From there, Patti Smith went straight into the cover versions from her current album Twelve. But even here, she mixed things up a bit. Covering Jimi Hendrix's great "Are You Experienced?", Patti Smith introed the song with a surprisingly great solo on soprano saxophone, and eventually worked in elements of great Hendrix sings like "Voodoo Child" and "Third Stone from The Sun." The band's sense of rock history here — especially her longtime guitarist Lenny Kaye — was simply impeccable.
Speaking of Kaye, when Patti left the stage he led the band through a cover of the Seeds' garage rock classic, "Pushin Too Hard," after dedicating the song to Northwest instrumental legends The Ventures. I'm not exactly sure what the connection was there, but there is no question that it worked perfectly.
When Patti retook the stage, she introduced "We Three," from her commercial breakthrough album Easter, as a song she wrote in 1974 about seeing the great guitarist Tom Verlaine and his band Televison at the New York punk rock club CBGBs. From there, it was on to dramatic reworkings of Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" (prefaced by Smith's tale of a visit to Seattle's Union Gospel Mission — a shelter for the homeless), and her brilliant bluegrass tinged version of Kurt Cobain's "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
As the concert drew towards a close, Patti Smith brought out R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck (who currently resides in Seattle) for several songs. These included everything from the anthemic "People Have The Power" to R.E.M.'s own "Everybody Hurts."
This was a great, great concert.
Setlist:
Kimberly
Redondo Beach
Are You Experienced?
Within You, Without You
Beneath The Southern Cross
We Three
Summer Cannibals
Pushin Too Hard
White Rabbit
Ghost Dance
Because The Night
Peaceable Kingdom
Gloria
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Encore:
People Have The Power
Everybody Hurts
Soul Kitchen
Rock And Roll Nigger
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