Re: Brighton - 16 August 2005

["Words 2 - Permuted" <Words2>]

Andrew

Great review...  Any chance I can ... er... borrow it and add it to my  
picture gallery (or are you uploading to your space)?

Words


On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 11:42:07 +0100, Andrew F Wilson  
<andrewfwilson> permuted the following:

> Patti beamed radiantly as she came on stage with her band at the
> Brighton Dome on Tuesday evening.  This is usually a seated venue, but
> today the front stall seats had been removed to make a large standing
> area.  There is a good sized stage, but there was no screen or
> projection in tonight's show.  Lenny, JD, Tony and Tom took up their
> usual places.  One difference was that Tony's keyboards were decorated
> with paper lettering saying ELVIS LIVES.
>
> Patti welcomed everyone, picked up a paperback of 'Early Work', and
> launched into a fluent reading of Piss Factory.
>
> Next was a joyful version of Redondo Beach.  This seems an inevitable
> song in Brighton, as it is a beach sort of place.  When I first heard
> the song in the mid-seventies I imagined Redondo Beach would be like
> an English seaside town.  I did visit the place one day in 1981 (only
> because of the song) and found it was not like that at all.
>
> Patti took up her acoustic guitar and sang a beautiful version of
> Beneath the Southern Cross.  We were standing front centre - my
> daughter Maddie had the very centre front-row place, so you can
> imagine what sort of evening she had - giving us the experience of
> looking up at Patti above us, like the Statue of Liberty.
>
> She held onto her guitar for the next number, an improvisation to her
> own accompaniment.  This was a song to "Andy", the tour planner,
> urging him to make sure that when he was planning to send her off to
> Iceland, Russia and Finland, he still remembered to send her to play
> in Brighton.  This was received with great amusement by the audience
> as they gradually realised what Patti was singing about.  The
> improvisation then segued into My Blakean Year.  Lenny went back to
> his green Strat for this one, having broken a string on his acoustic
> guitar during the previous number.
>
> Free Money started languidly with a shimmering guitar part from Lenny.
>  The song achieves the remarkable feat of being one of Patti's best
> slow numbers and one of her greatest fast songs.  Terrific and
> exhilarating, as usual.
>
> Lenny now took up a bass guitar.  A confused roadie also offered a
> bass to Tom, who at first appeared too polite to refuse, but finally
> did so.  Patti was now sufficiently relaxed to tell a story -
> speculating about the effect of chocolate on the local seagulls.  The
> introduction to the song was played with Tony on keyboards, but
> wrongfooted Patti.  "Where's my note?", she asked.  Tony gave it to
> her again, and the song continued;  a lovely performance that had
> Patti smiling happily as she caught all the right notes at the end.
>
> A change of pace was afoot as Patti took up her sunburst Strat.  25th
> Floor started slowly with some great feedback and she gave the song
> its due.  This was followed by Cash, a second song from the Trampin'
> album.
>
> Something in the air prompted Patti to speculate on the wisdom of
> having eaten beans on toast.  She then pursued what she called "an
> easy way to get applause", by reciting her English, Irish and Welsh
> ancestry.
>
> Next was Ain't It Strange. This has been my favourite song since I
> heard it first on Radio Ethiopia.  It never fails to bring a tingle to
> the back of my neck.  I could listen to this one all night.
>
> Patti then introduced "an American folk song" and the band went into
> their 40th anniversary version of Like a Rolling Stone.  Lenny played
> a red Strat for this one, and sang the third verse.  Patti did better
> than usual at remembering words of a new song, just missing a few at
> the start of the second verse.  The audience roared out most of the
> words in any case, in the first major sing-a-long of the evening.
>
> There was a brief pause.  A roadie again offered a bass guitar to Tom
> - but he again declined.  Patti then spoke of the other-worldliness of
> Mr Verlaine, his ability to travel through time to 2007, and the
> discovery of the 14th planet on Valentine's day.  This whimsy
> eventually led into an extremely well-received run through Dancing
> Barefoot.  Patti stayed fully shod, but mimed various ideas to the
> audience during the instrumental section.
>
> Patti then took up a clarinet and drew the band slowly into Seven Ways
> of Going.  Another dreamy and other-worldly performance.
>
> Tom finally accepted a bass guitar at this point, and Tony played
> keyboards for Because the Night.  The band played it straight and
> Patti did not even forget the words.
>
> Not Fade Away started with Tom Verlaine playing Television-like riffs,
> before slipping into the familiar tune.  Patti played harmonica for a
> while and slipped into the familiar rap about "love one another".  As
> the song ends the band goes straight into People Have the Power, the
> audience sings along enthusiastically and the concert ends on a high.
>
> After long and enthusiastic applause, Patti and the band returned for
> a two-song encore.  Tom played keyboards, with a life-size cut-out of
> Elvis behind him, as Tony sang One Night With You, in tribute to the
> King who died on this day in 1977.  Patti sang a small part of the
> chorus only, as this was a showcase for a very happy looking Tony.
>
> To finish, Patti started a familiar tale of a boy called Johnny.  Only
> tonight, in deference to Brighton, Johnny was wearing
> slightly-too-tight swimming trunks.  After that slightly odd start the
> movie kept moving as planned and Land segued eventually into Gloria.
> As Johnny was contemplating the party Patti suddenly threw off a
> terrific mime of Gloria "leaning on the parking meter".  Only two
> seconds long - but a marvellous moment.  The audience sang its heart
> out and the end of the concert was a wonderful climax, with no
> let-down afterwards.  We went out happy into the night.
>
> Kind regards
>
>
> Andrew



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