New York. Concerts have been in short supply for a year: with the start of the corona pandemic, the live music industry worldwide also went into lockdown. Musicians therefore got creative – they performed on internet streams, in drive-in theaters, or in front of hospital windows. Now a world star has returned to the stage for the first time since the beginning of the crisis: Patti Smith gave a mini-concert in New York on Tuesday, March 9th.
The Brooklyn Museum staff concert was held in honor of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. It is considered part of a series of pop-up events intended to mark New York’s first steps towards returning to normal life amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Smith, “Godmother of Punk” and in the music business for 50 years, performed six songs – “Wing”, “My Blakean Year”, “Grateful”, “Dancing Barefoot”, “How Can We Hang On To A Dream?” and “Because The Night” – and read from her book “Just Kids”. Your audience: Not even 50 people, all on chairs that were placed with sufficient distance to meet the demands of social distancing. Not really a challenge for Smith, who is used to much larger audiences. “I’m not nervous, but it was so long ago,” said the singer excitedly.
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