Patti Smith Sage Gateshead 25 March 2010
Patti returns to the Sage for an evening of poetry, songs and readings from here recent book Just Kids which is about her old friend Robert Mablethorpe. She is accompanied by guitarist Tony Shanahan and is appearing in Hall 2, which is the smaller of the Sage’s beautiful concert halls. Last time she packed the larger Hall 1; tonight’s show in Hall 2 has been sold out for weeks.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but knew that any Patti Smith concert was going to be special and different, no matter the format she chooses to present to us. She took the stage around 8pm. The show was a mix of readings from her book Just Kids and songs on which she was accompanied by Tony on guitar and piano. Most of the songs weren’t familiar to me, but it was a great opportunity to see her perform them in such an intimate venue. The stories about her youth in New York with Robert Mablethorpe were fascinating. Patti has a unique rapport with the audience, many of whom had come a long way to see her. Almost everyone in the front few rows seemed to know each other and could be heard swapping comments on other shows from the tour; quite a few seemed to have seen her in Glasgow the night before.
Patti had us all sing happy birthday to a lady in the audience (much to her embarrassment). She finished with a great version of Because the Night. For the encore she was persuaded to sing Rock n Roll Nigger by a lday in the front row (“come on Patti; you sang it last night in Glasgow”!); this merged into Gloria which closed the night.
Patti is unique, challenging and sometimes scary and was no less than all that tonight. I bought a signed book as a souvenir of the evening.
setlist: something like: Grateful, Just Kids, Mother Rose, Just Kids, Wing, Birdland, Just Kids, Dancing Barefoot, Just Kids, Improvisation/My Blakean Year(aborted), My Blakean Year, We Three, Just Kids, Beneath the Southern Cross, Just Kids, Because the Night, (encore): Rock n Roll Nigger; Gloria.
website: http://www.pattismith.net/
ticket
Vintagerock's Weblog. 