Hi Fellows

I saw Patti Smith in Athens last night. Great concert, nice band and first of all excellent Patti! Great performance, still great voice. The whole show endured 105 minutes. The band performed the classics (can i say “warhorses” in that case?) like “People Have The Power” and “Because The Night” and a lot of the recent stuff (from the “Gung Ho” and “Trampin” CD’s).
The audience was including a lot of young people, some of them wearing t-shirts of the Stones. Nice view to me. The crowd could be even younger, if White Stripes weren’t performig at the same time at another place of the city. I was in a little dilemma. “Little” because I selected Patti after a few minutes of thinking…
White Stripes played twice in Greece, Thessaloniki and Athens. First concert a bit more than an hour, second concert less than an hour. Stones play 120 minutes (again, i hope), Patti Smith plays 105 minutes but i cannot understand what the f…c some good new bands like WS are thinking. They or their managers, i don’t know. My little sister, huge White Stripes fan, went to them, of course. She told me, “they played very, very good, about 70% of the Stones”! After these “statements” i love more than ever my little sister…

I think Patti Smith could be a great openning act for the Stones. What do you think?

stickydion Wrote:
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> I think Patti Smith could be a great openning act
> for the Stones. What do you think?


YES! Saw her a couple of years ago and was amazed how much she still has that rock n roll attitude. I keep buying her CDs, but don't care for them a whole lot. She'd be a great opener, she is a huge Stones fan. She used to play a couple of Stones songs in her live set.

karl

Here's a quote from 1976 attributed to Patti Smith:

‘God — if I commit suicide I’m gonna miss the next Stones album.’

In Athens she played Fade Away and so reminded me of the Voodoo Lounge Tour!

I remember how astonishing Horses was when it came out - and Patti at the Jazz Workshop (?) January 1976. Saw her again on the Easter (bleh, big downer of an album imo) tour in '78. Then 20 years later. She's always tremendous, one of the great rock & roll originals. And I remember a piece she wrote for Creem in 1973 for an all-Stones issue ("Jaggarr of the Jungle")

I'm going to see her show in Helsinki in August at a tent that holds about 1000 people. Should be good.

It would be a ideal opening act for the stones imho.

My opinion -
Patti - 70's records - divine
70's live - great
Records now - dreadful
Live now - great

Jack White - most talented songwriter and guitar player of his generation,but get a band

humanriff77 Wrote:
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> Jack White - most talented songwriter and guitar
> player of his generation,but get a band


He's in a great band, don't @#$%& with MEG! I've got a huge crush on her (like Patti Smith has got the hots for Keith).

Hey Potted

No insult to your darling intended. She's OK in a Mo Tucker sort of way, but Jack would really benefit from a full band sound. Its a weird comparison,but I was listening to classic early 70's Stevie Wonder the other day, and was thinking Jack White with these musicians would make an awesome record.

I was trying my heardest to not like Jack White because he is so goddamn groovy. Every pseudo intelectual rock'n roll critic can not find enough superlatives for him. But after hearing the last album only once I had to just come around and face it: the guy is one great talent. On every level. Not only a good songwriter but also a cool performer. And he is tall. He kicked the living crap out of that guy from the other band. The Bondies.
I don't agree with johnr about Easter by PS being a letdown. It was her big commercial breakthrough. A real r&r album. They wanted the bigtime. Patti did indeed already open for the Stones. I was at one of the shows in 78 in NYC where she opened with the "real" Patti Smith Band: Lenny Kaye, JD Daughterty and IVan Kral. I won't ever forget the first time I heard "Horses".

Just for info,Patti was awarded the "Order des lettres" by the French government this week. A very prestigious award for artists, as far as I know only Dylan and Lou Reed are rock stars who received this award.

Hey Chelseadrugstore. I saw PS in NYC in 78 as well. Played at some club in the Village. She was great. Raw energy.

Yeah cafaro, I saw Patti Smith a zillion times those years in NYC. What was real cool in those years that at Max's or CB's on many many nights they would just throw some session together with member sfrom PS Group, Television, Richard Hell, Heartbreakers and/or Dolls, Blondie etc. So we got treated to at least one lousy version of "I wanna be your Dog" every week. But one got to see these cats all the time on small stages.
The two times I saw the PS Group in all it's glory was both at the Palladium. Their own show with (I believ) Squeeze opening and the time they opned for the Stones. That was the unnanounced show. I had seen them in Philly already and the'd been in Jersey already. But we all knew they HAD to come to the City sooner or later. What a blast!

NYC was really happening then. I moved there in 1979, right after high school. I started going down there in 77 with 3 fake IDs top get into the clubs. YOu're right, you see could anybody on any given night. I saw Richard Hell a few times. Never saw the Dolls. I'm told we saw GenX once but I don't remember it. Saw the Ramones a few times.

Televison! How cool were they? Them and the Talking Heads were so "New Wave"

Yes I was very very young too. I had that fake ID too LOL
I remember genX too. I lived on top of 4th St Record Store. They had brought Billy Idol over and he was doing a record store promo appearance. he was young too. Didn't have that sneer yet. I remember he was all dressed in red leather and had the biggest damn pompadour ever. He was so out of it and seemed ill at ease with all record type slimebags that were pretending to be his best buddy. And Television was never really my bag. What I loved about them was Richard Lloyd. To this day IMO one of thew finest guitarrists around
As far as "New Wave" or avantguarde goes our fave band of my group was James Chance and the Contortions. he was all the time getting his ass kicked on stage. He was doing this super funky James Brown bag with a band that could not play but really knew how to get down.

Wow I'm jealous, i'm the same age as you guys, but I grew up in Hong Kong, we saw The Clash,Banshees,Pretenders and a few other bands of the time come through, but we dreamed of being in NYC to see Thunders,Blondie,Television etc, what a great time for music.
I still love James Chance, I was annoying my wife playing "Buy" at full volume just the other day.