Patti Smith
Sydney Entertainment Centre
Sydney, NSW Australia
3rd September 1998
1998 Australian Tour with Bob Dylan

Waz From Oz Uncirculated DAT Master Transfer To CD-R

01. Waiting Underground
02. Whirl Away
03. Dead City
04. Redondo Beach
05. Summer Cannibals
06. Momento Mori > Not Fade Away > Patti Talks
07. Ghost Dance
08. Beneath The Southern Cross
09. Rockin’ In The Free World

The Band
Patti Smith - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar & Harmonica
Lenny Kaye - Guitar & Backing Vocals
Jay Dee Daughter - Drums & Backing Vocals
Tony Shanahan - Bass Guitar & Backing Vocals
Olivier Ray - Guitar

In June 1998 it was announced that Bob Dylan would be undertaking another Australian tour in August & September, his 5th Aussie tour since 1966, this time he would be playing bigger venues than he did on his last
Australian tour in March / April 1992, in Sydney they were at the at the State Theatre, this time in Sydney on the 3rd & 4th September he’ll be playing the 12,000 seater Sydney Entertainment Centre.
Australian shows the support act was Patti Smith who is one of my favourite females in rock n roll. Patti was/is popular here in Australia, all her albums from “Horses” to her then current album “Peace And Noise”
all made the Top 100 album chart albeit at the middle to lower end, though “Wave” reached No 30, she’d also strengthened her popularity here in January of the previous year on a sold-out Australian tour.

This Australian tour would be the 2nd time that Bob & Patti had toured together, the first time was December 1995 in the USA, each night Bob & Patti performed a one song duet together, hopefully this was to be repeated
on this upcoming Australian tour.

It was a busy 4 gigs in a row for me, the first was on the 2nd September when Patti played an instore song & poem session at HUM records on Oxford Street, I taped this, hopefully sometime in the future it will make its
DIME debut. I was lucky that for the fourth time that I was able engage in conversations with both Patti & Lennie Kaye at HUM records gig.
For both Sydney shows my mate & myself scored floor section tickets plus the following day's Wollongong show, which is a city down south roughly just over a 3-hour return car trip from Sydney. I taped all 3 Bob & Patti shows.

As soon as Patti hit the stage she was greeted by applause, whistles, her name being called out, kicking off the show with “Waiting Underground” one of my faves from “Peace And Noise”, the next song was another
fave “Whirl Away” making it’s 2nd & last appearance on the tour.

Next up was “Dead City”, followed by a favourite from “Horses” “Redondo Beach” then into “Summer Cannibals” after that she verbally addressed the audience for the first time by saying “She, would like to salute
National Poetry week in Sydney” then we could see her hunt around on stage looking for something, for what we didn’t know until she said “Yeah, found my glasses” then from a book she started to read the lyrics to
“Momento Mori” which morphed into Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” which is when Patti really started getting into it plus played harmonica.

For the 2nd time she spoke to the audience, about troubles in the world & a just just occurred plane crash, the plane crash Patti refers to was the of Swissair Flight 111 which crashed into the sea 8km (5 miles)
off the coast of Nova Scotia Canada with no survivors, it was actually on the 2nd September but with Australia being ahead time wise here it was the 3rd September.

She also mentions that due to the devastating floods in Bangladesh that millions there are now homeless, she asked us when we go home to think of all these peoples troubles, to give them a moment of our thoughts but adds
"But we’ve still gonna have some fun” & launches into one of my Top 10 Patti songs “Ghost Dance” which received good audience response.

Followed by “Beneath The Southern Cross” on which she played acoustic guitar (she’s played this song at every Australian gig I’ve been to) for those that aren’t aware the Southern Cross is easily visible in the Southern Hemisphere
but not visible at all north of +20° in the northern hemisphere. It holds special meaning in Australia and New Zealand, where it is circumpolar (continually visible above the horizon) and can be seen throughout the year.
She & the band closed tonight’s set with Neil Young's “Rocking In The Free World” I can’t remember but I think she played some electric guitar, near the end of the song she told us to “Enjoy Bob Dylan”.

I enjoyed the first Patti Smith Group 1998 Sydney show & was looking forward to Dylan’s set, especially as the much hoped for Patti/Dylan duet didn’t happen during her set & that most likely it will happen in Dylan’s.
Her & the bands sound was much clearer than Dylan’s was that night. More regarding this issue further down.

Patti was somewhat subdued tonight, during the show she mentioned she was affected by “pollen sickness” I assume that's American term for hay fever. Friends who were standing in front of the stage told me that at one point
they looked around & realized that the smiling older woman boogieing next to them was no other than Patti Smith!

On a Dylan fan website, a guy wrote that Patti came on stage to a totally disinterested audience, he heard people say, “Is the singer a man or woman?” then went on to rubbish her performance. I totally rebuke that Patti
received a negative reaction, she came on to a receptive audience, on my recording you’ll hear her name plus song requests being yelled out throughout her set by an audience who definitely knew who she is, she garnered
good audience applause during her set. I’d say a good percentage had brought tickets because she was on the bill.

In June/July 1999 I was in London, on the afternoon of the 1st July (the first of two nights the Patti Smith Group were playing the Forum in Kentish Town, BTW I taped both nights) while whizzing and pasting and pooting through
the streets of Camden I chanced upon Lenny Kaye walking towards me, as we passed I said hello, he surprisingly stopped turned out he regonized me from our conversations back in Sydney Janauary 1997 about a long departed good
friend of his Lillian Roxon who'd I met as a teenager, so we had another chat. We talked about the Dylan / Patti 1998 Australian shows, he asked me what I thought of them. I told them I thought they were excellent voicing that
I thought in Sydney that their sound was superior to Dylan’s, Lenny tells me that after that tour they borrowed / hired Dylans sound guy for some later tours. I was itching to ask him why at no show on the 1998 Australian tour did
the anticipated Patti/Dylan duet never occur, but I chickened out asking just in case there might have been a difference of opinion between the two artists why it didn't, however 27 years later I wish I had!

Thanks, as always to mjk5510 for his remaster.
Enjoy, Waz From Oz

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