When you’re off to see the godmother of punk rock, you put aside any qualms you may have about turning up to a gig with your entire family. A family of Patti Smith enthusiasts, who unashamedly recite snippets of her poetry and anticipate her lyrics ahead of time. And then you get to a Patti Smith gig, and you realise that all her fans are of a similar disposition. Then you hear the opening strain of ‘Gloria’ and the crowd converges in a unified exultation. If that had been the only song she did, it would have been worth it; but she followed it by performing her legendary first album, Horses, in its entirety, as well as a collection of past hits.
Smith may be 68 – but she’s still got ‘it’. She had a shamanistic presence, able to evoke emotions in the crowd unlike any other artist I’ve seen. Her engagement with the audience was relaxed and witty, relaying her own Manchester-oriented anecdote of buying a guitar (“husbands come and go, but I still have the Rickenbacker’). Song after song, she delivered bursts of energetic punk rock intertwined with poetry, some improvised and some recognisable. I was even brought to tears during her intense poetic oration in ‘Birdland’, as well as in ‘Elegie’, a beautiful song dedicated to ‘friends who can’t be with us today’. During this, Smith went on to name iconic musicians who we’ve lost, including; The Ramones, Lou Reed, Sid Vicious, her late husband Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith and more, as the band played on.
The crowd requested, and she gave; Smith stormed her way through her hits ‘Because The Night’, ‘Dancing Barefoot’ and ‘People Have The Power’. The band also played a tribute to The Velvet Underground. For the encore, they returned on stage for a lively cover of The Who’s ‘My Generation’ (in which everyone dutifully substituted the lyrics with ‘we don’t need that fucking shit!’). The vibrancy with which she performs is akin to that of musicians who are decades her junior. Smith has maintained all the vigour and agility of her youth. It takes some significant stamina to intentionally snap every single string of an electric guitar, and that’s what Patti did. Holding it above her head, she screamed, ‘Behold – the weapon of my generation! This is all we fucking need!’ And I must say I agree.
Words by Zia