Live Review: Patti Smith @ All Points East, Sunday 3rd June

The crowd were hyped for Patti Smith at All Points East Festival.

Patti Smith knows how to make an entrance and that she did on Sunday at All Points East in Victoria Park London to a super hyped crowd. The performance she delivered made clear that Patti and her band are still a contemporary - not legacy - act, with her electric presence and a voice that shot from the stage with as much power and vitriol as it did on her debut LP Horses back in 1975. Warmed up and ready to rock'n'roll having played the evening before, at Brighton's Dome theatre with her band, Patti couldn't have chosen a better weekend weather-wise for her UK tour stop. Opening the show by showering love and light on the late beat poet Allen Ginsberg, whose birthday it would have been, and reciting a segment from his seminal novel Howl. Playing some of her more political songs like 'People Have the Power' and 'Pissing In A River', Smith proved that she's still not one to shy away from making a statement. Those who've attended Patti Smith shows previously will be familiar with her shamanic musical preaching - performances that feel like exorcisms, as she croons, howls, and spurns her poetic lyrics to classic rock chimes and rhythms. Highlight of the show was a raucous rendition of 'Gloria', with the crowd swaying, clapping, and swirling along to the gospel stomp of the track. This has to have been the closest we've gotten to God in a long time. Photos courtesy All Points East.