Patti Smith at Orpheum, Boston, Nov. 24, 2025

Live performance Critiques

Her daughter, Jesse Paris Smith, performed keys in the course of the encore.

Patti Smith on the Orpheum Theatre, Boston, Nov. 24, 2025.

Together with her 1975 debut album “Horses,” Patti Smith immediately etched her identify into the rock and roll historical past books. A faithful scholar of those self same historical past books, Smith bridged the spark of rock’s first technology and the punk revolution she and her New York friends would quickly spearhead.

But what actually made “Horses” one-of-a-kind, then and now, was its introduction of ecstatic poetry to the rock idiom. By delivering fiery recitations over her band’s uncooked however catchy din, Smith proved that avant-garde literature and pop music may each take you to the identical vacation spot: non secular transcendence and self-definition by way of artwork.

Although Smith has completed a lot as an writer and singer/songwriter within the half-century since, “Horses” nonetheless looms massive in her discography. She’s already staged stay celebrations of the file for its thirtieth and fortieth birthdays, however the Fiftieth-anniversary tour she delivered to the Orpheum Theatre Monday night time marks the primary time she’s performed “Horses” in full in Boston (to not point out her first Boston present of any variety in six years). Excessive as fan expectations should have been, Smith greater than rose to the event.

Patti Smith obtained precisely one phrase into “Gloria” earlier than stumbling and calling for a do-over, however the crowd nonetheless roared its approval, and they’d keep within the palm of her hand for the remainder of the night time. That didn’t cease Smith and the band — which featured her son Jackson on guitar alongside along with her day-one guitarist and drummer, Lenny Kaye and Jay Dee Daugherty — from taking part in like they’d one thing to show. By the point they hit the primary call-and-response refrain of “Gloria,” the vitality trade between viewers and artist felt positively electrical.

Time could have added some grit and gravitas to Smith’s voice, but it surely has but to drive her to tone down her stage presence. She nonetheless punctuates verses with that thrilling high-pitched whoop, and she or he labored herself right into a howling, fists-aloft fervor for the anthemic peak of “Free Cash.” Toying barely with the album sequence to higher swimsuit the move of stay efficiency, the primary half of the “Horses” set ended with “Birdland,” which began as a Beat-poet ballad however ended with Smith tossing her e book apart, yelling “up, up, up!,” and spitting on the bottom.

The midtempo groove of “Kimberly” obtained aspect two of “Horses” off to a extra relaxed begin. Between songs, Smith waxed nostalgic in her inimitable Jersey-poet patois in regards to the Jim Morrison dream which impressed “Break It Up” and the way recording at Jimi Hendrix’s Electrical Woman Studios knowledgeable the Hendrix tribute and album nearer “Elegie.” Moderately than finish the “Horses” set on a down observe, “Elegie” led right into a fierce, sprawling tackle “Land” with a tangent (seemingly improvised by Smith) during which the tune’s protagonist Johnny appears down sadly at Earth’s environmental and humanitarian injustices. Luckily, he then embraces the facility of affection and involves Boston to get together, at which level the band introduced issues full circle with one final triumphant spherical of “Gloria.”

In any case that, Smith had earned a break. So she took one, whereas her comrades saved the momentum going with a three-song tribute to Tv, the visionary New York punk group with whom Smith shared a CBGB residency 50 years in the past. In mild of the 2023 passing of singer/guitarist Tom Verlaine, who was an in depth collaborator and buddy of Smith’s, the trustworthy but joyous covers of “See No Evil,” “Friction,” and “Marquee Moon” felt like a loving homage from the boys within the band.

Smith returned to the stage with a coronary heart full of affection for the Boston crowd. She buttered them up with reward for Dunkin’ Donuts espresso earlier than insisting they had been well worth the trouble of the four-hour prepare trip from New York. (Aspect observe: are you able to think about some other rock star touring to a gig by prepare?)

Following a traditional album playthrough with a best hits set dangers anticlimax, however Smith ensured that this a part of the present felt simply as important as “Horses.” The sublimely mystical “Dancing Barefoot” was a worthy comfort prize for anybody bummed to be lacking Stevie Nicks’ concurrent live performance on the Backyard, whereas Smith threw herself so onerous into “Pissing in a River” that she wanted to pause afterwards to catch her breath. In reminiscence of Jimmy Cliff, Smith performed “Ain’t It Unusual” for the primary time this tour, and her band’s convincing approximation of reggae rhythms made clear simply how a lot they’d discovered from the late grasp.

No self-respecting hippie or punk may indulge on this a lot nostalgia with out additionally addressing present occasions, and it’s to Patti Smith’s credit score that she has by no means shied away from talking her thoughts. Smith devoted the ethereal “Peaceful Kingdom,” which she wrote for the Palestinian individuals in 2003, to the kids at the moment struggling in Gaza, and she or he launched “Ghost Dance” with an indictment of the Trump administration’s disregard for the land rights of Native People.

Together with her daughter Jesse Paris Smith becoming a member of the band on keys for the encore, Smith introduced the night time to an in depth with the hopeful rallying cry of “Folks Have the Energy,” a present of resilience from an artist for whom “Horses” was only the start.

Setlist for Patti Smith at Orpheum Theatre, Boston, Monday, Nov. 24, 2025

Horses:

• Gloria (Them cowl)
• Redondo Seaside
• Free Cash
• Birdland
• Kimberly
• Break It Up
• Elegie
• Land: Horses / Land of a Thousand Dances / Gloria (reprise)

Second set:

• See No Evil (Tv cowl)
• Friction (Tv cowl)
• Marquee Moon (Tv cowl)
• Dancing Barefoot
• Ain’t It Unusual
• Pissing in a River
• Peaceful Kingdom / Folks Have the Energy
• As a result of the Evening

Encore:

• Ghost Dance (with Jesse Paris Smith)
• Folks Have the Energy (with Jesse Paris Smith)