PATTI SMITH AND HER BAND
Belfast Elmwood Hall 30th July 2004


I didn't expect Patti Smith to be quite as good as she was in London three years ago, which still ranks as one of my favourite shows ever. In fact this Belfast show was as good, despite the strangely subdued, seated venue of the Elmwood Hall. What made it special for me was not just the intimacy (I was in the fifth row and she frequently stepped off stage into the crowd), but the fact she played stunning versions of 'Birdland' and '25th Floor'. An unexpected bonus came in my first hearing of the recent songs from 'Trampin', an album which I seem to have overlooked.
The band are the same as before - original Patti Smith Group members Jay Dee Daugherty and Lenny Kaye augmented by Tony Shanahan and Oliver Ray. I never noticed how much Tony contributes to the group, his faithful keyboard parts are superb as are his Jeff Buckley-style harmonies on 'Beneath the Southern Cross'.
Tonight the band build things up. It all starts so quietly with Patti coming on stage carrying a sunflower and easing her way into 'Trampin' from the new album, just her voice and Tony on the keyboards. It's clear from the outset that she's in great voice. This may be the last date of the tour but she sounds stronger than she did at her solo Belfast performance last year. She alludes to that performance in the Art College and the promise she made that night to return with the full band, laughing that the best place they could find for he to play in Belfast was a church. No-one has the heart to explain that this is no longer a church, we're happy to let her think what she likes, it's that kind of night!
Now she's 57 and we're cramped together in a seated venue, you might expect things to stay mellow throughout. Old classics 'Privilege - Set Me Free' and 'Break it up' prove she's going to be in crowd pleasing mode from the outset, and the first really special moment is that beautiful version of 'Beneath the Southern Cross'. Essentially a one-chord mantra, it's the first time they really step it up a gear, and the swirling, slightly dated, pyschedelic visuals start to play a part.
'In My Blakean Year' is another decent new one, it's a fairly straight forward Dylan-esque tune, then we get the first of her customary covers - this time it's 'Pale Blue Eyes', a great version and a nod to the influence of Lou Reed. One thing I notice that's different from the last time I saw her with the band is that tonight she has less of a tendency to look back to her heroes - there is more emphasis on her material, her new songs in fact, that she isn't that bothered about playing songs written by her heroes. The weight of history is still with her though, and the passionate 'Gandhi' sees her going walkabout in the crowd, bellowing at the top of her lungs and trying to fire up the crowd. It certainly works and a magnificent 'Free Money' sees the seats forgotten about. Summer Cannibals and Because the Night are more crowd-pleasers, surprising for some that she played her biggest hit as it was co-written with Springsteen, but she's actually done it every time I've seen her! The highlight for me was 'Birdland' on which the band and Patti really peak, Patti donning specs and reading the story from her own book as her musicians feel their way around it. She loses the glasses and picks up a guitar for '25th Floor' which is as alive and passionate as it was 27 years ago.
'People have the Power' gets us back to more staight forward stuff, and 'Mother Rose' is a fitting gentle end to a great set. It goes without saying that the encore is the full version of 'Gloria', it had to be really, this town is where the song was born and Patti always did the best version of it.
Set-list collectors will quibble about what she did and didn't play, but that's not really the issue. There are a few songs I would have happily swapped out of the set, but Patti is a performer, her band are the perfect foil for her, and for my money this is one of the best live music experiences you might ever have.

PATTI SMITH
London Hackney Ocean 23 July 2001
I have waited many years to see Patti Smith, and due to the act that she has been 'retired' for most of my music-listening life, I had reason to believe that I might never see her. Since her return to live work in 1995, I've never been in the right place when she has been playing one of her sporadic gigs. Until tonight that is.
She has always revelled in the power of symbol and suggestion, and the scene is set by a very loud intro tape heavily featuring Jimi Hendrix (one of her earliest inspirations), the stage covered in candles and Indian rugs and the backdrop illuminated by some of William Blake's art (a more recent inspiration).
When she takes the stage with her mighty version of the Byrds 'So You Want to be a Rock n Roll Star', it's nothing short of a revelation. She appears unassuming in jeans, tshirt and a jacket, her long hair now mostly grey, but she seems to have as much energy and stage presence as I had been led to believe. Waving to the crowd, spitting, and pushing the legendary Lenny Kaye to one side to take a rather freeform guitar solo! Some impressive new material lets the band get into their stride, old hands Lenny and JayDee Daugherty mixing with the newer recruits Oliver Rey and Tony Shanahan. It's impressive stuff, more than enough to show that she's still stretching herself, not content to trade on past glories. Speaking of which, 'Redondo Beach' is next, and although this tribute to androgyny and bisexuality is my least fave track on 'Horses', it's still a thrill to hear them do it.
A lot of Patti's shows these days have been solo, spoken word events, and she blends this in with her current band to perform the 'Holy' section from Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl'. Pretentious, I hear you cry, but the thing about Patti is that she can carry it off - she has the presence and the voice to breath new life into it, and even lightens things a little with her skronky Albert Ayler style clarinet playing and the mention of 'holy New York, holy LA, holy Chicago, holy Hackney!' I wouldn't have expected to hear 'Frederick' tonight, as it's about her now deceased husband Fred 'Sonic' Smith, but they play it with such passion that it becomes a tribute to him, easing effortlessly into the sombre 'Beneath the Southern Cross', the backdrop changing to become a sky full of stars.
'Summer Cannibals' is one of her more recent poppier outings, accompanied by specially shot film of Patti in the studio with Tom Verlaine and Thurston Moore, and it's followed by more iconography as she does the Stones 'The Last Time' with footage of the young Mick and Keith behind her.
Things are brought bang up to date with the epic 'Gung Ho', the title track of the recent album, and one of the most powerful songs she has ever done. The stage is dripping with imagery - Vietnamese flags, war footage, as the song just builds and builds, finally segueing into the catchier protest song 'People Have the Power'. In the light of what happened in Genoa a few days before this show, it's clear that the work of this 55-year-old woman is still hugely relevant. That would almost be enough for a normal show, but the best is still to come. A William Blake reading leads into a fine version of 'Dancing Barefoot' - the visuals change to a really engaging black and white ballet film, while Patti goes walk about and gets barefoot to the extent that one lucky punter at the front gets to go home with her socks!
Staying with her pop singles she then launches into 'Because the Night', which even the people who've been dragged along recognise. Co-written with Bruce Springsteen, it's the most straight forward rock moment of the show, and really lifts the crowd. There was only one way she could top that, and sure enough an astonishing version of 'Gloria' finishes the main part of the set. You know the way bands reform and play their old songs and they're not quite as good as they were, well this version of 'Gloria' is as magnificent as the one on 'Horses'. Damn, I didn't expect it to be this good!
After nearly two hours, it's encore time. First up is a stunning version of Nirvana's 'Heart Shaped Box'. Although Patti's newer stuff owes a lot to Nirvana, (and she wrote 'About a Boy' as a tribute to Kurt) I've always found it a strange connection, but in her own distinct way she spits out the words and makes the song her own. More venom for 'Pissing in the River', one of the first Patti songs I ever heard, and every bit as dramatic and spine-tingling as the recorded version. Finally, and brilliantly, we get an updated 'Babelogue' (the audience rising to the occasion, just like the version on 'Easter') drifting into a supercharged 'Rock n Roll Nigger'. I mean she even shouts "Lenny!" and he sings his bit JUST LIKE THE ORIGINAL!!! In her own extremely powerful way she turns it into a tirade against George Bush and a tribute to the protests in Genoa - "outside of society" and all that. She still knows how to work a crowd.
For the first ninety minutes or so, this was shaping up to be one of the gigs of the year, but the last half hour made it the BEST GIG I'VE EVER SEEN bar none, I was absolutely in awe of what was going on. It couldn't have been any better (except for the second night, when they did 'Birdland' - ha!).