Sept.13 Montreal, QC Theatre St.Denis
Sept.14 Boston, MA The Orpheum
Sept.16 Providence, RI Strand Theatre
Sept.17 New York, NY Central Park Summer Stage
Sept.19 Philidelphia, PA The Electric Factory
Sept.20 Washington, DC Capitol Ballroom
Sept.21 Cleveland, OH Lakewood Civic Auditorium
Sept.23 Kalamazoo, MI The State Theatre
Sept.24 Ann Arbor, MI Hill Auditorium
Sept.26 Chicago, IL Aragon Theatre (SOLD OUT)
Sept.27 Chicago, IL Riviera Theatre
Sept.29 Minneapolis, MN Guthrie Theatre
Oct.2 Vancouver, BC Orpheum Theatre
Oct.3 Seattle, WA Moore Theatre (SOLD OUT)
Oct.4 Portland, OR La Luna (SOLD OUT)
Oct.6 Pentaluna, CA Phoenix Theatre
Oct.7 San Francisco, CA The Warfield (SOLD OUT)
Oct.8 San Francisco, CA The Warfield
Oct.10 San Diego, CA Hospitality Point
Oct.11 Las Vegas, NV The Joint, Hard Rock Hotel (SOLD OUT)
Oct.12 Los Angeles, CA The Greek
Oct.22 Phoenix, AZ Arizona State Fairgrounds
Oct.23 Tucson, AZ Gotham
Oct.24 Albuquerque, NM Hiland Theatre
Oct.26 Claremont, CA Bridges Auditorium
Oct.27 Thousand Oaks, CA Civic Arts Plaza
Oct.28 Irvine, CA UCI Bren Events Centre
Oct.31 Salt Lake City, UT Saltair Pavilion
Nov.2 Boulder, CO Mackey Auditorium
Nov.4 Tulsa, OK Brady Theatre
Nov.5 Lawrence, KS Liberty Hall
Nov.8 Gainesville, FL Centre for the Performing Arts
Nov.11 Miami Beach, FL Jackie Gleason Theatre
Nov.12 St.Petersberg, FL Mahaffey Theatre
Nov.14 Kissimmee, FL Tupperware Centre Theatre :) Joy!
Nov.15 Atlanta, GA Fox Theatre
Nov.16 Raleigh, NC The Ritz
Nov.18 Glen Burnie, MD Michael's Eighth Avenue
Nov.19 Cincinnati, OH Taft Theatre
Nov.21 New Brunswick, NJ State Theatre (SOLD OUT)
Nov.22 Lowell, MA Memorial Auditorium
Nov.24 Buffalo, NY Kleinhan's Music Hall
Nov.25 Hartford, CT Webster Theatre
Nov.26 New York, NY Hammerstein Ballroom
Nov.29 Kopenhamn, Denmark Vega
Dec.1 Gothenburg, Sweden Lisebergshallen
Dec.2 Oslo, Norway Rockefeller
Dec.3 Stockholm, Sweden Solnahallen
Dec.5 Helsinki, Finland Jaahalli
Dec.8 Hamburg, Germany Grosse Freiheit
Dec.10 London, UK Battersea Power Station
Dec.11 Chester, UK Northgate Centre
Dec.13 Dublin, Ireland The Point
Chicago, IL (Sept.27th)
Irvine, CA and Salt Lake City, UT (Oct. 27th and Halloween, respectively)
I went to the Kissimmee show (Nov.14th). In a word: Spectacular. In two: Utterly Spectacular. Smoking Popes was an excellent opener, but I wish I had been able to hear the lead's voice better. The instruments were a bit overpowering. The only song I knew by them previously was "I Need You Around", which was done nicely live. But back to the subject at hand, Morrissey was incredible. Inbetween groups, several of us (about 50 or so) went to the stage and stood, waiting in anticipation. But the security personnel made us all sit down before the show would begin. I was a bit peeved by their strictness. After about twenty minutes passed, all the lights went out and the strobes on stage began flashing. A couple white beams were bouncing off the mirrorball hanging in the middle of the theatre, creating beautiful speckles of light throughout. Spencer James began pounding out the beginning of "The Operation", and after about three minutes, screams increased to a wild frenzy as Morrissey entered the stage, followed by Alain, Jonny, and Boz. Morrissey greeted the crowd with his distinctive gutteral growl. I think a few girls fainted. They never finished "The Operation", but instead went straight into "Boy Racer", followed by (much to my surprise) "London". Morrissey then welcomed the crowd, saying, "So you're all from England, right? You're foreign and you've come here just to see the show? [pause] That's incredible!" The group then went on to play "Dagenham Dave", "Billy Budd", and "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself". "Some of you look really sexy," Morrissey said in his deep British voice, followed by wails from the fans. "But I'm not going to say who," Moz then replied, to which there were more screams and much laughter. They played "Nobody Loves Us" (during which I heard the girls behind me ask each other "Is this new? I've never heard it before."), "Spring-Heeled Jim" (near the end, Alain begins playing the guitar with his teeth to add some beautiful, soft wailing), "Roy's Keen", "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get", and the second Smiths song of the night, "Paint A Vulgar Picture". He seemed to accentuate the "MTV" part of that song. "Alma Matters" (during which, I admit, I cried), "Reader Meet Author", "The Teachers Are Afraid of the Pupils" (violins dubbed in), and "Satan Rejected My Soul" followed. During "Satan Rejected My Soul", he replaced "fun" with "shit", making the line "You'll never see all the *shit* in life it's cost me" all the more interesting. For those who know how quickly the song ends, it took all five of them but a second thereafter to remove their guitars, set down their drumsticks, replace the microphone and get offstage. But no one left the theatre. Sure enough, after the road crew finished making a few adjustments and replacements, they all came back out for "Shoplifters of the World Unite", a well-chosen encore. The most powerful part of the song set everyone screaming. During the short, dramatic pause in the middle of the song, just before the guitar solo, the group stopped playing in unison as the lights went out for a split second, only to return in a flash (much like Eric Clapton did for "The White Room", those of you who know what I'm talking about). Powerful indeed! I wish he had done some autographing, but no such luck. Outside the theatre, everyone stood around chatting as if they had all been friends forever. I suppose that's as close as I'll get to a Morrissey convention! I did get a chance to meet Julia Riley, author of True To You (a Morrissey fanzine). Apparently she's been travelling with the show (she's from Massachusetts). My tongue becomes a hurdle as I try to find the words to define the evening. My little sister had gone with me to see the show, although she only liked a few of his songs. She ended up having a wonderful time. As we got into the car to leave, she asked me to play "the song with the guitars I liked so much...where his voice sounds so pretty." I couldn't narrow it down to one song with that info, so I just stuck in Alma Matters. That ended up being the song. So we rolled down the windows, cranked the volume, and drove home in the chilly night, both of us awestuck.
I do have pictures, and as soon as I develop and scan them, I'll post them here. They're not the greatest, but they're better than nothing at all.
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