Patti, "Patti, are you going to feed our heads?" Personally, I'm rolling my eyes, but whatever. Patti says, "am I going to feed your cats?" The audience laughs, and the woman can no longer get her words heard. Patti went into a thing about feeding cats, and finally said, "I don't know what the hell you're talking about." The woman sounded upset and made some crack disparaging Patti's songs, then put her head down on the stage for the next few songs. WTF? And this guy behind me with the woos. Really fucking loud. All the freaking time. I half expected Patti to tell him to shut the hell up (though somewhat more politely).

There was a young girl near us in the audience. She was about chin-high to the stage. Patti came over at one point, sat down and talked to her and her mom for a little bit. She brought earplugs over to her a short time later. Late in the show, during "People have the Power," She came back over to teach the girl the double hand-clap. This woo guy squeezed up next to me and tried to get Patti to touch him. Patti was clapping, and this guy was poking at her hands. I slapped his arm and told him to knock it off. He continued, but stayed a few inches away from her. When Patti was done, she graciously shook his hand, but took pains to wipe and wash his sweat off of her hand. After the show, Lenny came over to shake the hand of the little girl. And no one else's.

Apparently, Tony's bass amp quit on him. He and the tech were running around all through "Within You Without You." They finally got a replacement hooked up at the end of the song. Tony didn't seem to be handling it well. He had some backing vocals that he had to do in between bouts of consternation and fiddling. Lenny made some accidental noise twice, while Patti was speaking. Once, he was trying to open a bottle of water, and hit his strings. Patti was happy to get through all nine verses of "Changing of the Guards" without a major fuck-up. At one point, Patti seemed to be trying to open her pants, as a little bit of theater for the song. I glanced over at Lenny, and he was doing this wide-eyed uh-oh thing. Seemed like he was looking right at me.

I got a ticket to see Patti Smith in Chicago, at the Riviera. The Riviera was an ornate old theater, but was pretty beat up. The plaster work was painted in purple, black and gold. They had removed all the seats on the main floor, so I was down front.

Patti had released a new album, after a long hiatus, in 1996, and had started to creep into my perception. R.E.M. had invited her to perform on their album, and a lot of artists were talking about her. Her debut album, Horses, in particular, was being pointed out as one of the greatest albums of all time. Eventually, I had to get it. It took a couple of listens, but I was hooked. Next, I got her post-hiatus Gone Again. It was very different from Horses, but I loved it too.

In 2000, she released an album and went on tour. I hadn't been aware of her on tour before that, so I was excited to get a chance to see her. I don't think I had Gung Ho at the time, but I probably had Peace and Noise by then. I'm surprised I heard about this Chicago show, at that time. I would have rather seen her on my birthday, two days later, in Madison, but maybe I already had plans that night.

Patti, guitarist Lenny Kaye, drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, bassist and keyboardist Tony Shanahan and guitarist Oliver Ray.

I can't honestly a say much in specific about the show, but it was fantastic. Looking at the setlist, it was a good combination of her hits (Because the Night, Dancing Barefoot, People Have the Power) and my favorites (Summer Cannibals, Land, Gloria, Redondo Beach). Land leading into Gloria, with the Band of Gypsies' "Machine Gun" in the between! She played her clarinet for "Spell" and read the words off of a music stand.

Setlist from setlists.pattismithlogbook.info/
One Voice, Lo and Beholden, Boy Cried Wolf, Spell, Dead City, Redondo Beach, Distant Fingers, Summer Cannibals, Beneath the Southern Cross, Ghost Dance, Because the Night, Don’t Say Nothing, Dancing Barefoot, About A Boy, Gone Pie, Free Money, Wild Leaves, Gung Ho, People Have the Power, Land/Machine Gun (Jimi Hendrix)/Gloria*

* with Jackson Smith on guitar. Gloria includes words from Gung Ho and Rock N Roll Nigger