Re: Patti - Meltdown - Horses - 25 June 2005

[Andrew F Wilson <andrewfwilson>]

This press had been building up tonight's concert at the Royal
Festival Hall as the must-have ticket of the summer, and there
certainly seemed to be a proportion of the audience who were there to
pose, rather than get into Patti's music.  As well as the people I see
regularly at Patti Smith performances, there were some who were
returning to Patti after an absence to see if their memories of the
70s were correct.  I'm not terribly good at celebrity spotting, so I
could only manage Tilda Swinton, Ed Harcourt and Paul Morley.  I
really like the Royal Festival Hall as a venue:  it's large, it's all
seated, and the sound and sight-lines are good from everywhere. 
However, I was in row H, so seeing what was happening was not at all
an issue.

John Cale took the stage with four other musicians (The Meatgrinders)
and sat down at his keyboard stage right.  He started with the
narrative song, The Jeweller, followed by Gideon's Bible, then a
languid, dreamy version of Hanky Panky Nohow.  Then an upbeat
crowd-pleaser, Ghost Story, and Over Her Head.  As the swirling,
drowning music built up, three more musicians came on stage, and the
lights flashed like the aftermath of a motorway pile-up.  A reasonable
metaphor, as we now had two guitars, two bass guitars, two keyboards,
drums, (and Cale still on keyboards).  As the concert continued the
density increased, achieving a Spector-style wall of sound.

Next was Caravan, then an excellent performance of Fear is a Man's
Best Friend, with its cod Boulez section in the middle and its insane
screaming climaxes.  The set continued with Letter From Abroad, sung
through a distorting microphone and with a trumpet coda by Flea, and
Gravel Drive.  Cale moved over to guitar and performed an excellent
version of Gun, which segued into a churning Pablo Picasso.  Despite
his tendency to look more and more like Terry Jones, Cale still has a
striking stage presence, and by the end of the final song most of the
audience seemed mesmerised.  Cale shouted "Nice ta see ya!  Good
night!" and was gone.  There was no encore.

After and interval and mounting anticipation, Patti Smith and her band
eventually came on stage, all dressed up to the nines for the occasion
(and presumably for the TV cameras).  Patti in black jacket, white
short and narrow tie, hair blow-dried to look shorter and bobbed.  The
applause was tremendous, the expectation immense, the atmosphere
electric.

The opening number was Gloria with Tony on grand piano and Flea on
bass.  It seemed surprisingly short to me and I wondered whether they
were trying to reproduce the Horses album to the extent even of the
length of each song.  But Redondo Beach started with the spoken
introduction, not on the record: "Redondo Beach is a beach where
women, love other women", so we were already veering away from the LP
as model for the concert.  So far, Patti had not spoken to the
audience, but at this point she broke off to reminisce about the
Indian restaurant in Birmingham, with a tree in the middle, that had
so impressed her in 2004.

Birdland was sung, as always, with a copy of Complete in hand.  A hot
and breathless performance, again with Tony on piano and Flea on bass.
 I love the way this ends now, with Lenny and Tony singing behind
Patti on "Sha da do wop da shaman do way".  Absolutely spine-tingling.

Someone called out to "turn it up".  Patti looked quizzical, then
elaborately mimed turning an imaginary knob in front of her.  It
really did sound better after that, somehow.

Free Money saw Tony on keyboards and Tom playing bass.  Patti now had
her jacket off and shirt untucked.  After the song she announced "Side
2!"  Lenny had now swapped his green Strat for a red Telecaster, as
they went into a sparse version of Kimberly.  I really love the way
the words of this song flood out, as if Patti needs to use all the
images as quickly as possible before they disappear.

Before Break It Up, Patti read the poem Notes, December 1974, which
explains the context of the song.  Lenny moved to bass, as Tony was
back on keyboards.  The performance built up gently until, by the time
Patti had reach the chest-pounding section, this had become a sublime
performance.  The version on the LP is surprisingly ragged towards the
end, and the live versions now generally surpass it in effectiveness.

There was a pause for a moment and someone called out "Patricia,
what's the problem?"  This prompted Patti to tell us a little about
her dental situation and dispense some advice to the audience:  "Just
trust me.  Take care of your teeth."  She then proceeded to explain
about the new boots she was wearing for the show.  "I have this boot
weakness, you see."  Remembering where she was for moment, Patti then
welcomed everyone to Meltdown 2005 and made a few political points. 
"We need a hundred million people to say - we don't need any more
fuckin' war".  Massive cheers.

After putting down a heckler, Patti eventually got started with Land,
starting with a water-cooler and ending with an anti-consumerism rant
against credit cards, blackberries and communication systems.  The
song started to take an unusual turn as Johnny picked up a ticket for
a party and strayed into the territory already occupied by Gloria,
then Land segued into Gloria (reprise).  This compensated for what I
thought to be a perfunctory Gloria at the start of the evening, as the
extended song drew in references to Tangier and the Portobello Road. 
Patti disappeared off stage and ran half way up the auditorium, and it
looked like the song might continue all night.  She eventually
returned, the audience went wild and the band left the stage.

The calls for an encore were long and loud, and the expectation was of
course that the encore would be Elegie.  But when the band eventually
returned, Patti explained that they should have already played Elegie,
but she had "forgotten".  The encore kicked off with possibly the
best, most passionate, most fluent reading of Piss Factory that I've
heard, followed by Pissing in a River with a beautiful solo by Lenny.

Patti decided to take her new boots off, and offered some more words
of wisdom: "Don't wear your new shoes to a real important job!"  She
wondered where Gumby has got to and Tom waved him at Patti.  She sang
We Three with Tony on keyboards and Lenny on bass.  It became clear
that we were not going to hear any songs from later than the 70s.

There was now a hiatus and Patti needed to kill time for a while.  It
was not clear if the TV crew has asked for a pause, or if it was for
another reason.  Tony disappeared for a moment and the crowd clearly
thought he was looking for John Cale.  Cale never materialised, but
Flea eventually appeared to play bass on a lively version of My
Generation.  This was a rare performance, as Patti has only sung it
half a dozen times since 1995.  Patti took up her sunburst Strat for
this song and coaxed feedback out of it as she crouched on the floor. 
At the end of the song JD apparently fell over and wrecked his drum
kit - I didn't actually see this myself, but it seems to be what
happened.

The last song of the concert was, appropriately, the last song of
Horses - Elegie.  The earlier omission proved fortuitous as this felt
exactly the right tone to end on.  Tony returned to the grand piano,
JD played bass, and Flea was on trumpet.  At the end of the song Patti
recited a list of those who couldn't be with us today "James Marshall
Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Todd Smith, Fred Sonic Smith, Robert
Mapplethorpe, Richard Sohl".  It was extremely moving.

We filed out of the Royal Festival Hall having witnessed a remarkable
concert.  Patti will play these songs again, but even so, she will not
step in this particular river twice.  We were privileged to have been
there the one time that she did.

Kind regards



Andrew