Boston show

[mg (Mitch Gart)]

I went.  Didn't write down the set list, will have to wait for the
tape, or maybe another babelista will post it first.  The show was
1 1/2 hours in a hot auditorium.  It was scheduled for 8, and there
was an announcement about 8:10 by babel-list's own John Jacobs that 
Patti would be ready in a few minutes, then about 8:30 she, Lenny, 
and Oliver came out through the curtains at center stage, along with 
(I think) Jackson carrying guitar cases.  They sat on 3 metal chairs 
in the center of the stage, Lenny on Patti's left and Oliver on her 
right.  

First Patti read a poem by Ginsberg, I think, accompanied by the
two guitars strumming some very minimalist chords written by Oliver
to go with the poem.  Then she read Piss Factory, with the usual
passion, except (as she later explained) she held back her spit
out of respect for the fact that the performance was in a Synagogue.
One nice difference was that at the end the crowd let her get out
the "and I will travel light" line, which is often drowned by
applause.  Then she sang Wing, and Dancin Barefoot, which got the
crowd going.

Throughout the evening she went back and forth between acoustic
songs and readings of poems, which included Y and Georgia O'Keefe
and something about Jackson Pollock, I don't know if it's a 
poem that's written down or something she improvised on the spot.
This was the most fascinating piece of the evening.  Patti talked
a little about Pollock riding in a car through the hot summer 
night, surrounded by beautiful women, riding to his death I think.
The guys picked up different acoustic guitars, ones with metal 
latticeworks on the front, which made of a jangly sound, and they 
picked more than strummed some music above the words.  Patti talked 
a bit, then closed her eyes as the boys picked, then emerged to talk 
some more, then closed her eyes a couple of minutes and just let the 
music surround her.  I thought she would raise her head again and say
some more, but instead she just gave one of her thousand-watt
smiles as the music faded away.  

There was one semi-new song Patti did last night, it's one she
did a couple of times last fall, I think it's called Grateful
and it has a line about silver threads.  Also one totally new
song she was nervous about performing for the first time live.
I can't recall the name but she said it was written last Easter 
in Provincetown about some events that had occurred, and it's
about 39 or 59 children who died.  Sorry for the vagueness on
that one.  Patti closed with an acoustic People Have The Power,
then came back for an encore and said it was nice of us to 
cheer so much, but she hadn't planned any more songs, so she
let everybody yell out requests, and got asked for Free Money
("yeah, right") and Horses and Dark Eyes and Wooly Bully (!) 
and "anything", and she answered "anything, I like that request" 
and then sang Because the Night.

It was a wonderful show where Patti's warmth really came through,
as well as her endearing confusion.  While having trouble adjusting
a mic, she said she needs to take one of those sound engineering
classes they have on the back of a matchbook.

Afterwards 3 of us went to the pizzeria and found lots of Red Sox
fans but nobody who looked like they were from the concert (but
then, how do you tell in August when everybody's hot and wearing
shorts and t-shirts.)

- Mitch