Patti Has the Power

Patti Smith (Photo By John Anderson)

With the hypnotic strum of her opener, "Beneath the Southern Cross," still resonating, Patti Smith paused to adjust her cord then inadvertently squirted herself in the face with one of those small nozzle Ozarka bottles as she tried to take a drink. "As a consumer," quipped Smith as the audience giggled, "I really don't like these weird things. I always squirt myself, y'know. Anyways, that's my consumer beef." The sold-out throng of 5,500 roared at the reference to the night's main attraction, former presidential candidate and consumer advocate Ralph Nader. Then, just when she'd disarmed the masses, she delivered the stealth gut-wrencher: "We'd like to dedicate this song to John Walker Lindh, and we appeal to all to look at him with understanding and compassion." Whoa. If the crowd of lefties wasn't paying attention, this quiet call to forgiveness for the young California man supposedly turned al Qaeda solider had them by the huevos. "Boy Cried Wolf," from Smith's 2000 opus Gung Ho, followed, evoking St. Sebastian, sacrificial lambs, and straw men. Joined onstage by right-hand man Oliver Ray and armed only with an acoustic and her patented howl, Smith performed a short but moving set. Where Jackson Browne's straight-forward Woody Guthrie-style folk played to the crowd's body politic just an hour earlier -- with a golden-throated, "World in Motion," Bob Marley's "Redemption Song," and "The Next Voice You Hear" -- Smith's wielded metaphor. Punk's wild poetess could've whipped out the obvious: "'Til Victory," "Ask the Angels," or even the Green Party-ready "New Party," but she didn't. She opted instead for the subtle. Her closer, "Dancing Barefoot," lightened the mood and segued nicely into her intro of the night's real rock star: Nader. After affable Ralph had his say, the evening ended with the grassroots hero sharing the stage with Browne, local world beaters Grupo Fantasma, and Smith for a sing-along of her "People Have the Power." If you'd been there, you'd've believed it, too.