Music, comedy, poetry, and audience participation filled the room. At first blush, it looked like an episode of Prairie Home Companion, but it was really musician/poetess Patti Smith performing at the Institute of Contemporary Art on Wednesday night.

Patti Smith is famous for channeling the fierce, demanding forces of creation. In her interviews and in articles about her, she comes off more like a medium who needs the perfect conditions in order to let the spirits run wild.

But, in person, Smith is more like a cute, crunchy-granola mom you'd find shopping at the Harvest Co-op. She has complete control of the muses that inspire her, and she can turn them on and off as if she were working a light switch.

Smith started off the evening with jokes about the Aqua Teen Hunger Force incident and an accident involving dog pee in a passenger seat. (Her website indicates that she is very much pro-ATHF.) After the comedy, Smith changed, launching into "The Lovecrafter."

And then she changed again and again, constantly and always on a dime, one moment storming through a song on her acoustic guitar and then taking audience questions.

Some of the audience questions were real howlers. Patti Smith is one patient and classy lady because some people were downright invasive, essentially asking, "Hey, you still talk to that dude you used to bang from the Blue Oyster Cult?" or "Hey, are you shagging Sam Shepherd again?"

Smith always responded with a patient, but heavy, sigh and then answered the question to the audience's satisfaction. (No, she doesn't talk to the dude from the Blue Oyster Cult these days, and, no, she's not banging Sam Shepherd again - he's performing on her upcoming covers record.)

Smith's performance was a surprise. She always came off as dark and intense, but she immediately built a complex relationship with the audience. She seemed to give everything to them, but, at the same time, it was always clear who was in control of the stage.

Image of Patti Smith looking way more serious than she did in person from pattismith.net. You know that on the inside she loves being inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame with Van Halen.