Patti

On a personal note, I went to see Patti Smith last night. She’s one of my few heroes and my new reason for not being afraid to face getting older. 61 years old and as unruly a rocker as ever. Well, a little tamed down, but no more so than the 51 year old Iggy Pop I saw a few years back. But it made me realize that I can continue doing what I’m doing and just get better at it, that I can be twice as old as I am now and be twice as good. That’s something to look forward to, rather than the idea of just burning out and becoming a shell of your youth. I’m a bit of a cynic…

Besides a slightly lackluster (IMO) cover selection that permeated the playlist, she was really alive when she played her own material, especially the songs off of “Horses”. I was hoping to hear some “Peace and Noise”, but it didn’t happen. What did happen was the one song I thought for sure she wouldn’t play. And I got more excited than I’ve been at a show in a long time. I think I screamed when she said: “I don’t f—- much with the past, but I f—- plenty with the future…”. If you know the song, and you get it, you’ll know why it was an amazing note to end a show on.