{"id":5911,"date":"2025-10-13T10:18:51","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T10:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/patti-smith-london-palladium-transcendent-rock-ritual-awkward-conclusion-151735\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T10:18:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T10:18:51","slug":"patti-smith-london-palladium-transcendent-rock-ritual-awkward-conclusion-151735","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/patti-smith-london-palladium-transcendent-rock-ritual-awkward-conclusion-151735\/","title":{"rendered":"Patti Smith at the London Palladium: transcendent rock ritual with an awkward conclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cJesus died for somebody\u2019s sins\u2026 but NOT MINE!\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Click here to subscribe to Uncut<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cJesus died for somebody\u2019s sins\u2026 but NOT MINE!\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of the most compelling opening lines in rock history, emblazoned here across numerous T-shirts worn by the crowd, and greeted when Patti Smith first intones it at the top of the show with an ecstatic roar from the Palladium stalls. As her trusty lieutenant Lenny Kaye emphasises in the current issue of Uncut<\/a>, \u201cit\u2019s not a rejection of Christ or what he stands for, it\u2019s an assertion of responsibility.\u201d In other words, everything is there for the taking if only you have the courage to reach out and grab it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s why, 50 years on, Horses<\/em> is still such a potent experience, its poetic epiphanies crystallising the idea of rock\u2019n\u2019roll as personal salvation. Evidently, Patti Smith\u2019s passion for this manifesto remains undimmed. Her silver hair turned iridescent in the spotlight, tonight she resembles a celestial visitor, here to tell us all that paradise is within our grasp. At the same time, she\u2019s an impish, vivacious presence, keen to do the watusi and have some fun.<\/p>\n

In this day and age, it\u2019s actually a treat to see a great rock band silhouetted on a black stage, lit by pure white lights: no backdrop, no lightshow, no nonsense. Guitarist Lenny Kaye and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty remain from the original Horses<\/em> line-up, providing a solid throughline to CBGB, 1975; as for guitarist Jackson Smith, this music is literally in his blood. \u201cGloria\u201d ramps up quickly into a fist-pumping anthem of release \u2013 taut, energised, electric.<\/p>\n

Patti\u2019s enthusiastic vamping rescues \u201cRedondo Beach\u201d from cod-reggae purgatory, while \u201cFree Money\u201d retains its sharp, bitter edge. But it\u2019s on the epic \u201cBirdland\u201d where Smith really comes alive, yanking its harrowing narrative violently into the present by yelling, \u201cWe do not want a corrupt, dictator, bullshit fucking president!\u201d At which point she throws down the notebook she\u2019s been reading from, spits theatrically on the floor, puts her glasses back in her pocket, and calmly sings the shamanic doo-wop coda.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we are going to flip over the record,\u201d says Smith mischievously, as though all they are doing is simply recreating Horses<\/em> note-for-note. In fact they play fast and loose with the running order, slipping \u201cElegie\u201d (dedicated here to Jeff Beck) in earlier so they can climax with the astonishing \u201cLand\u201d, the phantasmagorical tale of a life saved by rock\u2019n\u2019roll. <\/p>\n

\u201cHalf a century ago,\u201d riffs Patti, retooling it on the fly as a story about the birth of British punk, \u201cJohnny walked the streets of London wondering who the fuck he was\u2026 until the people gave him the energy\u2026 for half a fucking century!\u201d As Smith circles back to the album\u2019s immortal opening line, she pauses for a moment at the lip of the stage and flexes her biceps like a champion weightlifter, the conduit of a surging, unstoppable life-force.<\/p>\n

After the interval, the band return without Patti to play a medley of songs from that other great mid-\u201970s New York rock landmark, Marquee Moon<\/em>. If anyone\u2019s going to cover Television it should probably be their \u201csister band\u201d, and they make a pretty decent fist of it, with Jackson Smith ably tracing Tom Verlaine\u2019s quicksilver Telecaster runs from beneath his flat cap. Sadly though, \u201cMarquee Moon\u201d peters out before Patti can charge on and start wailing about lightning striking itself, which feels like an opportunity missed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, she rejoins the band to snarl hilariously through The Byrds\u2019 \u201cSo You Want To Be A Rock \u2019n\u2019 Roll Star \u2013 \u201cWas it all a strange game? You\u2019re a little insane!\u201d \u2013 which serves to slyly dismantle her own legend (and makes the show\u2019s eventual finale all the more incomprehensible). Perhaps you might expect the \u2018punk poet laureate\u2019 to be a somewhat precious performer, but quite the opposite. Smith is smiley, relatable and particularly sweet when telling the story about how the lyrics of \u201cBecause The Night\u201d were written while anxiously awaiting a late-night phonecall from her future husband, Fred \u2018Sonic\u2019 Smith.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Touchingly, the show ends with another Smith family member onstage, as daughter Jesse arrives to play keyboards. But then Patti risks undoing all the goodwill she\u2019s accrued over the previous two hours by bringing out auxiliary guitarist Johnny Depp. It\u2019s a baffling misjudgement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For a start, he adds nothing musically \u2013 and dressed ostentatiously in a fedora and an assortment of tie-dye rags, he inevitably serves to draw attention away from the show\u2019s real star. But Depp is also a hugely divisive character, for obvious reasons. Smith\u2019s traditional set-closer \u201cPeople Have The Power\u201d is always likely to lack its usual unifying qualities when there is a woman stood behind you shouting \u201cFuck off, Johnny!\u201d throughout the song.<\/p>\n

Smith has proven tonight that Horses<\/em> remains a magnificent hymn to personal empowerment; and that rock\u2019n\u2019roll is a spirit of self-determination that burns within us all, not just an excuse for celebrities behaving badly. It\u2019s strange that she would momentarily forget her own lesson.<\/p>\n

SET 1
Gloria
Redondo Beach
Free Money
Birdland
Kimberly
Break It Up
Elegie
Land: Horses \/ Land Of A Thousand Dances \/ Gloria (reprise)
SET 2
Television medley
So You Want To Be A Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Star
Dancing Barefoot
Peaceable Kingdom
Because The Night
ENCORE
People Have the Power<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The post Patti Smith at the London Palladium: transcendent rock ritual with an awkward conclusion<\/a> appeared first on UNCUT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cJesus died for somebody\u2019s sins\u2026 but NOT MINE!\u201d Click here to subscribe to Uncut \u201cJesus died for somebody\u2019s sins\u2026 but NOT MINE!\u201d It\u2019s one of the most compelling opening lines…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[548,2323,88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live","category-patti-smith","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}