Last Wednesday, for the first time in my life, I was fortunate enough to be in the presence of the original queen of punk rock, the one and only legendary, incredible, poetic, and awe-inspiring Patti f*cking Smith.
I’m trying (and failing) to maintain some chill while I write about this. When I got home from the show, I was recklessly shoveling Ben & Jerry’s down my throat as an attempt to wrap my fangirling brain around the experience, and so I thought that maybe I should take some time, cool down, and allow the post-Patti fever to break in hopes that my word vomiting would be considerably more controlled whilst writing this review. Needless to say, days after the fact, I’m still in limbo—AKA, I’m on the couch in my underwear, eating an avocado as if it’s a peeled apple, and listening to my collection of Patti Smith vinyl as I write this.
The event was called “A Night of Words and Music with Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye, and Tony Shanahan,” and it kicked off what is to be the three-week long Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival. The festival, which is one of the oldest and totally free summer fests in the country (yes, I saw Patti Smith for absolutely FREE), boasts a loaded lineup that focuses heavily on influential women artists belonging to various mediums such as music, dance, and spoken word. So, it only made sense that Patti Smith was selected to start it all off with a thunderous bang.
