Live Report: Patti Smith enthrals on a magic night for the ages

Showtime is a while away yet, but there’s only a rare soul outside the 3Arena, and the bars inside are abandoned. Almost everyone is already in their seat under two massive images of the iconic Horses album cover taken by Robert Mapplethorpe of Patti Smith - shrouded in natural light, in plain white shirt, black jacket slung over her shoulder, cool as ice - gazing through the watcher, a symbolist punk delivering “three chord rock merged with the power of the word.”

Fifty winters later, Smith – skinny as a whippet, black jeans stuck in ankle high jump boots – struts onto the stage with two members of the original group, Lenny Kaye and Jay Dee Daugherty, along with keyboardist/ bassist Tony Shanahan, a part of her Band for thirty years and her son, Jackson Smith on guitar. The hereto patient crowd erupt, Smith, here to perform Horses in its entirety, declares “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine” and we’re off on the first night of a tour of Europe and the United States that coincides with the publication of Bread of Angels, her memoir.

Patti Smith at 3 Arena Dublin by Jason Doherty

It's a treat to have a seat, to witness Patti Smith render her totemic record. The double Morrison – Van & Jim – inspired ‘Gloria: In Excelsis Deo’ is as damn powerful as it ever was, Smith spitting on the floor, her face in half shadow, crowned by long-flowing grey locks. While the sprawling free jazz of ‘Birdland’ is still something to get absolutely lost in, Smith’s wordplay a wonder, descending into a captivating glossolalia.

The drums of ‘Free Money’ pound about the eaves of the auditorium before Patti introduces ‘Kimberly’, as “Side Two” with a huge grin and then tells us a story about her rural New Jersey childhood, drawing us easily into an intimacy, as she relates holding her baby sister during a heat lightning storm that incinerated an ancient barn. Shedding a little tear, telling us there is nothing more beautiful than a baby’s smile, declaring “may we protect all children.”

Patti Smith at 3 Arena Dublin by Jason Doherty

Patti reflects on writing her ode to Jim Morrison, ‘Break It Up’ with Tom Verlaine, commanding The Lizard King to smash out of his tomb. ‘Elegie’, dedicated to Sinead & Shane, is incredible with just vamping piano and splotches of guitar twirling around Smith’s crescendo vocal. Similarly, the power of ‘Land’ – greeted with shrieks and clapping – is a wonder, it’s sabre-like guitar, regimented bass and kick-drum wrapping around Patti’s vitriol, leaving the singer like a galloping sprinter, hands on knees and the audience dancing on the terraces.

Smith leaves the stage to her troop who magically transform into a Television tribute band, whisking through ‘See No Evil’, ‘Friction’ and ‘Marquee Moon’, recreating mythical mid-70s CBGB’S. Patti returns with ‘Dancing Barefoot’ before fantastically performing her great friend Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Footnote to Howl’, marvellous it is to hear Smith incant “Holy Peter, Holy Allen, Holy Solomon, Holy Kerouac, Holy Huncke, Holy Burroughs, Holy Cassady” – she being a thread to all those crazy, beautiful Beats. Contemporising the lyrics to include Palestine, causes an outbreak of calls of “Free Palestine”, leading Patti into ‘Peaceable Kingdom’, declaring that “we won’t stop” penning lyrics in support of freedom.

Her virulence on ‘Pissing in a River’ is contagious, and there is impassioned chanting of “Palestine will be free” – the audience alive and electrified. Patti closes the set on ‘Because the Night’, telling us about writing the lyrics while waiting for her boyfriend, Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith to call long-distance, before returning with Glen Hansard in tow, to finish on the John Reynolds’ dedicated ‘People Have the Power’. Sin É.