Mint Patti
Patti Smith, Carling Academy, Birmingham, June 30th 2004.
Sadly, Television are unable to appear on the Birmingham leg of the Patti Smith tour, so tonight there's no support and to compound things Patti and her group arrive on stage 45 minutes behind schedule. She makes some reference to 'not [being] awake yet' but she looks lively enough, and has a wide beatific grin that hardly leaves her face throughout the two hour show. In fact, the years have been kind on the once-androgynous star compared to more glamorous contemporaries like Debbie Harry and Stevie Nicks. I would think she's comfortably in her fifties but she's still well fuckable, and therefore by definition still very much a rock 'n' roll star - compare and contrast with Grandad McCartney and his Beatles karaoke for the easily-pleased home counties students at Glasto. The other difference is that Patti is still creating new and relevant music, her latest album Trampin' arguably her best since her career resumed in 1988.
If her presence generates genuine awe (Patti is, after all, the missing link between Dylan and the Pistols and without her there would be no PJ Harvey let alone Karen O or Eleanor from The Fiery Furnaces) the first few notes of her voice on the new album's title track gets my spine tingling with immediate effect. This being the first leg of her British tour, Patti in the main avoids inter-song polemic and lets her impressive back catalogue do the talking, content perhaps to use the extra time allowed by Television's absence to shake off the cobwebs and jetlag, seemingly determined to have a good time and this is reciprocated by a genuinely excited crowd.
The set is liberally sprinkled with selections from the new album (including Gandhi; My Blakean Year and a beautiful Peacable Kingdom) plus plenty of the old favourites (of which tonight, Privelige; People Have The Power and Free Money are the standouts for me). Coming back for the encore Patti notes that Birmingham is currently being redeveloped but reminds us that the city is about the people who live in it, not the developers, before launching onto 'Land' which then segues into a thrilling rendition of 'Gloria', a fantastic ending to a stupendous rock'n'roll show from a genuine living legend. All of which leaves me satiated and set free into the city just in time to catch last orders. Result all round, then.
Patti's tour continues on to Edinburgh tonight(1st); Manchester on the 2nd and Brixton Academy on the 3rd. The last two dates will include Television as support, and I strongly recommend attendance if at all possible.
Patti Smith, Carling Academy, Birmingham, June 30th 2004.
Sadly, Television are unable to appear on the Birmingham leg of the Patti Smith tour, so tonight there's no support and to compound things Patti and her group arrive on stage 45 minutes behind schedule. She makes some reference to 'not [being] awake yet' but she looks lively enough, and has a wide beatific grin that hardly leaves her face throughout the two hour show. In fact, the years have been kind on the once-androgynous star compared to more glamorous contemporaries like Debbie Harry and Stevie Nicks. I would think she's comfortably in her fifties but she's still well fuckable, and therefore by definition still very much a rock 'n' roll star - compare and contrast with Grandad McCartney and his Beatles karaoke for the easily-pleased home counties students at Glasto. The other difference is that Patti is still creating new and relevant music, her latest album Trampin' arguably her best since her career resumed in 1988.
If her presence generates genuine awe (Patti is, after all, the missing link between Dylan and the Pistols and without her there would be no PJ Harvey let alone Karen O or Eleanor from The Fiery Furnaces) the first few notes of her voice on the new album's title track gets my spine tingling with immediate effect. This being the first leg of her British tour, Patti in the main avoids inter-song polemic and lets her impressive back catalogue do the talking, content perhaps to use the extra time allowed by Television's absence to shake off the cobwebs and jetlag, seemingly determined to have a good time and this is reciprocated by a genuinely excited crowd.
The set is liberally sprinkled with selections from the new album (including Gandhi; My Blakean Year and a beautiful Peacable Kingdom) plus plenty of the old favourites (of which tonight, Privelige; People Have The Power and Free Money are the standouts for me). Coming back for the encore Patti notes that Birmingham is currently being redeveloped but reminds us that the city is about the people who live in it, not the developers, before launching onto 'Land' which then segues into a thrilling rendition of 'Gloria', a fantastic ending to a stupendous rock'n'roll show from a genuine living legend. All of which leaves me satiated and set free into the city just in time to catch last orders. Result all round, then.
Patti's tour continues on to Edinburgh tonight(1st); Manchester on the 2nd and Brixton Academy on the 3rd. The last two dates will include Television as support, and I strongly recommend attendance if at all possible.
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