

Pissing in A River is a stately build-up with Smith riding the emotion of it at its climax, Dancing Barefoot a blistering gem, her best-known song, the one she wrote with Springsteen, Because The Night a solid stone crowd pleaser.
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Her 1975 debut album Horses is obviously delved into for its nuggets of gold: the gentle reggae pulse of Redondo Beach – dedicated to the late great Lee Scratch Perry – the touching beauty of Free Money, and the absolutely coruscating bliss of Land: Horses segueing into Gloria before the encore. From the slow-burning opener Grateful through to the fist-clenching encore of People Have The Power this is a flawless, joyously emotional performance.
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There’s still Lenny Kaye on guitar and Jay Dee Daugherty on drums who have been with her forever, veteran US musician Tony Shanahan on bass and keyboards and her son Jackson Smith (from her marriage to the late MC5 guitarist Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith) on guitar.Īnd this New York rock royalty know how to deliver. The acoustics of the Forum bring out the sharpness of the band. At the age of 74 her voice is still incredible, clear and strong, her energy undimmed. Of course, a troubadour like Patti Smith isn’t going to disappoint, and she doesn’t. So, there is expectation aplenty, genuine excitement, a sense of occasion.

We’ve been denied this kind of life-affirming, blood-rushing, experience since the Bug came upon us. ‘Back to my old punk self…’ as she puts it. ‘My first indoor job in 19 months!’ says the living legend that is Patti Smith as she takes the stage at the art-deco Forum in Bath to rapturous applause, clad in a fringed suede Western-style jacket which she sheds midway through the set to reveal a customary black blazer. Elfyn Griffith is awestruck, Naomi Dryden-Smith shoots from London…

NPR production team with 84 track recording setup as Sigur Ros performs at Celebrate Brooklyn in Prospect Park Bandshell on July 31ĩ years ago ago by All Songs Considered NPR.In the same week of the Labour Party conference there’s a whole world more socialism and togetherness on show at Patti Smith’s kick-off of the European leg of her world tour. Sigur Ros performs at Celebrate Brooklyn in Prospect Park Bandshell on July 31ĩ years ago ago by All Songs Considered NPR. Special thanks to Celebrate Brooklyn, BRIC Arts and Bowery Presents. On the live stage in Brooklyn, Sigur Rós indulges in its specialty, as it fuses uncommon delicacy with uncommon power, while compromising neither.Īudio engineers: Ed Haber, Josh Rogosin, Kristin Mueller and Damon Whittemore. Though it occasionally builds up to a furious clamor, most notably in "Varúð," Valtari floats around in a dreamy sweet spot: calming but portentous, with every moment milked for maximum drama and beauty. The group's first album since 2008 - Jónsi released the effervescent and uplifting solo album Go in the interim - Valtari returns to the roots of Sigur Rós' moodily slow-building, almost impossibly pretty sound.

Now, the band is touring to support this year's gorgeous Valtari - making its first live appearances in four years - and playing career-spanning two-hour shows like this July 31 concert at New York City's Prospect Park as part of the Celebrate Brooklyn series. Just last year, that experience was documented in a gorgeous DVD/CD package called Inni, which showcases both Sigur Rós' epic sonic sweep and an ability to complement it with gripping, enveloping visuals. He's created an air of shyly vulnerable mystery that seems antithetical to showmanship.Īnd yet it's not hyperbolic to suggest that Sigur Rós is one of the world's great live bands, creating a hypnotic, almost overwhelming experience. Plus, singer Jónsi - he of the otherworldly voice, singing mostly in a ghostly language of his own devising - is no Mick Jagger when it comes to calling attention to himself. The Icelandic band's songs either billow out deliberately or stomp majestically, and in every case entail the building of layers upon intricate sonic layers. Sigur Rós could be forgiven for sounding better on record than in concert.
