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Concert reviews Music

Patti Smith at Massey Hall

PATTI SMITH AND HER BAND at Massey Hall, Friday, September 6. Rating: NNNN


There is an expectation of greatness at a Patti Smith show. There is the palpable sense that even as the long-tressed, dark-dressed singer stands at the mic reciting poetry about the dead, even as the energy dips with another monotone one-chord dirge, the night will soon explode open with catharsis, shaking with Big Message and even bigger emotion. We sit on the edge of our seats waiting for it. Some people jump up and hoot and applaud between every song, trying to make it happen faster.

And it does happen, even if you’d started to think it wouldn’t. Slowly and steadily over two-plus hours at Massey Hall, Smith’s set slunk toward the big payoff. She and her band are improvisation in action, breezily feeling their way through. Beyond the tough punk image (which entailed a lot of spitting on Massey Hall’s sacred stage) and the exhilarating snarl in her low voice, Smith’s special genius is her ability to connect with a crowd. She thundered during the songs, and was sweet-as-pie cordial in between.

She was both relevant – the night before she and guitarist Lenny Kaye had snuck into Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive film at TIFF, she told us, before introing In My Blakean Year with an ode to Nicole Kidman – and reverent, recalling how the last time she’d played Massey, in 1976, a place her musical idol Maria Callas had once played, had felt like a Beatles movie. “I’ve never forgotten it, so I’m so happy.”

The historic venue meant a lot to legendary Nuggets anthologist Kaye, too. Smith gave over the stage to him halfway through, and the wiry 66-year-old boosted the energy big-time with shout-outs to 1953’s Jazz At Massey Hall (“the greatest jazz concert ever”) and his two favourite Toronto groups, the Paupers and Luke & the Apostles. Then he launched into some spirited, deep-cut garage rock, while Smith danced in the crowd.

Apparently Smith keeps all of her old set lists on file in between Banga material she was careful to include songs she hadn’t played earlier this year when in town to launch her AGO photography exhibit. Like Birdland, which highlighted Kaye’s psychedelic guitar touches. And We Three, about watching Television play at CBGB’s in 1973. And Another Dimension, that displayed Jay Dee Daugherty’s drum power and the playful chemistry between Smith and Kaye, who, along with Daugherty, has played in her band since the beginning.

And then there we suddenly were, drowning in the ecstatic power of her biggest tunes – Because The Night, Pissing In A River, Rock N Roll Nigger, Gloria – and her passionate anti-war cries against invading Syria. “YOU ARE FREE!” she shouted. “YOU ARE FUCKING FREE! THIS IS NO MOVIE! THIS IS YOUR LIFE!”

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