Patti Smith
St Paul's Cathedral
London
UK
18th September 2024

Lineage: SP-CMC-25s > SP-SPSB-11 Battery Box > Roland R-07 > 24Bit / 44.1 khz > amadeus pro > 16 bit / 44.1 khz > xld > FLAC
taper: rayrad


01. intro
02. Cry Humanity (poem)
03. Ghost Dance
04. chat
05. My Blakean Year *
06. chat
07. Man In The Long Black Coat (Bob Dylan)
08. Nine
09. chat
10. Work (Charlotte Day Wilson)
11. chat
12. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall (Bob Dylan)
13. chat
14. Peaceable Kingdom > People Have The Power (spoken)
15. chat
16. Beneath The Southern Cross *
17. band intros
18. Pissing In A River
19. chat
20. Wing
21. chat
22. Because The Night
23. chat
24. People Have The Power


Patti Smith - vocals / * guitar
Tony Shanahan - bass / piano / guitar / vocals
Jackson Smith - guitar
Seb Rochford - drums / percussion


Support the artist - buy the records - go to the shows:

www.pattismith.net
www.facebook.com/PattiSmithAuthor
www.instagram.com/thisispattismith
pattismith.substack.com


patti smith in st paul's cathedral

there's a bill no one saw coming

and promoted by fabric, of all people

the organisation based around the dance music club a short walk away from christopher wren's baroque masterpiece

only the second contemporary music show to be held there - after ry x's performance in 2023

by the time i saw the news, it appeared to be sold out

or, at least, sign-ups to register for tickets were long closed

but then, out of the blue a week later, i get a mail-out saying tickets are on sale

and manage to grab a pair in the front block

within the separate areas, though, it's free seating

and when we get there on the night, the queue is snaking way around the colossal building

we still, however, somehow end up in the sixth row

everyone inside seems to be in a slack-jawed fugue state - staring pie-eyed up at the vaulted ceilings in lingering doubt that we can really be about to see patti smith in here

it's not like she hasn't played churches before

(on the way, we drive by st giles in the fields, where we saw her play in both 2007 and 2011)

but this is something else

the stage is set up directly beneath the dome

a spot generally reserved for royal weddings and funerals

and not, it's fair to say, in any way designed for the auditory challenges of a rock and roll show

the band have done what they can to ameliorate this

jackson plays an acoustic throughout - seb is on a cocktail kit, strictly on brushes and soft mallets

but there's no way to stop patti's vocals echoing around like, well... like a vicar's voice at the pulpit

somehow, though, this just adds to the immensity of the spectacle

and tony has found a way to turn what ought to be the disaster of his electric bass into a reverberating drone that sounds like a hundreds-strong choir chanting down on us from the echo chamber of the dome itself

it is simultaneously heart-swellingly overwhelming and unnervingly eldritch

the combined effect, however, is not a taper's dream

but many hours spent on the edit have produced, i think, something that gives a pretty honest sense of the amazing experience

it's not one we'll soon forget

enjoy
ray
x

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