It was fitting that Patti Smith performed on All Souls’ Day. The high priestess of punk has always exuded a mystical aura. Her two shows on Sunday at the Old Town School of Folk Music celebrated a number of folks who have passed on.
Accompanied by pianist and bassist Tony Shanahan and her guitarist son Jackson Smith, the rock legend took the stage for the early show at 4 p.m. Clad in a suit jacket and vest, with a knit cap pulled over her silver hair, she carried a book in one hand and a coffee mug in the other. Smith smiled widely and noted the early hour. “I’m just pretending I’m a great Shakespearean actor and this is my matinee,” she laughed.
Indeed, Smith’s performance was a powerful event of live theater, filled with drama and comedy. She commenced a 90-minute performance that was by turns heartbreaking, funny, ethereal and earthy. The concert celebrated friends, family and artistic inspirations who have died, but the proceedings were never dour.
The punk pioneer could write a primer on how to age with grace and relevance. At 67, Smith remains at the height of her powers, singing with the improvisatory dazzle of a jazz player and the passion of a confessional poet.
She gave a special shout-out to Chicago, the city of her birth, and expressed gratitude for the 2014 Chicago Tribune Literary Prize she’d received the day before at the Chicago Humanities Festival.
Half shaman and half standup comic, she shared touching and hilarious stories. Strapping on an acoustic guitar for the elegiac “Grateful,” she explained that she wrote it after the death of Jerry Garcia. “I was feeling low. My hair was going gray,” she recalled. Suddenly she had a vision of the Grateful Dead icon. “It’s like seeing Jesus in a potato chip,” she said. The house rocked with laughter.
Smith shared anecdotes about deceased loved ones, including her husband musician Fred “Sonic” Smith, her long-time friend photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and her bandmate Richard Sohl. Covers included tender versions of John Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)” and Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day.”
Smith encored with a stirring rendition of “Because the Night,” her enduring collaboration with Bruce Springsteen. She leaned into the song, her hands fluttering in the air and her full-throated voice soaring up. It was the kind of rare beauty that could make even the hardest soul cry.
Twitter @chitribent
