Patti Smith's Horses, Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne Festival, Sunday October 18th 5.00 pm show

Patti Smith's Horses, Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne Festival, Sunday October 18th 5.00 pm show

For those new to my blog I write about the holistic experience of attending the theatre.  So if you want a re-telling of the story please refer to the links for further information or for further insights.  Note, that I may provide different links for repeated main words or phrases.

We had booked tickets for nine shows for the Melbourne Festival in early August 2015 and my partner asked me to book three more shows on Saturday 17th 2015.  So I went through the Melbourne Festival site and booked what suited our available dates.

Some of you reading this will think it sacrilege that we did not know of "Patti Smith's Horses" other than we knew her name and the name of the album.

We arrived early to pick up our tickets and the queue wound from the main entrance of Melbourne Town Hall to Little Collins St and back.  We knew that this was an additional show as the 8.00 pm show had sold out and thought it would be worthwhile.  The queue was quite entertaining as you could not but hear the conversation behind us about "temp-ing" and not being successful in job interviews.  I bit my tongue as I could have given him some hints due to my background.  If he is reading this prepare some answers, do your homework and sound more enthusiastic.

We arrived at our seats with a young couple from a town between Canberra and Byron Bay. Welcome to Melbourne guys and we hope that you have an amazing trip to New York when you do go.  It was terrific to hear this young couple so in awe of our Melbourne Town Hall.  Thank you for coming to Melbourne and hope that you come again for the Melbourne Festival.

We sat up the back in Q Row in the Balcony and we are so relieved that we did not get standing room tickets.   It was terrific to see obvious fans bopping along and relishing the music.

We were not disappointed as some of the music did sound familiar.  I know I can hear you now scathing and rolling your eyes.

"Gloria" was familiar and we realised that we knew this iconic song.  Some relief that we knew this song.

Yes I normally complain about mobile phone usage at the theatre but this is a concert.  Sadly people were going wild taking photos and recording the concert on cameras and phones. It is a copyright issue; but hey security were not going to do anything about it.   I am not complaining but just recording my observations of this event.  It is a concert and it appears to be expected that people need proof of their attendance by taking selfies, we-lfies and recordings.

The concert began at about 5.15 pm and prolongs the record fhat no Melbourne Festival show that we have attended has started on time in its 30 year history!

I assume the 8.00 pm concert will be recorded by two professional cameramen as was the 5.00 pm show.  These cameramen did not intrude on the performers and I was pleased that this historical event was being recorded for their fans.

Musically the band played well except for one song toward the end that seemed a little out of musical synchronisation.  But, hey I do not know the songs well enough to judge.  But I do know when music does not unite.

Vocally the singers were in tune and not flat like some performers can sing a bung note.  We found the volume was quieter than we expected, which was a relief.  Yes it was loud but not excessively so.
On one or two occasions the sound mixing seemed to be a little wonky.

Diction wise it was typical rock singing whereby it can be hard to understand the lyrics at times.  I am not complaining as I enjoyed each performer's singing and the emotions they portrayed.

I loved the balance of the different performers sharing the limelight.

The lighting evoked a celebratory mood.  I especially liked the music during the "Horses" section with the smoky lights appearing to create illusions of horses.  Maybe it was coincidence but I thought I could see some horses in the smoky lights.  But hey look into the clouds and you see different images.

It was terrific to have an hour show of "Patti Smith's Horses" with the one encore.  Keeping it succinct and the crowd wanting more is the way to go.  Quality entertainment rather than people leaving as some concerts can go on too long.

The encore had someone playing the Melbourne Town Hall organ and this was terrific to be able to inform our young neighbours from NSW.

I will have to listen to this album and read the lyrics now.

Overall a 7/10