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Rating: - I Live di Telespalla N° 12 - I want Lenny Kaye's Vest
The ticket is clear: it starts at 9:30 PM. What time is it? 8:40 PM, in half an hour I'll be in Rezzato since it's almost all Highway. At most, I'll step on the pedal and make some overtakes. Someone would say it's late, probably if it had been another concert, I would have said the same thing, yet I'm going rather slow. To my eyes, it wasn't the usual Brescia, the usual Highway: it seemed more beautiful, more peaceful. I saw it with different eyes, I don't know if you get what I mean, and so I slow down a little and pay more attention. In the end, it was nothing special; it's the same old Brescia: my eyes are the ones that are different. Tonight is a special night, tonight I'll see Patti Smith in concert and I was super excited, absolutely thrilled. I couldn't wait and the expectations were just like that: ticket bought two and a half months before, spent 40 Euros practically in the first row, I harbored a spasmodic anticipation inside me (which I strangely kept to myself). What time do I arrive? At 9:15 PM, my big behind lands on the reserved seat. I like to watch the empty stage, see the technicians fixing cables and stuff like that. Don't ask me why. I watched it last night thinking: "how far is that stage from me? 5 meters? In a few minutes, I'll see Patti Smith shot in front of me".
The earlier anticipation turned into a thrill, my legs were fidgeting, and I made a strange confession to the guy sitting next to me, a gentleman from San Bonifacio (VR): "Even the first time I saw R.E.M, I wasn't this happy to go to a concert". It was true! I had said it to a stranger when I would hardly have admitted it to myself. Someone might say who cares, I just had my eyes fixed on the stage. I watched that and sometimes turned around to peek at a man sitting in the row behind: believe me, he was the spitting image of Johan Cruijff! I wandered through my thoughts: - Damn! I'm seeing Patti Smith, I'm practically in the front row and behind me, there's Cruijff sitting - Does he look like him, do you think Cruijff has nothing better to do than go to Rezzato? - my brain asked. - Shut up! - Was my response. By then, I was wandering in another dimension (and I was sober, a worrying fact!). It says 9:30 on the ticket but it started a bit later, not much though. Ten minutes late? Fifteen? I don't know, I didn't have a watch. There they are, finally. It was worth the wait, and I immediately understood that from two details (but those are what get you in life): Jay Dee Daugherty’s jacket but especially Lenny Kaye's vest. Black, on a white shirt and under a pair of jeans: folks, that’s style. There’s nothing to do about it. You immediately understand where the difference and class lie. Naturally (and rightly) it was she who took the stage.
What to say? Patti Smith is dazzling, at least it seemed so to me. Whatever she did seemed mystical, perfect. I looked at her and thought, perhaps stupidly: I would follow her anywhere. A spiritual leader, with an extraordinary value: instead of leading you to a war or a religion, she would drag you towards the poetry of her verses and the musical embroideries sewn above. She guides you towards the exhilaration and peace of the soul. It was really the concert I had been waiting for since I loved Music, maybe because I never had Michael Stipe this close. Last night I understood why Patti Smith has always been his reference, his myth. The concert was beautiful: many great songs, some classics ("Dancing Barefoot", "Gloria", and "Rock 'n Roll Nigger" those that moved me the most) that never spoil and in the encore a beautiful tribute to Jerry Garcia.
There are always some frames that fix in your mind in such moments. So in all that intoxicating Music and Poetry and my silent admiration, the abundant yawns of daughter Jesse (she played the piano), Patti's hand gestures (at times reminded me of Gaber), the intermezzo of "Pissing in A River" magnificently performed by Lenny Kaye with the acoustic guitar, those exhortations for all of us to change things, that "Don't forget it!" before leaving that stage forever will remain.
Thank you, Patti. I will never forget this evening
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