Patti Smith Tribute with Springsteen, Scarlett Johansen: concert evaluation

Appropriate enough, the benefit tribute concert on Wednesday evening in New York Carnegie Hall in honor of the pioneering musician, author and icon Patti Smith began with a poem.

Not just any poem: It was the first to make music, “Piss Factory”, which was recorded in 1974 in Electric Lady Studios, 50 blocks in the city center of Carnegie Hall, published as a B-side of her first single. It was delivered by Matt Berninger of the citizen, who nervously chased the stage and read from paper sheets, which he had pulled out of his jacket pocket and thrown away when he worked through the play. Accompanied by the house band for the evening, led by the long -standing Patti Smith band member Tony Shanahan, Berninger visibly trembled – but both this power and this fear fully lived in the work. It was a brave choice and bravery paid off. After the last lines, he had thrown away his notes and triumphed the audience: “And I’ll leave light / Oh, watch me now!”

And over the course of the next two-Odd Hours, Those Songs Did Indeed Travel, Carried by Bruce Springsteen, Michael Stipe, Karen O, Scarlett, Sean Penn, Kim Gordon, Maggie Rogers, Angel Olsen, Susanna Hoffs, with Poetry Readings From Sean Penn, Scarlett Johansson and Michael Shanahan and an Ace House Band featuring Red Hot Chili Peppers Bassist and Occasionally Smith accompanied) Floh, Heartbreaker’s keyboardist Benmont Tench

The concert was the youngest in this format that Veteran Promoter and Strick Factory founder Michael Dorf, who has organized 20 Joni Mitchell tribute from 2006 since 2006. Dorf opened the evening by reminding the audience that they collected almost $ 2 million for music training in schools together with the historical importance of these shows. “Music training … is the first thing to go when the budgets become tight and when people’s paperbacks become tight,” Dorf told Variety. “I have remained true to this cause because it is always on the way when the wallet is tightened. I just wanted to remain consistent because it is so urgently needed.” Later in the evening, the fruits of this consistency were exhibited about a performance by students from the Lower Manhattan Community Middle School and offered a perfectly polished and serious version of Smith’s “Paths”.

The best moments of these advantages come from the artists who meet fully at the moment – when the tribute artist is someone to whom they are close to their heart and have helped them find their own voice; In the years when you may have dreamed from that moment, you will finally find your peak. It is also an enormous test of the material of a writer: how well it can get up when others approach work.

The Karen O by Yeah Yeah Yeah, draped into a black Boa (which might have appeared in downtown cabarets on Smith’s early days or only Karen o, who wanted to dress up for Carnegie Hall). the whole time. Sharon van Ettens “Pissing in A River” also filled every corner of Carnegie Hall, full of pathos and longing.

Allison Mosshart from the kills “Ask the Angels” as she had written it herself and held the strength and ebumlience of the song. Jesse Malin, who suffered a weak stroke in 2023, emerged on stage in a wheelchair to deliver a suspicious and perfectly coordinated version of “Free Money” and to show the debts that his singing style owes.

Glen Hansard only brought himself and some leaves made of white bond paper and in 1996 converted “Enter the Southern Cross” – a literally vehicle of transubstantiation and a brave choice, since it may be the biggest songs from the second half of Smith’s career. Ben Harper’s intimate reading of “Ghost Dance” was opened with a tribute to Hendrix – one of Smith’s favorite musicians. He used the acoustics of the hall and fell back from the microphone to have his vocals reflected, whereby depth and another level was transformed into a number that would not be out of place in addition to its original material.

Michael Stipe, alongside Smith’s daughter Jesse on keyboards and guitarist Andy Lemaster, presented “My Blakean Year”, a deceptively simple, work -like song that Patti Smith likes to perform solo, but this stipe became a show stopper. He remains a convincing front man and was in a good voice. Angel Olsen’s careful exploration of “Easter” (accompanied by a recitation of handwritten notes in her notebook) was unexpected. Susanna Hoffs’ Pop interpretation of “Kimberly” was happy, Courtney Barnett provided a non-nonsense playback from “Elegie” and the Kronos quartet a permanent presentation by “Elgie”. Paul Banks from Interpol achieved the darkest selection of the night, a quiet duet on “Mother Rose” from 2004 by “Trampin”. And the strangest addition to the line -up, Johnny Depp, provided “Tancing Barfoot” with the support of Mosshart and Shanahan.

And there were more poems. Michael Shannon, who recently carried out an unusual tribute tour by playing a role in Rem with members of the band (and in some nights, stipe itself), presented a poem that Smith had written about her former paramour Sam Shepard. Sean Penn read an excerpt from the 2015 M-Zug 2015. Scarlett Johansen’s heartbreaking readings of letters that Smith to her girlfriend and employee, Robert Maplethorpe (co-star of her award-winning memoirs, “Just Kids”), wrote, while the filmmaker Jim Jarmuss with a bonus poem by Smith’s loved Arthur Rimbaud,, that delivered from Timeles. crossed. “He also wrote the English translation to me,” Jarmuss informed the audience Deadpan. Kim Gordon went out with her copy of Smith’s “Witt” published in 1973 before producing a fair sound on the E guitar in addition to the experimental guitarist Bill Nace.

During the evening, the backing band was one of the strongest that this event has ever achieved, and a fantastic of any standard. Under the direction of Tony Shanahan, who has been part of Pattis since her return to the music in the mid-1990s and stared together with the studio veteran/current Rolling-Stones drummer Steve Jordan and the guitarist Charlie Sexton (Bob Dylan, Elvis Cotenello). These musicians are not only technically outstanding, but also have a deep intuitive feeling for the material.

Towards the end of the show, Maggie Rogers – a late replacement for Chrissie Hynde, whose appearance was canceled due to the fires at Heathrow Airport in London, was a version of the “Frederick” from 1979, Smith’s homage to her husband (then friend) Fred “Sonic” Smith of the MC5. While her presentation felt a little overheated at first, it was possible to argue that she brought the song to another place and actually in an arrangement that could have competed with the chart success of “Was The Night”, which Smith himself described as “My Only Hit”.

In fact, the evening was so powerful that there was none “Broooooooo!” Heard all night. But when the evening broke off and every other actor had been examined from the list, the audience climbed onto their feet and remained there as a fit and brown boss on stage, hair cut back, fenders in the hand, work clothes.

He explained to the crowd: “If I had sung this song, it would not have been a hit. It needed her voice and her incredible texts, so I have to thank you so much for our big hit – thank you, darling.” With a call to the management of Tench, which started this unmistakable intro grades, it was time for a breathtaking version of “Was The Night” with two concise, expansive guitar solos as well as fiery interaction between Springsteen and Sexton.

Not everyone of these tribute evenings includes a appearance from the award winner, but Patti was in the house all night and sat in a circle box with their children.

The last actor was Smith and her band, and she had been on stage and hand with Lenny Kaye, her friend and musical partner since the early 1970s. The long -time drummer Jay Dee Daughherty – whom she called “My Only drummer” – joined them together with Shanahan, daughter Jesse Paris on keyboards and son Jackson on the guitar.

Smith characteristically thanked all musicians and people who were involved in the event, and found that many of the songs had been written together with their bandmates (and that “Mensch The Power” with her late husband were Co-write) before offering a newer poem “Cry Humanity”, a lawsuit and a cry of despair. This evening may have been a celebration, but Smith never neglected her activism and didn’t want to do this now.

The band followed with “Peacable Kingdom”, a song Smith, Smith wrote about the death of the activist Rachel Corrie for “Trampin ‘” from 2004. This song usually changes to an interlude of “People have the power” and it also happened here before it switched to the addition of this hymn, where all performers from the evening Smith and their bandmates at the stage closed.

When the song used it, it was both heartwarming and strange to carefully observe this group of highly pursued musicians who took their places near Smith, who encouraged them again and again. She held hands and pogo with Karen o; She pulled one of the student musicians out of the musician on the stage; She reached for a stipe and brought him to the microphone. In this chaotic finale, Flea trumpet, Rogers stared (apparently impressive) in Springsteen, tried to make the audience clap when the ASL interpreters connected the fracas. Smith kept trying to step off the center mic, but Kaye and Shanahan brought them forward again and again.

Finally, someone decided that it was time to end the song, and a bright grinning Smith thanked the audience again and left the stage.

When he spoke to Michael Dorf before the show, he said to Variety: “I would like to make sure it is so great (event). When I feel the Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan so that I feel separated from my hero, I would not get feedback. You would know because I want it to be amazing and as good as possible. Smith’s expression when she left the stage would agree.