I can always measure how good a concert was by the size of
my headache the next day. Today my head is pounding, but, I’m still bearing a
grin from my thoughts of the sold out Morrissey show last night at Royal Oak
Music Theatre. I use the word “sold out” haphazardly in the sentence above.
Last night was packed to the gills with a bulging, standing room only
crowd. However, it was a Morrissey show, so rather than the “shove you
aside” and “push you around” bunch, this was a nicer, “I can move over so you
can see better” experience, which was fortunate because most of Morrissey’s
show was a stellar performance which proves he is still at the top of his game.
The opener for the tour was Kristeen Young whom Morrissey has
brought out on his past couple of tours. Tonight she played alone at her keyboard, belting out tracks from her most recent release, V the Volcanic. Kristeen reminds me of a cross between
Kate Bush and Bjork. While her vocal can get a little piercing at times, her
melodies are quite good and her performance packs quite a punch.
This was the final show of the tour for Morrissey so I
think his intention was giving the crowd his all. By giving his all, I’m saying
we saw the good, the bad, and the ugly from Morrissey and to be honest I
wouldn’t have expected anything less. The good were all the great Smiths tunes
he sprinkled throughout his set, such as opening with “I Want the One I Can’t
Have” and an achingly beautiful rendition of “I Know it’s Over.” The bad were a couple of
songs that I think he performs just to mystify the crowd. Why else would he
perform “All the Lazy Dykes”? And the ugly would be the intensely noise driven, “Meat Is Murder” which ended like a sharp needle being driven
through the skull.
By the end of the show the good far outweighed the bad, as Morrissey's vocal was fine as ever and his backing band played with a lot of flare without
fully taking your attention from Morrissey. Morrissey was also full of quips
throughout the night saying something nice to the crowd then following it up
with a jibe. His encore, which started with a brilliant version of
“Still Ill” ended the show abruptly three minutes later with
Morrissey exclaiming his dissatisfaction with the brutish security (not quite
sure what exactly happened) and promptly exited the stage. If a Morrissey
show didn’t end out in a bit of drama, would it really have a been a Morrissey
show?
This Post by Mikel O.D. of
