Gig 34 of 2012: 28 July 2012
Leaping straight into the main event for Morrissey yesterday, I have to come clean, I feel a bit of a fraud. Morrissey was Mrs P's idol not mine, and I used to give my house mate at Uni dogs abuse for liking the Smiths despite my music choices at that time being very questionable.
However I have seen the light in later years, driven by seeing him live and also the return to form album 'You are the Quarry' which dominated the ipod a few years back. So with Morrissey not being my reason for living, and having seen a lot of gigs this year, what did I think - well he's first class, he draws opinions, and he is unique.
At half eight the lights went out and from the black came a 5 minute lady scouse voiced list of things that are not particularly pleasant.....'poll tax, apartheid, John Lennon's murder, death of the rain forest, red necks........' and on came Moz, to the centre of the stage with Band in their trade mark now 'We hate William and Kate' T shirts for a bow. Being up in the gods, it was amazing to see the surge of the crowd running right the way front to back on his appearance and he was away.
Kicking off with burst of You Have Killed Me, Everyday Is Like Sunday, You're The One For Me, Fatty (a particular favourite of me and Mrs P) and the phenomenal How Soon Is Now? there was no way that the faithful were not going to be over the moon, twitter was proclaiming it the best live experience people had ever had although for me the sound quality of sheds this size is lacking somewhat.
Morrissey was also quick to get the quips out on his pet subjects, such as
'You'll notice I wasn't invited to the opening ceremony of the Olympics as my smile was judged to be too sincere'
'Well done on surviving that moronic jubilee, when will we be rid of that family'
'I was in Tel Aviv recently where I was given the key to the city, Manchester Council have given me nothing'
This wasn't to everyone's delight with the chap across the aisle from me standing up shouting shut up and just sing and waving certain hand gestures at various points, and whilst I don't agree with everything that comes from his mouth, he is consistent and has an opinion which is very rare in the music world these days.
Songs continued to come thick and fast, some I knew, some I didn't, regular shirt changes, one launched into the mosh pit causing a frenzy, the mic lent to the crowd to provide thoughts, which didn't last long, arms reaching out to the devoted, introducing the band. An engaging performance.Meat is Murder - backed by a film inviting us to 'meet our meat' will no doubt have converted a few more people to vegetarianism and per twitter brought tears from sections of the crowd.
The exception in the band to wearing the 'Will & Kate' T's was the extremely bouncy guitarist, who from a long way back I thought was a young lady but turns out to be Boz Boorer in drag, made me smile anyway when I realised.
After a couple of hours we were treated to an encore of Smith song Still Ill and he was gone, with a bow. Overall a really enjoyable gig, not life changing, not the best Moz gig I've seen, but all round great entertainment.
A bit bizarre though was the support act, regularly I'll come out of a gig having bought the supports album/single but Kristeen Young is definitely an acquired taste. Appearing from the darkness in the corner of the stage behind a madly used piano she sounded like a really loud and spikey Kate Bush to me, and not that easy to get into at all, other songs were sung to a backing tape with visuals, but no, not for me.
The other standout from Moz is the merchandise, well thought through and this was the best T I'd seen for ages:
Set list from here
-
-
-
-
(The Smiths song)
-
-
-
-
-
(The Smiths song)
-
-
(The Smiths song)
-
(Frankie Valli cover)
-
-
-
-
-
(The Smiths song)
-
-
-
(The Smiths song)
- Encore:
-
(The Smiths song)
I really wish I could have been there. I went to his concert in Santiago, Chile, early this year and was AMAZING! Viva MOZ!
ReplyDelete