patti smith reviews

Patti Smith sends Berkeley anti-war rally into "seventh heaven"
By Lawrence French

It was a hot summer day in Berkeley, and Patti Smith, one of the music industries leading anti-war advocates, was also hot - red-hot. While an adoring crowd basked in the warm California Sun, Smith took to the stage with a blistering version of "Southern Cross." her song about mortal existence and the balmy night skies taken from her masterful comeback album "Gone Again." As Smith strode to the stage, beaming a wide smile, she waved to the crowd of about 2,500 people and announced, "I'm so happy to be here with you… we're all volunteers, working together… and it's volunteers who'll make the movement against the warmongers grow. We can't stop. We have to be a thorn in their fucking side for the rest of their fucking lives. Smith then reached into her back catalogue for some of her most powerful anthems, including "Ask The Angels," and "25th Floor," both of which have rarely been performed since her 1995 return to concert stages. And for the next 65 minutes, Sm i! th delivered a short but very intense set that seemed perfectly paced, and was as energetic as any group half their age.

Smith even joked about her geriatric band, since bassist Tony Shanahan had recently been knocked down by a motorist while riding his bicycle, breaking his collarbone in the process, and last year drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, suffered a motorcycle accident putting a planned tour on hold while he recovered from multiple injuries. But Smith proved anything but geriatric, as she roamed across the stage and during "Dancing Barefoot" plunged off-stage into the audience. Unfortunately a Mother was standing right in front of the speakers with her baby, and instead of dancing with the crowd, Patti used most of her time in the audience to berate the idiotic Mother for subjecting her infant to such sonic abuse, announcing from the stage, "please don't stand in front of the speakers with a baby, otherwise I'll come down and throw you out myself!"

Clearly pleased with the turnout, Patti thanked all the people who helped put the free show together, and at Tuesday's Fillmore concert dedicated "People Have The Power," to everyone responsible, saying, "I had this little dream, this little idea, that it would be really cool to play a free concert in the park, and these people, they did it. It wasn't Woodstock, it wasn't Altamont, it was our... whatever it was. It was really great, and originally they were working on this for weeks, and at first they were trying to get People's Park (scene of the famous sixties Berkeley college protests), and when they couldn't get it, they said we'll get MLK (Martin Luther King) Park instead. So I kept thinking it was MILK Park. So people would say, "what are you doing," and I'd say, "well, we're going to San Francisco, and we might play MILK "Park. And you know what? Next time let's try to make it a even bigger one…"

Smith ended the show with a memorable political rap: as she was about to sing the first verse of "People Have The Power," she paused dramatically, letting the band play on, and stepped away from the mic to go to the back of the stage, where she picked up an American Flag from her amp and held it up while declaring, "This is our flag, and I charge George Bush with desecrating the American Flag. But we'll reclaim it from him and all those other MotherFuckers."

Photo by Steven Klein