Morrissey @ Palladium, 10/13/07

Las Vegas may have Wayne Newton, but Los Angeles has Morrissey. Sure he’s performing extended residencies in San Fran and NYC as well, but we got an incredible 10 consecutive nights–er, make that actually 8, but more on that later. After all, this is the city where he revived his career in 2004 with the amazing You Are The Quarry. Tonight was the series finale and the last LA will probably see of the The Ringleader of the Tormentors tour. It was also the last show before the closing of the Hollywood Palladium for a much deserved makeover.

After an anxious build up, Morrissey started off the night with “How Soon Is Now?”–a promising sign that he would mix things up a bit, make the last night special and leave the fans with something memorable. But the rest of the setlist was standard Morrissey fare. No real surprises, but still a fantastic twenty three songs and the crowd was raucous from start to end. So instead of moping and waiting for my favorite songs to come around I just joined in the celebration. No band has ever accepted my offer to write out their setlist, so why imagine that Morrissey would be the first?

Of course, at one point in the show, my mind did drift off and stop at the speculation of a Smiths comeback. Looking at how happy (by Morrissey standards) he looked on stage and the rapport he shares with his band, however, I can definitely understand if The Smiths never reunited. There is nothing I can fault with Morrissey’s musicians. Loud when they need to be and always crystal clear. Oh, and heaven forbid if one had to split all those gazillion dollars with Johnny Marr and a session rhythm section.

Back to the performance. Morrissey was energetic throughout and shook more front row hands than I ever recall during a performance. One special occurance in the night was when the band collectively took off their shirts and chucked them into the crowd. I couldn’t tell if the crowd fought over these as fervently as one of Morrissey’s but it was quite amusing. I remember being in the pit one time when a five person tug of war started for a Morrissey shirt. After each party agreed to a stalemate, one of the girls pulled out a small pair of scissors from her bag and cut the shirt into equal pieces. The encore was shortened to one song presumably because of all the attempted stage invasions.

So after the opener Kristeen Young, I went to visit the infamous bathroom (assuming it was the men’s room where the ‘plumbing problem’ occurred). This explanation reminded me all too much of those last minute mechanical problems that airlines announce as they bump you onto the next flight. Even Morrissey wryly remarked about the mysterious plumbing problem but came short of letting the cat completely out of the bag. Thank you anyway, Moz Angeles loves you.

Setlist:

How Soon Is Now?
In the Future When All’s Well
The Loop
Jack the Ripper
Sister, I’m a Poet
London
Tomorrow
Human Being
Why Don’t You Find Out for Yourself?
The World Is Full of Crashing Bores
I Like You
Death of a Disco Dancer
Billy Budd
Shoplifters of the World Unite
All You Need Is Me
One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell
Irish Blood, English Heart
Stretch Out and Wait
I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris
I Will See You in Far off Places

Encore:

First of the Gang to Die