Patti Smith, For Noise Festival, Pully, Switzerland

I briefly came into possession of the set list for this show, but I gave it away to an eager French person who wanted it for his girlfriend. I should have told him I was representative of all friendly Californians and that this should clear up our crappy reputation with the French but I forgot. Also neglected to get a photo before I gave it away for a kiss on BOTH cheeks. Cheap I know.

So... Patti Smith! Having just finished her book Just Kids, and having owned the album Horses for awhile, I was looking forward to this.  Now, I have been sorely disappointed withe reunion shows and also stars of the 60s and 70s still performing (Beach Boys at 02 World, that review will get written soon) so I was a bit wary, but I can securely say Patti still has it. Strolling onto stage looking like a train-riding hobo in fingerless black gloves, a black knit beanie, baggy jeans, work boots and an oversize black jacket over a white Eletric Ladyland tshirt, she pretty clearly had androgynous rock star down.  Patti still has her edge, just more wrinkles, and her crow-ish, think appearance suits her songs.  One passage of the book she relates how Allen Ginsberg fronts her some money when she comes up short paying for dinner, and didn't realize until they started speaking that she was a woman ("I'm sorry, I took you for a very pretty boy.")

Anyway, as her band came on, the audience experienced a shift as young 'uns fell back and an older crowd pushed to the front, one Swiss gentleman armed with a long stemmed sunflower.  I am reminded as I watch Patti that she was a poet first and musician second, and it come through in her lyrics. She referenced some current political situations (like imprisoned Pussy Riot) and called for unity before some new songs, like "Banga."  Believes that if everyone learned the song it would foster understanding for all.  There are human moments in the show, when she flubs and opening, and you can see how much fun she is having as she steps back from the mic and laughs with her bandmates, proclaiming "Hey, it's art!" To balance serious social commentary (songs like "Rock n Roll Nigger") and odes Amy Winehouse ("This is the Girl") we have a rarity in the field: a female musician, staying true to her original artistic intent, totally in her element, directing a group of talented and tight knit musicians. Like Lenny Kay said "It's a nugget/if you dug it," and, by the sound of it, we all dug it.

L to R: Jackson Smith, Tony Shanahan, Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye

Jackson Smith and Tony Shanahan

Tony Shanahan

Grandaddy Set List, For Noise Festival, Pully, Switzerland

a bit delayed but here is the set list. Thanks to Thibault for sending some more photos of the show.

Intro (Welcome Back Kotter theme song)

El Caminos in the West

Now it's On

Yeah is What We Had

Crystal Lake

AM 180

Jed's Other Poem (Beautiful Ground)

Lost on Yer Merry Way

So You'll Aim Toward the Sky

The Go in Go-For-It

12-Pak-599/My Small Love

Levitz

Chartsengrafs

Stray Dog and the Chocolate Shake

Hewlett's Daughter

Summer Here Kids

[Encore]

Cover of Pavement's "Here"

He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot

Grandaddy, For Noise Festival, Pully, Switzerland, August 25th, 2012

"and dogs are dead/

with broken hearts/

collapsing by/

the coffee carts"

Dreams come true in Switzerland when Grandaddy plays "Crystal  Lake" 

Well well well, this long awaited moment was finally upon the chosen few, with concert tickets purchased in April and finally, after plane, train, and a steep uphill walk, I am in Pully (pronounced like the first half of a 3-year-old saying "Pwease" without the "s," not like "pulley," a tool used to lift an object of equal or greater weight), standing in the rain and mud, discovering that my fancy-pants North Face jacket is no longer waterproof, and wondering what it's all for.  22 CHF later, I have a Grandaddy t-shirt  (yes I was that guy)  emblazoned with the quote "Now it's on....again" and a cheap plastic poncho protecting me for all it's worth as I wait to see a band I have loved since my early twenties days as a tragic art student.  This is what we do for rock and roll.  Considering my first Grandaddy co-fan in San Francisco was a Frenchman, I am not so surprised at their considerable popularity in Europe, but I am surprised at the age of the crowd, good to know our favorite Modesto rockers are reaching ever younger and impressionable audiences.  Almost as satisfying as hearing the guy behind me requesting "Jeez Louise" which, with the accent, sounds like "Jeez-he Louise-eh."  Ah, adorable.

pedals fuzzy with anticipation

The crew comes out to the opening theme song to Welcome Back Kotter, an appropriate choice after a 7 year break-up-now-hiatus. They opened with "El Caminos in the West," and I now I am sure the song is about this kind of El Camino, not the historic highway in California. The stage setup is reminiscent of classic Grandaddy, so a big screen playing assorted films, my favorite being the video for "Now it's On," where a group of girls, replete with fake beards and trucker hats, play the band members and get up to all sorts of awesome cliched rock star antics, like chugging root beer, fighting, and storming/escaping from of a press conference. A b-side gem that was resurrected, amidst mostly songs from Sophtware Slump and Sumday, was "My Small Love," a short and sweet paen to the lovelorn some of you may know from rarities Concrete Dunes album.  In a tribute to another great California band, also from the Central Valley, Grandaddy covered "Here" by Pavement, during the encore, in a faster, more crunchy guitar/feedbacky version.  Funny, didn't Pavement just reunite in 2010?  So, unlike so many other disappointing and pathetic reunions (I can't even talk about the Codeine show in July, it's still too fresh) where lights and and effects and tired songs mask burned out and compromised musicians, I am happy to report that Grandaddy still has you, crying into your keyboard with your big headphones on, getting on the outside of 12-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon, next to your mixer and laptop, dorking out on midi mixes, while the lawnmowers going and the crickets chirping and methane hangs over the farmlands and air conditioners get abandoned in forests and you wonder where he/she went and why you screwed up so bad. 

So we could analyze the Pavement lyrics: "I was dressed for success/and success it never comes," harkening back to the point where Grandaddy almost-but-not-quite broke big time, but let's just go straight to the end, where "Last time, last time was the best time." Indeed.