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31 October 2004 Hyundai Pavillion, Devore, CA
How Soon Is Now?This concert was put together to make up for Morrissey's scheduled appearance at the KROQ Inland Invasion festival on 18 September which had been cancelled. It was one of the best shows of the tour. This was Halloween night and Morrissey dressed up as a priest while his musicians were dressed as nuns. The singer was very talkative and the audience was very receptive. The stage was about 6 feet high and there was a barrier keeping the crowd at a good distance so it was quite difficult for fans to make it up to their idol. A few were still successful during the last song of the main set and the encore. The 18 track setlist featured rarer tracks "The Never Played Symphonies" and "Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice" while regulars "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores" and "How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel" were not played. "You Know I Couldn't Last" returned to the setlist after having been skipped for a few nights. When Morrissey and his musicians walked on stage in their costumes the audience broke into laughter. Father Morrissey played the religious game all the way by having incense burning on stage and by greeting his fans with a shout of "brethen!" After set opener "How Soon Is Now?" he added "Thank you KROQ-ers, nice to see you..." The two shows scheduled before this one had just been cancelled to some fans shouted questions relating to his health. Morrissey replied to these with "And in answer to the question 'am I still ill?', the answer will always be: yes!" After "First Of The Gang To Die" he scanned the front rows looking for his favourite fan Julia and called out her name. After "November Spawned Monster" Morrissey joked "And it's so nice to see you with all of your Halloween masks on... oh I see, you don't have Halloween masks on... Oh..." He then introduced the next planned number with "We have an album which is called 'You Are The Quarry' and... and it's 9.99 at Tower Records apparently... Why are you booing? And this is called 'I Like You'!" The Smiths classic "Bigmouth Strikes Again" was introduced with the line "And then of course, when the present becomes completely unbearable there is always the past..." After the song Morrissey proceeded with the customary introduction of his musicians: "And would you please allow me to introduce you to Sisters Without Mercy... the maestro of maestros, Boz Boorer... the one and only but never lonely, Gary Day... the very mighty Deano... beyond belief, Jesse Tobias... and a man apart, Mikey V Farrell... and me, well..." The American presidential elections of 2004 were just two days away and as he had been doing regularly throughout this leg of the tour Morrissey urged his fans to get George W Bush out of the office: "Now before we go any further, I really must ask you this question, I hope you don't mind... You're not really gonna vote for Bush are you? Because believe me, Bush will kill you..." After "Everyday Is Like Sunday" Morrissey asked the crowd "Are you beginning to feel cold? (crowd: yes!/no!) Well shouldn't your heart keep you warm? Mine does!" He then introduced "Let Me Kiss You" with "This is a disgraceful thought I know but... let me kiss you..." After "Let Me Kiss You" Morrissey asked his guitarist "Are you okay Boz? (Boz answers that he's very well) He's very well..." He then enquired about the audience's appreciation of the support band: "We hope you enjoyed the Dears... did you enjoy the Dears? Julia, did you see the Dears? Did you like them? No? They're nice, they're very nice, we like them too... Any observations so far? Not really? (?), feel free, we don't mind... La-la-la-la!" Before "Irish Blood, English Heart" Morrissey told the audience "It's so early you've got nowhere else to go, you've got nothing better to do!" One of the b-side to the current single "Let Me Kiss You", which was not to be released in the USA, was introduced with the line "And for all of you who scour the import section at Tower Records this song is called 'Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice'." After the latter number Morrissey pessimistically announced "And, you know, it's almost November and... your life is really ticking away you know, it's ticking away..." After "Munich Air Disaster 1958" he told his drummer "Deano! Close your legs... Didn't they teach you that at nunnery school?" He then announced two upcoming shows "We are shortly to be playing at Universal Amphitheater and... but you'll be busy that night I think..." In "Now My Heart Is Full" he changed a line to something that sounded like "every jammy regis poet". After the song he enquired "Are you okay? Are you alright? Am I okay? No pulse, no pulse... I don't even know why I'm standing here, I'm actually dead... which is a great feeling, believe me..." "The More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get" - Morrissey's only mainstream hit in the USA - was introduced with the line "I know it's absolutely, it's a ridiculoudly amazing thought, I know, but once upon a time we actually managed to get a single on the US Billboard Top 100 and... obviously a fluke of nature..." Morrissey followed that song's line "Oh, you're asking for it" with a longing shout of "Yes I am! I'm begging! I'm not asking, I'm begging! Please! I'm desperate! Look at me!... Very true!" After the song he looked at his band and simply said "Everybody loves a Catholic girl..." Before going into main set closer "You Know I Couldn't Last" Morrissey answered shouts of love with "Thank you I love you too, I really do... Believe me without you, I'd be in a terrible state... which I am anyway but..." When he returned to the stage before the encore his final significant words suited the costume he was wearing "My friends, you've been a dream, please remember me in your prayers and vaya con dios!" During "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" he was briefly distracted by a few stage invaders and mumbled a line or two. He then rewarded the stage invaders, particularly one who almost knocked him down, with "very nice boys, very nice boys..."
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