Patti Smith Bronx Concert reviews
Obviously Five Believers
Patti Smith's performance bypassed magnificent, opting instead for transcendent. It opened with APRIL FOOL, it still being April, a version so many times better than the recorded original, it might have been a different song. Have You Ever Been Experienced sounded like it had been lifted from After Bathing At Baxters; to be precise, it dumped me at Baxter's and left me there. Highlights: A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall, sung from a lyric sheet to two acoustic guitars, was out of the reach of anyone playing today. Lenny Kaye's take on the STONES' obscurity I'm Free was nearly as shocking as Patti's first encore: Elvis' Can't Help Falling in Love! With her arms out-stretched as if nailed to the cross- dropped for shamanic hand gestures- she bestowed TRANCE-LOVE on her crowd. Most of the players still performing in their 70's have been lessened at least a degree by TIME- save Patti, who seems to have access to some Blakean Regeneration Pool. I'm thinking Batman's enemy Ras? Why not?