Paramount Theater, Asbury Park, NJ
First Of The Gang To DieFor the third consecutive time a Morrissey show in New Jersey was cut short by one song, or part of a song. Just like in Red Bank in 2000 this concert ended in a massive stage invasion during which Morrissey was forced to escape. Prior to this in New Brunswick in 1997 Morrissey had skipped the final song of the main set, although it must be said that back then the reason had not been the number of fans on stage. For many attendees this sort of concert ending was normal, sometimes even enjoyable. Not everyone knew that Morrissey only did one encore and that this wasn't unusual. A portion of the audience was angry and felt robbed of the song they thought might be coming next.
Bigmouth Strikes Again
November Spawned A Monster
I Like You
The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores
Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice
Such A Little Thing Makes Such A Big Difference
Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
I Have Forgiven Jesus
How Soon Is Now?
Irish Blood, English Heart
Let Me Kiss You
The Never Played Symphonies
The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get
Subway Train/Everyday Is Like Sunday
You Know I Couldn't Last
/There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
There were again quite a few changes made to the setlist. "Such A Little Thing Makes Such A Big Difference", "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me", "The Never Played Symphonies", "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get" and "Everyday Is Like Sunday" returned while "Shakespeare's Sister", "Now My Heart Is Full", "How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?", "Rubber Ring" and "I'm Not Sorry" were temporarily dropped.
Morrissey greeted his fans "Hello, how are you? Welcome... I guarantee I will say something wrong tonight." Soon after he asked the audience "Is Tuckahoe in New Jersey?" When he didn't get a satisfying answer, he asked "Are any of you from New Jersey? (crowd: no!) Where are you from? Staten Island? (crowd groans) There I go... I told you I would say something wrong... What's wrong with Staten Island?" He handed the microphone to a fan who answered "It sucks", which prompted Morrissey to reply, rolling his eyes, "Well we all suck don't we?"
During the instrumental bridge in "November Spawned A Monster" Morrissey writhed on the floor like a dying animal. Elections were coming up in the United States so he had a few political comments to make every night. On this date his comment du jour was "I'm starting a 'Jon Stewart for President' campaign." He also mentioned Laura Bush at some point, but he called her Laura Muff then quickly corrected himself. Of course each time Morrissey expressed his political views he was cheered by most of the audience but also booed and heckled by the rest.
During "Such A Little Thing Makes Such A Big Difference" Morrissey chuckled the last line out while grinning ear to ear. He discussed Boston and intellectualism with front row regular Julia. He also chatted with two British fans in the front rows. One was wearing a shirt from the recent Meltdown festival and Morrissey asked him "Were you actually at Meltdown?" He then asked him where he was from. He also asked the audience if they had heard of the New York Dolls.
Before "I Have Forgiven Jesus" Morrissey announced "I was going to sing a song... but I can't... because it's called 'I Have Forgiven Jesus' and I haven't". He was obviously not serious and he and the band still did the song. During "Let Me Kiss You" Morrissey slowly and teasingly ripped his shirt open, button by button, then removed it, used it to wipe the sweat off his chest and threw it in the audience. After "The Never Played Symphonies" he said "You have to be an ugly person to sit at home and write a song like that."
The show featured the traditional introduction of the band. On this date Morrissey introduced his musicians with lines like "Ra la da mum da, Boz!... La da ra ra ra, Gary!" During "Everyday Is Like Sunday", Morrissey pointed to the audience when he sang "This is the coastal town that they forgot to close down...", very likely because Asbury Park is just that, an abandoned coastal town. Morrissey might also have made references to various American soap operas like The Young And The Restless, Days Of Our Lives or General Hospital.
Another tradition at the time was Morrissey's mysterious and ominous goodbyes at the end of his shows. This date was no exception. Right before going into the encore he quoted from his own song "Girlfriend In A Coma" and said "And now let me whisper my last goodbye". There had been a few stage invaders early in the set, but during the encore there must have been up to 20 fans on stage at some point. After a few lines Morrissey escaped and was soon followed by his musicians who couldn't even finish the song.
There are no recordings of this concert in circulation at this point in time.
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