Patti Smith

Patti Smith was at the Barrymore Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin on August 5th. Patti likes to come to Madison after her Chicago shows so she has a whole afternoon to wander around town. While we were eating at the diner across the street, we saw her guitarist, Lenny Kaye, wander up and down the street.

Cyn and I got there early, so we could have our pick of seats, since she hadn't been feeling too well lately. We decided that we'd go up front, up against the stage, rather than take seats. The last time we saw them, we were on stage right, in front of the bassist and second guitarist. It was extremely loud there, so this time we took stage left, in front of Lenny. Patti's mic was set up slightly to that side anyway, and Lenny's pretty cool anyway, so that was a good place to be. We were about ten feet from each of them, for most of the show. Cyn was up against the stage with me behind her. The only problem with being so close, is that we didn't get much sound from the PA. We could hear the drums clearly, and the guitars, since the amps were behind the musicians, but Patti didn't have an onstage amp, so we could usually only hear her somewhat muddy voice from the house behind us. Same for keyboards. It wasn't much of a problem, though. Only once did we have much trouble understanding her. Sometimes we could hear her without her mic. Sometimes I could hear the click of Lenny's pick on his strings (when he was tuning up between songs).

The show is billed as "Patti Smith and Her Band." This is:
herself, vocals, she played guitar on "Beneath the Southern Cross" and played clarinet on a song ("Are You Experienced?", maybe?).
Lenny Kaye, guitars, mostly. He sang lead on one song, backing vocals on several, and bass on one song.
Jay Dee Daugherty, drums. He and Lenny are her last remaining original bandmembers.
Tony Shanahan, bass, guitar a couple of times (including lead once).
Jackson Smith, guitars. This is Patti's son. At least I think that's who that was. He was never introduced.
Did Lenny and Tony swap instruments for "Gimme Shelter"? I forget which song that was.

Her latest album is a collection of cover songs called Twelve. She did eight of those. I was impressed by just about all of them. One that I didn't care for ("Everybody Wants to Rule the World"), sounds much better on the album. They did a smokin' version of the Doors' "Soul Kitchen." One of the first covers they did was an excellent reworking of Hendrix's "Are You Experienced." She led into "White Rabbit" with an amusing story about a rabbit she saw on her walk around town (Who is the statue outside the capitol building? This being Madison, I thought... "nah, too easy.")They also did "Gimme Shelter," "Within You Without You," "Changing of the Guards" (Dylan) and "Smells Like Teen Spirit." This last song was much softer, and more acoustic than the Nirvana original, but, like most of the covers on this record, has a dark edge.

She opened with "Kimberly" from her first album. Not a song I would expect to be an opener. The expected "Gloria" was in the encore. I don't remember all the other songs... "Space Monkey, early in the set, apparently by request from the guy next to us. "Southern Cross" and "Summer Cannibals" from Gone Again. "People Have the Power" and "Because the Night." That seems like a short list, but I can't think of any other songs they did - oh. Patti introduced Lenny, and went off to the side to take a seat on the edge of the stage. The band played The Seeds' "Pushin' too Hard." Lenny is a huge proponent of the old garage rock. Patti came back up on stage to sing the too hard backing vocals with Tony.

Being an intimate show - a venue of about a thousand people - the audience was able to interact. People would shout things a lot. Patti tried to play along, but I get the feeling that she doesn't really appreciate it. It sure is annoying to me, and it's not even my show. People don't realize it, but when they shout things, they're really trying to be part of the show. Front and center, there was a woman who asked Patti, "Patti, are you going to feed our heads?" Personally, I'm rolling my eyes, but whatever. Patti says, "am I going to feed your cats?" The audience laughs, and the woman can no longer get her words heard. Patti went into a thing about feeding cats, and finally said, "I don't know what the hell you're talking about." The woman sounded upset and made some crack disparaging Patti's songs, then put her head down on the stage for the next few songs. WTF? And this guy behind me with the woos. Really fucking loud. All the freaking time. I half expected Patti to tell him to shut the hell up (though somewhat more politely).

There was a young girl near us in the audience. She was about chin-high to the stage. Patti came over at one point, sat down and talked to her and her mom for a little bit. She brought earplugs over to her a short time later. Late in the show, during "People have the Power," She came back over to teach the girl the double hand-clap. This woo guy squeezed up next to me and tried to get Patti to touch him. Patti was clapping, and this guy was poking at her hands. I slapped his arm and told him to knock it off. He continued, but stayed a few inches away from her. When Patti was done, she graciously shook his hand, but took pains to wipe and wash his sweat off of her hand. After the show, Lenny came over to shake the hand of the little girl. And no one else's.

Apparently, Tony's bass amp quit on him. He and the tech were running around all through "Within You Without You." They finally got a replacement hooked up at the end of the song. Tony didn't seem to be handling it well. He had some backing vocals that he had to do in between bouts of consternation and fiddling. Lenny made some accidental noise twice, while Patti was speaking. Once, he was trying to open a bottle of water, and hit his strings. Patti was happy to get through all nine verses of "Changing of the Guards" without a major fuck-up. At one point, Patti seemed to be trying to open her pants, as a little bit of theater for the song. I glanced over at Lenny, and he was doing this wide-eyed uh-oh thing. Seemed like he was looking right at me.

I was really mad that I forgot my camera. I had been looking forward to shooting her next concert since the last one, and I left it in the motel room. I walked out of the room pleased that I'd remembered the tickets. There we were, ten feet away from Patti. Once, I looked up and she was standing with one foot up on her monitor, leaning down, straining into the microphone. Nobody standing in my way. That was a money shot, for sure. So many picture-perfect moments. Grrr. Oh well. I'll remember this show for a long time, even without the photos.

Here's a link to some pictures from earlier in the week. She was wearing the same outfit. They didn't do "Not Fade Away" here.

bugs

Seems like a big year for bugs in our yard. I've seen a lot of dragonflies all summer. Yesterday there was a brilliant blue one which would hover over the patio, and fly out for prey. They usually just circle back and forth across the back yard for a while. There's a bumper crop of crickets, both the big black kind and the small brown kind. There have been a lot of butterflies around. I was surprised how fast they can fly. I saw one that I thought was a bird, at first. It's a big year for red admirals. I haven't seen any cicadas, though. Nor heard many. I haven't seen any box elder bugs or those ladybug-like beetles yet.