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

Concert Reviews

Her daughter, Jesse Paris Smith, played keys during the encore.

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

With her 1975 debut album “Horses,” Patti Smith instantly etched her name into the rock and roll history books. A devoted student of those same history books, Smith bridged the spark of rock’s first generation and the punk revolution she and her New York peers would soon spearhead.

Yet what truly 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 raw but catchy din, Smith proved that avant-garde literature and pop music could both take you to the same destination: spiritual transcendence and self-definition through art.

Though Smith has accomplished much as an author and singer/songwriter in the half-century since, “Horses” still looms large in her discography. She’s already staged live celebrations of the record for its 30th and 40th birthdays, but the 50th-anniversary tour she brought to the Orpheum Theatre Monday night marks the first time she’s played “Horses” in full in Boston (not to mention her first Boston show of any kind in six years). High as fan expectations must have been, Smith more than rose to the occasion.

Patti Smith got exactly one word into “Gloria” before stumbling and calling for a do-over, but the crowd still roared its approval, and they would stay in the palm of her hand for the rest of the night. That didn’t stop Smith and the band — which featured her son Jackson on guitar along with her day-one guitarist and drummer, Lenny Kaye and Jay Dee Daugherty — from playing like they had something to prove. By the time they hit the first call-and-response chorus of “Gloria,” the energy exchange between audience and artist felt positively electric.

Time may have added some grit and gravitas to Smith’s voice, but it has yet to force her to tone down her stage presence. She still punctuates verses with that thrilling high-pitched whoop, and she worked herself into a howling, fists-aloft fervor for the anthemic peak of “Free Money.” Toying slightly with the album sequence to better suit the flow of live performance, the first half of the “Horses” set ended with “Birdland,” which started as a Beat-poet ballad but ended with Smith tossing her book aside, yelling “up, up, up!,” and spitting on the ground.

The midtempo groove of “Kimberly” got side two of “Horses” off to a more relaxed start. Between songs, Smith waxed nostalgic in her inimitable Jersey-poet patois about the Jim Morrison dream which inspired “Break It Up” and how recording at Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios informed the Hendrix tribute and album closer “Elegie.” Rather than end the “Horses” set on a down note, “Elegie” led into a fierce, sprawling take on “Land” with a tangent (seemingly improvised by Smith) in which the song’s protagonist Johnny looks down sadly at Earth’s environmental and humanitarian injustices. Fortunately, he then embraces the power of love and comes to Boston to party, at which point the band brought things full circle with one last triumphant round of “Gloria.”

After all that, Smith had earned a break. So she took one, while her comrades kept the momentum going with a three-song tribute to Television, the visionary New York punk group with whom Smith shared a CBGB residency 50 years ago. In light of the 2023 passing of singer/guitarist Tom Verlaine, who was a close collaborator and friend of Smith’s, the faithful yet joyous covers of “See No Evil,” “Friction,” and “Marquee Moon” felt like a loving homage from the boys in the band.

Smith returned to the stage with a heart full of love for the Boston crowd. She buttered them up with praise for Dunkin’ Donuts coffee before insisting they were worth the hassle of the four-hour train ride from New York. (Side note: can you imagine any other rock star traveling to a gig by train?)

Following a classic album playthrough with a greatest hits set risks anticlimax, but Smith ensured that this part of the show felt just as vital as “Horses.” The sublimely mystical “Dancing Barefoot” was a worthy consolation prize for anyone bummed to be missing Stevie Nicks’ concurrent concert at the Garden, while Smith threw herself so hard into “Pissing in a River” that she needed to pause afterwards to catch her breath. In memory of Jimmy Cliff, Smith played “Ain’t It Strange” for the first time this tour, and her band’s convincing approximation of reggae rhythms made clear just how much they had learned from the late master.

No self-respecting hippie or punk could indulge in this much nostalgia without also addressing current events, and it is to Patti Smith’s credit that she has never shied away from speaking her mind. Smith dedicated the ethereal “Peaceable Kingdom,” which she wrote for the Palestinian people in 2003, to the children currently suffering in Gaza, and she introduced “Ghost Dance” with an indictment of the Trump administration’s disregard for the land rights of Native Americans.

With her daughter Jesse Paris Smith joining the band on keys for the encore, Smith brought the night to a close with the hopeful rallying cry of “People Have the Power,” a show of resilience from an artist for whom “Horses” was just the beginning.

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

Horses:

• Gloria (Them cover)
• Redondo Beach
• Free Money
• Birdland
• Kimberly
• Break It Up
• Elegie
• Land: Horses / Land of a Thousand Dances / Gloria (reprise)

Second set:

• See No Evil (Television cover)
• Friction (Television cover)
• Marquee Moon (Television cover)
• Dancing Barefoot
• Ain’t It Strange
• Pissing in a River
• Peaceable Kingdom / People Have the Power
• Because the Night

Encore:

• Ghost Dance (with Jesse Paris Smith)
• People Have the Power (with Jesse Paris Smith)