X
Concert Review
Patti Smith
February 20, 2010 @ Park West
By Dave Miller
Zo
I've witnessed a lot of great concerts over the years, including many by legendary live performer Bruce Springsteen, but if I'm forced to chose one show as the best I have to go with Patti Smith in 1998 at the Riviera. I don't know if I'll ever seen another top it.
So it was with great anticipation that I attended Smith's concert Saturday night at Park West. A normal Smith show is going to be special, but this one had a couple extra things going for it. The performance was under the banner of Hopefest, the annual benefit show organized by the Chicago Coalition For The Homeless. You had to figure the socially-conscious Smith would give her best to the cause. And the fact that she was born in Chicago - which she memorably deemed the city of her rebirth in her transcendent Riviera concert - pretty much guaranteed that this show would be a great one.
Smith and her veteran band came through in the cozy club as predictably as Michael Jordan in the fourth quarter. The 63-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer was great yet again, performing in the moment and working hard to summon her mojo to take the audience higher. It'd be unfair to expect Smith, or anyone else for that matter, to match her monumental show at the Riviera, but this one was significantly better than the good one I saw her put on in 2004 at Navy Pier's Skyline Stage.
This performance built steadily in pace, energy and emotion to a climax over the final four songs of the show, which ran 100 minutes. That was largely due to the setlist because Smith and her band led by her longtime guitarist, Lenny Kaye, came ready to play from the start. Sparks began to fly in the third song, "Free Money." Next, "My Blakean Year" featured a lengthy intro vocal riff from Smith about her family's time in Chicago. She jokingly sang about her dad, Grant, thinking Grant Park and Grant Hospital were named after him. "Dancing Barefoot" saw Smith keep on her combat boots, but she ventured into the crowd to watch her band from the floor. "Mother Rose" saw her command drummer Jay Dee Daugherty with her hand to slow the song's tempo as she delved into a beautiful reading of the song.
The show began to soar near its midpoint with "Beneath The Southern Cross." I got chills as Smith and Kaye engaged each other's guitar playing on a dramatic entry into the song which set the stage perfectly for Smith's spiritual vocals. Kaye later sang lead when the band covered late poet Jim Carroll's "People Who Died." Smith didn't read any poety in the show like she often does, but she did salute the work of Carroll. "He was the greatest poet of our generation," she said. "If you seek poetry, seek Jim Carroll."
Smith was relaxed and in good spirits throughout the night. She playfully engaged many of the crowd's shouts. A request for her cover of "Wicked Messenger" elicited a rather lengthy Dylan impersonation. When a woman told her she looked like somebody, Smith strode toward the direction of the fan to hear what she said. "I look like my kindergarten picture?" Smith said. "I feel like my kindergarten picture." She then related some of her early school stories. "Now it's time to get back to work," Smith said as she finished the storytelling. With that came the Springsteen co-written "Because the Night" and the start of a big finish.
"People Have the Power" closed the main set. I think it's my favorite all-time song. It has everything in a song - big, driving music, Biblical, epic lyrics, a rousing chorus, rebellion, inspiration, a sense of community and a call to action. "Don't forget it!" Smith yelled near during her song-closing exhortations.
The encore led off with a song Smith said they didn't know, but nevertheless wanted to play. "It's my song of 2010," she said. Then she added off mic, "It's going to be fucked." Not true. A groovy and bright cover of "Love Train" by The O'Jays followed. Afterward, someone told her the band didn't make any mistakes on it. "Then we're going to have to play it again," Smith cracked. The encore ended with her trademark cover of "Gloria" complete with its "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine" declaration of personal responsibility that she made on her classic 1975 album Horses.
For my money, Smith doesn't have to take a backseat to anyone as a live performer in rock history when she's at her best. She fully realizes the genre's power and promise.
The setlist:
Frederick
Redondo Beach
Free Money
My Blakean Year
Dancing Barefoot
Mother Rose
Beneath The Southern Cross
Wing
Ask The Angels
People Who Died
Pissing in a River
Because The Night
People Have The Power
---------------------------
Love Train
Gloria
Start: 9:16 p.m./Finish: 10:56 p.m.
Totals: 15 songs, 1 hour and 40 minutes
