Patti Smith @ Field Day, 7 June
Forty years ago, Patti Smith released her debut album Horses, a slim eight tracks of distinctive poet-punk rock. Four decades on and the sheer exuberance of the Field Day crowd who have turned out to see Smith perform the album here in full is a testament not only to the influential power of the record, but to the enduring relevance of Smith herself.
“Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine”, come the opening lines of Gloria, and she’s away, clenched fist raised into the air, spitting fervor and fury into the iconic remodeling of the Them classic. Clad in a black suit jacket and waistcoat, her wild grey hair bookending her wide grin, the rock veteran forges an instant connection with the crowd, inciting them to a yell-along of the chorus. The reggae-tinted Redondo Beach is next, a perfect complement to the sun-drenched Victoria Park, and Smith’s band, which includes her original guitarist and drummer, imbue the track with energy to match the frontwoman’s youthful vivacity.
Smith’s unaffected insouciance is incredibly endearing. Tripping up imperceptibly over the opening of “Birdman”, she confides wryly to the audience, “I fucked it up, I’m not perfect”, before adding with a smirk, “I don’t do nothing perfect – I only fuck up perfect”. Later, she tells us that her dark sunglasses are not her attempt to look “cool”, rather that they are merely a counter to the brilliant sun, pausing before adding that because they have prescription lenses, she can see all the way to the fringe of the crowd and that there are “some good looking guys back there”.
As much as irreverence suits her, Smith never wavers in her poignancy; Horses concludes with Elegie, the singer’s heartbreaking lament to Jimi Hendrix but also, she tells us, to everyone that we have loved and lost. “I think it's sad, it's much too bad/That our friends can't be with us today”, she sings, before solemnly sounding out names in a moving incantation of the departed, most notably her late husband Fred “Sonic” Smith, and then her former partner and creative collaborator Robert Mapplethorpe. Cue a sea of eyes collectively misting over.
If we haven’t been rewarded enough, Smith and co then wheel through a number of non-Horses originals, with “Because The Night” garnering the biggest cheers, before finishing up with a punked-up cover of “My Generation”. Whether she’s sipping from her white teacup or standing defiantly with one heavy-booted foot on the front stage amps, Smith does things her way, and the crowd adore her because of it. Throughout the inimitable show, she frequently rouses her fans to action, to rally against the government, and to never forget that “you have the power”. At 69 years of age, the singer is still out to provoke change, and it’s clear that what the world needs is more performances like this one, and more women like Patti Smith.