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“If I can bring one second of happiness….to anyone,” intoned MORRISSEY as he reached over the barrier to return a newly-signed LP jacket to an elated fan. It’s unfortunate that the intended emotion didn’t reach throughout the entire expanses of the House of Blues, which hosted a sold-out room. For a performer who has a very ardent followers (how many other shows have you seen where punters’ sole purpose is to touch the very flesh of the man on stage, if only for a fleeting second, or to give an unasked for gift?), the packed venue was an oddly staid bunch. Was it just the Sunday night? Perhaps some of the blame has to do with the (overly?) muscular backing band, who throttled most nuances out of the material they weren’t on board for…the newer material sounded ok, but the opening “This Charming Man” had all the charm wrung out of it during that particluar bashing. Maybe the grinning, barrel-chested/strong-armed/cigar-chomping sailor who dominated the backing scrim (sometimes a cigar is more than a cigar?) set the tone and the lads were off to follow orders. Morrissey himself hinted at/approved of their tactics by addressing some of the band members as ‘extremely rough’ or ‘excessively rough,’ Irish the most of them.
“Does anyone like that song? Do I like it?” This Morrissey banter followed “Best Friend On The Payroll,” and to be honest it was a legitimate query. Morrissey himself was a bit at odds with the venue, lamenting the fact the there were two beautiful kitchens back stage but the “House of Rules” wouldn’t allow them to cook a simple meal of brown rice and peppers for their road trip to Michigan (security rumor was that the restaurant had been barred from cooking meat that day; I can’t say I felt guilty with the remnants of a fine sirloin between my teeth…meat may be murder, but it’s quite delicious).
In keeping with the tour of 2007, some SMITHS treats were doled out; we got the obligatory “How Soon Is Now,” with the infamous guitar reverberation sending paroxysms of joy into the crowd; similarly a revamped “Ask” (with “bombs” replaced by “military might”) got the crowd animated. The next Smiths songbook entry was an odd choice, “I Keep Mine Hidden” was the b-side from their final single and was a gladiola tossed out to the diehards. “The Loop” was also a deep cut, the b-side of “Sing Your Life” featuring double-bass and an acoustic treatment. “Irish Heart, English Blood” navigated the turbulent waters of heritage and political violence, quite deftly and the lead-off track of Years of Refusal almost sounds like a DAVE VANIAN vocal line in a DAMNED song. Morrissey can still turn a phrase with the best of them, and to say there were no enjoyable moments would be a massive lie; “Death Of A Disco Dancer” has never rated much as a Smiths song but this was excellent, and “Seasick, Yet Still Docked” was weirdly enough the highlight of the show for me…Morrissey has spent the last three records getting a brasher and fuller sound, but it’s the tender moments which are his true strength, and this nailed it. If he’d have played this in the first three songs when I was photographing from the security pit, it might have made me put down my camera and reach out, just for a moment.
Salford lads THE COURTEENERS opened the evening, and they plied the post-80s northern sound to good effect. A well-played duo of Telecaster/Gibson ES is never a bad combo, and coated with vocals reminiscent of fellow Manchester resident MARK BURGESS of THE CHAMELEONS, I found myself enjoying this quite a bit. The band could use a bit more tension to the songwriting, but it’s a promising start.
