When I heard Morrissey nixed Kristeen Young for his tour, I was overjoyed. When I heard he wasn’t going to have a new opener, I was thrilled because it was then being advertised as “An Evening With Morrissey”. When I got into my seat at 7 pm and found out he was coming on at his signature 9 o clock, I was irritated. The least he could have done was extend doors an hour so we wouldn’t get there so early and be held hostage in the building, a beautiful opera house with ornate decor and accoutrements that seemed to be out of an old Newport mansion. The architecture wasn’t enough to hold me over for an hour and a half, nor was the lull of classical music in the background. As my phone battery and patience drained in tandem, I realized it was approaching 8:30- the video show was about to begin.
The jumble of videos before Moz steps on is iconic and signature, and this time it opened with his “Someday” PETA sad chicken video. What got me here was how there was a grown man next to me bawling his eyes out at it- I knew that this show was gonna be good. He tossed in new clips, like Charlie Andrews’ “Yesterday Man”, but kept my favorite in there, New York Dolls’ “Lookin’ For A Kiss”. At the final video, we all knew what was going to happen and people started to stand up, cheer, clap, and get excited because we’d been waiting for what felt like a millennium for this.
It was my first time seeing the man in two years. He’d been canceling shows left and right on his last tour and now that he’s finally healthy again, he seems to have regained his energy and passion for performing. As the band stepped on stage, all wearing shirts that read, “DIRT”, Morrissey came along after and the crowd went absolutely ballistic. Opening with “The Queen Is Dead”, I instantly knew this show was not going to be for the casual fans. He pulled tricks out of his multicolour bag, like “Ganglord” and “The Bullfighter Dies”, along with “Trouble Loves Me”. He made sure to keep us on our toes and it was clear he was having fun. It was my third time seeing him but I’ve also seen video of his performances from every era, and I had never seen him so happy and witty and carefree. He seemed to comfortable and casual, and his stage persona was far from scripted.
He played all his new tunes, “Earth Is The Loneliest Planet”, “Istanbul”, “World Peace”, and even “Kick The Bride Down The Aisle”, which debuted at this show. I enjoyed them all infinitely better live than recorded, simply because I could watch the mastermind behind them perform them with gusto and jubilance, two words that you don’t typically use in a Moz live review.
Morrissey even was joking around and being silly during the show- that’s right, *silly*. He named all the greats who’d played at that opera house, naming all the Golden Girls, threw in an anecdote of how Boston’s history pamphlet advertised that they had the ‘world’s smallest suspension bridge’, and he was slurring a bit, completely comfortable so very casual and jovial. Someone check his BAC?
There were typical Moz show elements that you can always expect that are nice constants as well, those being “Throwing My Arms Around Paris”, and then the booing and people leaving during “Meat Is Murder”. You can’t please everyone, and it’s one of the many things he’s really known for and it’s important to him, so what did you expect?
The icing on the cake for me was the encore, “Asleep” followed by “First Of The Gang”. I knew he’d do the usual sadtune “Asleep” because he’s apparently bringing it back like a bad decade revival, but I was caught off guard by “First Of”. I could hardly believe it when I heard the opening riff. It was incredible- I’d never thought I’d ever be lucky enough to hear him perform it. During his encore song, fans stereotypically and habitually will run up onto stage to hug the man. Only two fans made it this time, because the security was violent and pushy and mean, which was unfortunate because I could’ve gotten up there had they been a little kinder to the harmless tiny teenage girl who just wants to give Moz a squeeze.
Nonetheless, it was the best of the three times I’ve seen him. He was giddy and smiling and witty and sarcastic. It was refreshing to see him like that, and I hope he remains that way for the rest of the tour. Everyone loves a happy Moz.
