And when y want to live: how'd ja start, where'd ya go, whom ya'd need ta know?

As mentioned before, the Morrissey show was stunning. I had no clue that I would enjoy it so much. I was very very lucky that tix were still available: the last Morrissey show here was a one off, and it sold out rite away. This is a proper tour, so people didn’t have to fly in from Lancashire to catch him and gobble up all the limited billets. Tix were expensive: just short of $50, but cheap as I am, I was superglad to have experienced it. Seats? Way back. I coulda/shoulda walked up for better seats, but Matt Jenke dissuaded me. One thing I noticed about the crowd: lotsa 40-ish balding guys, sitting by themselves, near the back of the hall. We fit rite in.

The pre show-show was great. Much like this blog allows me to pander on about my various influences and likes, The Great Man has always used his musical career to inundate us with his heroes: Sheliagh Delaney, Dick Davalos, Oscar, James etc… Here The Great Man had prepared us a .5h video show of different songs and performances. I gotta google it to see which artists were on it, but it had to be the Dolls for on song (great, great, great) and the deeply satisfying comedic/drunken take on the ‘12 nites o’ x-mas‘. Crankface said The Great Man has presented the same videos last time, so I know a set list is out there.

And then, the Man himself. I’m not gonna go through it proper review style, but my thoughts……

Morrissey, after an real down time in his career late 90’s early 00’s, is on a LP label that treats him rite. The Great Man wanted us to hear his new stuff from the last two LP’s. I really didn’t like the last LP too much and have yet to hear the new one. However, I made the effort to listen to new songs and for the most part: they were pretty good. Don’t get me wrong, there were a few songs-three @ absolute most- that were somewhat nothing in particular, but overall they were enjoyed by me and the other worshippers. Morrissey knew it as well: after one of the suckky songs, he acknowledged the shallow cheers of the crowd as obviously perfunctory cheering, but after one of the great new songs he said the obvious (‘cause we all knew where the cheers were coming): “From the heart”.

Two new songs (or @ least songs I’ve never heard before- I kinda dried up the “I gotta get this B-side only available in Japan that comes with a tacky badge” mindset about 1996) in particular were great. Don’t ask me the names of the two, but one juxtaposed a nice soft sound with a kool bass line. This song in particular I liked because of the sweet feelings it brought out in the young couple in front of me. It had gentle swaying pieces in it, and the youngsters picked up that and swayed -yes gently- hip to hip. Ah, young love, young love…………..young love……...

The Great Man also had regular costume changes. Every 3-4 songs he walk off stage and have some slite change. My favourite was the ‘Der Feurher’ look: black trousers* and a tan jacket. The other key look was one he has rocked, presumably since 1982: shirtless. I was thinking that he must have a rider in the contract with his LP company to off doff the shirt: Morrissey threw it into the crowd, sang for 30seconds, then walked to get more gear on. 30s of 1983. But what about The Great Man’s guns? Maybe part of the shirt off business this time around was to show off the work he’s done working out. He did have a bit of a tyre about the waist, but don’t we all now-a-days.

Nice touches: Morrissey has two Chicago boys in his band, which I didn’t know. The Great Man introduced them (somewhat like this, and somewhat garbled**) thusly: “And on bass, from ………..…sssssssshhheeeeeeeeekago**………Chicago…….(whatever the name is)………………..and on drums……………………………..from……………..sssssssshhheeeeeeeeekago**……Chicago….“ Crank and I made the joke that wherever they play next (we picked Milwaukee outta thin air for the joke) The Great Man would handle the intros like this: “And on bass, from ……mmmmmmmilwawwwwwwwwwkeee**………Milwaukee…..”. Another nice touch was a whole group to-gether bow before last song.

The band fucking rocked. I’m sure it was picked for this matter. Sometimes 2 a show I can totally let go and danse the whole time. However, since I had been in communion with #44, Reggie Jackson, during the Bulls game, I could only force myself to move my feet a little so I would feel like a total waster after the show. One thing I did do was sing a bit: I didn’t want to do the English thing and sing every word the entire show, but I did sing some lines that I just couldn’t escape from: how can you escape from “prrrrovincial towns yeh jog ‘round”?

He opened with “The Queen is Dead”, but the best of the old Smiths songs was…..“How soon is now”. It was a short version, with a touch of tribal drumming and gonging cresendo ending. Great song. “The Boy with the thorn in his side” had me singing the “And when you want to live………” line. I can remember “Panic” and “Please please please…”, but , well, yeah, let me Google up that question next time I’m online.

Star place to the solo songs, and the best song of the whole match, was “Disappointed”. I repeat what I wrote before_______________. My favourite corruption of a line was in this song:

“Don‘t talk to me about people who are nice/
‘cause I have spent my whole life/
in ruins/
because of people who are nice.”

Became

“Don‘t talk to me about people who are nice/
‘cause I have spent my whole life/
Confused/
because of people who are nice.”

Yes, nothing much, but to the worshippers of The Great Man, these little changes are always loved. There’s the obvious Joyce influence in my work, but Morrissey has lots to say in what I do as well. But somethings are unchangeable: the original studio release of this song had a crowd cheering sound when Morrissey sings “This is the last song I will ever sing (YAYYYYYYY!!!!!!!)…”, and bless us all, we properly responded with that “YAYYYYYYY!!!!!!!” at the proper time. This song, 2d or 3d of the show, was the moment I realized that this was no ordinary concert or nite. As hinted last week, this was one of my favourite concerts ever, and this song was the signal song saying……“to-nite: we move….”.

“Every day is like Sunday”, never one of my super favourites (is a good song), hit me rally hard: this was
one of Q’s favourite songs, and for a minute or so I remembered, felt the spirit, remembered the good and the bad, got misty, and moved on. I’ve written it before, but all the olde girls are deeply special to me- every one. Q was, until recently***, the solo “Love of my Life”****. The influence of her in my life, both beneficent and baleful, has been tremendous. Think back now to my above simple sentences above regarding young love……….……young young young Love.

The show was only part of a great nite. When school ended, I el’d to the loop and got off @ Library. Walked to the Aud and came away with a boleto. I tried to crank up the Faces, but they were not in yet. Tickets part two plan evolved, in which I el’d to Comisky Park to convert three teacher appreciation coupons for ¼ price tix. Since I was in the loop, Comisky is so close and I had to do it. I could have redeemed them in the mail, but the last time I did this I tried to get nice box seats (rem: ¼ tix) and they were out: instead of getting my $$ back from the cheque I‘d sent, I was stuck with coupons to be redeemed @ the food stands. Rip off. So, I was happy to have gotten the tix- six total, for two diff games, for $26. Then the el back and the hookup @ the Crank Center.

We needed to eat before we went to the show, so Cranx cranked up some…………um………………dog food looking shit…………..but it tasted great. Again, I have so many foodie frenz, and the foodz struck again. The joke was that Big frank once called this dish puppy food, but in actually, the corned beef was too good for any old dogs but us Dogz. As always, a simple meal of beef, potatoes, corn, etc., so easy to make, just appears before me-and I always think “I can do this!!”; but lets see when I do. Before eating, I took a quick walk to the Aud and the Harold Washington Library- the first to correctly ascertain the staring time of the show, the second to see if they had the dvd “Trilogy”. The first quest was somewhat successful, but the second was successful in another way: no Tril’s, but yes to a Sandrine Bonnaire movie and Gol.

What else makes one happy? The Bulls (rem: this is being written on the Sunday after this nite). Our plan was to watch the first half and tape the second. The first half of the game gave us a lot of hope, and when we got back, so buzzed from the success of the show, the runaway success of the second half threw us into overdrive.

All things must pass, and this nite it was the pressing need to awake the next morning. The Faces and I were joined for the show by English Patients***** Jamacian buddy******, and both the Jamcian and I slept over. They have an extra room for guests (that would be a guest room, right?) where I usually sleep when I crash over, but this nite ‘womans gotta have it’, so I slept where I am very comfortable: on the floor.


Here's a set list and others thoughts on the show.

Good nite and thank you.
They should all be action packed and satisfying like this.







*=hereafter, this ‘commonterm’ is forever stolen from Crankface to be deployed, by Hilts, as if Hilts was the one who discovered its true and transcendent beauty in the English language (think: “fags”).

**=the word is meant to be garbled

***= GF, baby !!!!!!!!!

****=stolen from Madonna, years ago, in describing her olde love Sean Penn. What, I only steal from my frenz??

*****=one of the longstanding names that this blog had not coined. When E.P first came to these shores, that how she was referred to. Come to think of it, ‘Crankface’ was not a Security Out security device: it’s a pure 1988 nickname that fits well in this context.

******=Yes, it’s a real person.