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Patti Smith, Brighton 16/08/05
Patti beamed radiantly as she came on stage with her band at the Brighton Dome on Tuesday evening. This is usually a seated venue, but today the front stall seats had been removed to make a large standing area. There is a good sized stage, but there was no screen or projection in tonight's show. Lenny, JD, Tony and Tom took up their usual places. One difference was that Tony's keyboards were decorated with paper lettering saying ELVIS LIVES.
Patti welcomed everyone, picked up a paperback of 'Early Work', and launched into a fluent reading of Piss Factory.
Next was a joyful version of Redondo Beach. This seems an inevitable song in Brighton, as it is a beach sort of place. When I first heard the song in the mid-seventies I imagined Redondo Beach would be like an English seaside town. I did visit the place one day in 1981 (only because of the song) and found it was not like that at all.
Patti took up her acoustic guitar and sang a beautiful version of Beneath the Southern Cross. We were standing front centre - my daughter Maddie had the very centre front-row place, so you can imagine what sort of evening she had - giving us the experience of looking up at Patti above us, like the Statue of Liberty.
She held onto her guitar for the next number, an improvisation to her own accompaniment. This was a song to "Andy", the tour planner, urging him to make sure that when he was planning to send her off to Iceland, Russia and Finland, he still remembered to send her to play in Brighton. This was received with great amusement by the audience as they gradually realised what Patti was singing about. The improvisation then segued into My Blakean Year. Lenny went back to his green Strat for this one, having broken a string on his acoustic guitar during the previous number.
Free Money started languidly with a shimmering guitar part from Lenny. The song achieves the remarkable feat of being one of Patti's best slow numbers and one of her greatest fast songs. Terrific and exhilarating, as usual.
Lenny now took up a bass guitar. A confused roadie also offered a bass to Tom, who at first appeared too polite to refuse, but finally did so. Patti was now sufficiently relaxed to tell a story - speculating about the effect of chocolate on the local seagulls. The introduction to the song was played with Tony on keyboards, but wrongfooted Patti. "Where's my note?", she asked. Tony gave it to her again, and the song continued; a lovely performance that had Patti smiling happily as she caught all the right notes at the end.
A change of pace was afoot as Patti took up her sunburst Strat. 25th Floor started slowly with some great feedback and she gave the song its due. This was followed by Cash, a second song from the Trampin' album.
Something in the air prompted Patti to speculate on the wisdom of having eaten beans on toast. She then pursued what she called "an easy way to get applause", by reciting her English, Irish and Welsh ancestry.
Next was Ain't It Strange. This has been my favourite song since I heard it first on Radio Ethiopia. It never fails to bring a tingle to the back of my neck. I could listen to this one all night.
Patti then introduced "an American folk song" and the band went into their 40th anniversary version of Like a Rolling Stone. Lenny played a red Strat for this one, and sang the third verse. Patti did better than usual at remembering words of a new song, just missing a few at the start of the second verse. The audience roared out most of the words in any case, in the first major sing-a-long of the evening.
There was a brief pause. A roadie again offered a bass guitar to Tom - but he again declined. Patti then spoke of the other-worldliness of Mr Verlaine, his ability to travel through time to 2007, and the discovery of the 14th planet on Valentine's day. This whimsy eventually led into an extremely well-received run through Dancing Barefoot. Patti stayed fully shod, but mimed various ideas to the audience during the instrumental section.
Patti then took up a clarinet and drew the band slowly into Seven Ways of Going. Another dreamy and other-worldly performance.
Tom finally accepted a bass guitar at this point, and Tony played keyboards for Because the Night. The band played it straight and Patti did not even forget the words.
Not Fade Away started with Tom Verlaine playing Television-like riffs, before slipping into the familiar tune. Patti played harmonica for a while and slipped into the familiar rap about "love one another". As the song ends the band goes straight into People Have the Power, the audience sings along enthusiastically and the concert ends on a high.
After long and enthusiastic applause, Patti and the band returned for a two-song encore. Tom played keyboards, with a life-size cut-out of Elvis behind him, as Tony sang One Night With You, in tribute to the King who died on this day in 1977. Patti sang a small part of the chorus only, as this was a showcase for a very happy looking Tony.
To finish, Patti started a familiar tale of a boy called Johnny. Only tonight, in deference to Brighton, Johnny was wearing slightly-too-tight swimming trunks. After that slightly odd start the movie kept moving as planned and Land segued eventually into Gloria. As Johnny was contemplating the party Patti suddenly threw off a terrific mime of Gloria "leaning on the parking meter". Only two seconds long - but a marvellous moment. The audience sang its heart out and the end of the concert was a wonderful climax, with no let-down afterwards. We went out happy into the night.
Andrew's Meltdown Page.
Irony in Motion's Review
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