Re: Patti - Meltdown - Horses - 25 June 2005

[Andrew F Wilson <andrewfwilson>]

Patti Smith / John Cale
Royal Festival Hall, London 

By Adam Sweeting
The Guardian, Monday, 27 June 2005 

This was probably the most keenly anticipated event of Patti Smith's
Meltdown festival on the South Bank: the night Smith and her band
would give the first ever complete performance of her 1975 debut
album, Horses.

The Festival Hall is getting used to this sort of thing, having hosted
Brian Wilson's Pet Sounds and Smile. However, this could hardly have
been further removed from Wilson's elaborate pop symphonies, since
Smith approaches live performance as a series of launch pads that
might take her anywhere. She is not capable of delivering an exact
replica of a previous performance, although she had made a point of
wearing the black jacket, white shirt and skinny tie from Horses'
original album sleeve.

Events didn't run with digital precision, but when Smith felt the
breeze of inspiration ruffling her feathers, she surrendered to the
moment and leaped into space. "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not
mine," she drawled - possibly the best opening line since they
invented the phonograph - and then pumped up the pressure until the
band erupted ecstatically into Van Morrison's Gloria (less a cover
version than a hostile takeover). Birdland, hauntingly introduced by
Tony Shanahan's piano and fired up by Lenny Kaye's wah-wah guitar, was
like a big sky under which Smith could unfurl her free-flowing
imagery, while Free Money was short, sharp and exhilarating.

On the other hand, Redondo Beach felt thin and undercooked, while
Break It Up never managed to make itself big enough for the occasion.
But the climactic performance of Land was Smith in excelsis, raging
and cajoling before circling back to Gloria. She was so wired up that
she rushed off stage and forgot to sing the last track, Elegie.

On any other night, the opening set by John Cale (who produced Horses)
would have been momentous in itself. He plucked pungent morsels from
his back catalogue and revisited 2003's HoboSapiens album before
ending with the vast electrical storm of Gun and Pablo Picasso.
Curiously, in a Meltdown seething with spontaneous collaborations, he
did not join Smith on stage.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/reviews/story/0,,1515510,00.html