Saturday, January 1, 2011

Patti Smith at the Bowery Ballroom

Patti Smith rocked so fucking awesomely and exquisitely hard last night at the Bowery Ballroom!

I am fairly sure it was the best concert I've ever been to.

First, it took a while to adjust to how great her voice sounded. It was so rich and powerful that I was kind of overwhelmed at first. Surprised, because I've been listening to her records for nearly 30 years.

She was just so gorgeous and sweet and cool and terrific and put on a truly exciting show. She came on around10:30 and rocked till 1 with one short pee break. We brought 2011 in in the middle of "People Have the Power" which was such a moving, inspiring way to begin the new year.

She went through many of the stand outs in her repertoire: "Because the Night", etc. Her rendition of "Horses/Gloria" was one of the most stunning and powerful things I've ever seen.

Covers: "Strawberry Fields" and "Cheer Up Sleepy Jean" (if that's the name of the Monkey's song). This were sweet and fun and brought the audience together.

At the end Patti performed a song she is working on that is about her and Mapplethorpe, and the refrain was "Just Kids"-- it was great.

A few side notes: during the extended "Horses/Gloria" two young girls in the balcony were putting on a side show for us: they were making out and grinding like no tomorrow. It was distracting, but entertaining and kind of cool given the intense rocking out going on on stage.

Then, I witnessed a cat fight. I woman pushed in front of another woman, and when confronted, threw a drink in her face!

Anyway, Patti Smith, I love you so. An incredible concert. I want to make this my new year's tradition.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

it was such a great show...the name is slipping me but what is the song that she opened the concert with!?

Diana said...

I don't remember!