6 November 2004
Personal Fest, Buenos Aires, Argentina

First Of The Gang To Die
How Soon Is Now?
November Spawned A Monster
I Like You
Bigmouth Strikes Again
Such A Little Thing Makes Such A Big Difference
Subway Train/Everyday Is Like Sunday
Let Me Kiss You
Shoplifters Of The World Unite
Irish Blood, English Heart
The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores
How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?
Now My Heart Is Full
Rubber Ring
The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get
/There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
This concert was a great one for the audience, but apparently not so much for Morrissey. He was in a good mood and talkative, but very annoyed by the bad sound and apologised several times about it. It seems the situation wasn't as bad for people in the audience. The crowd was very energetic and often chanted Morrissey's name, to the man's surprise. Morrissey was once again dressed in his priest outfit.

Argentina was also given a 16-track setlist. "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores" and "How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel" returned to the set, but "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" and "You Know I Couldn't Last" which were planned after "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get" were dropped at the last minute because of sound problems. The Vegas-style backdrop of Morrissey's name in tall letters wasn't carried along this brief 2-date stretch in South America.

As he entered stage, Morrissey greeted his audience with "Please cry for me Argentina!". After set opener "First Of The Gang To Die" the audience chanted Morrissey's name and the man joined them, chanting his own name with a Spanish accent. After "How Soon Is Now?" he teased the audience by saying "We have flown in from your favourite place, Chile... Chile is the country of love and... we're very..." He then greeted a few people with hello's and called out his favourite fan's name Julia while searching the front rows for her.

After "November Spawned A Monster" Morrissey asked "I hope the sound is okay... Is the sound okay? Not very nice on stage, but okay off stage..." He then introduced "I Like You" with "This is from our album which is called 'I Am The Quarry' and it's called 'I Like You". In the latter number Morrissey changed a line to "This is why I like you, I can't see you, but I like you... I like you, I like you, I can't see you..." After the song he proceeded with the introduction of his musicians: "Please say hello to the hombres... this is Boz Boorer... here is Gary Day... here is the mightly Deano... here is Jesse Tobias... and here is Mikey V Farrell... and my name is Jean Cocteau!"

Following "Bigmouth Strikes Again" the crowd chanted Morrissey's name again and this time the man replied with his own "Buenos Aires! Buenos Aires! Buenos Aires! Buenos Aires!" He then apologised "Julia this really isn't my voice. I don't know whose voice it is, but it's not mine. My voice doesn't sound like this, it sounds worse. I think this microphone is out of tune... maybe..." After the line "most people keep their brains between their legs" in live performances of "Such A Little Thing Makes Such A Big Difference" at the time Morrissey often shouted "I do!" or something of the kind, but this time he slightly changed this to "you do!"

In the "Subway Train" intro to "Everyday Is Like Sunday" Morrissey added emphasis to a line by singing "it isn't easy, it really isn't easy!". He similarly expressed his irritation with the sound by extending another line to "come come nuclear bomb, please, please yes!" Latest single "Let Me Kiss You" was introduced with something like "I'm thinking about a horrible idea... let me kiss you..." After that song Morrissey once again voiced his dissatisfaction with the sound: "I apologise, I know I sound like a frog but... well, I am a frog! You must have noticed!"

Before going into "Irish Blood, English Heart" Morrissey teased the audience about the poor sales of his most recent album in Argentina by saying "Our recent cd called 'You Are The Quarry' has sold very well in Montevideo and very well in Santiago... and has sold one copy in Buenos Aires..." As an introduction to "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores" Morrissey asked "So I must tell you, I must tell you if I can... there is only one question in my mind. And the question is... There is only one question in my mind, and the question is: who will save us from Goerge W Bush? Who?" This was followed by many boos from the audience, probably directed at the American president more than Morrissey himself.

Before going into "How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?" Morrissey asked someone shouting in the audience "Say what?" He was really unhappy with the sound in this song. He tapped his microphone, apologised between lines, and at some point near the end simply stopped singing and let his musicians finish by themselves. After the song he sympathetically told the audience "Thank you, you're very generous, very very generous... we do not deserve you... I feel like I'm just barking like an old dog, I can't really hear anything so... I would like to apologise to you, I'm sorry..." He actually voiced his unhappiness with the situation in "Now My Heart Is Full" when he sang "now my heart isn't full, it's not!".

After the latter number Morrissey apologised once again: "It's very difficult up here but we're trying our best, we're trying our best to sound okay, (giggles) it's all we can do..." He introduced "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get" with the self-deprecatory "So before you fall asleep..." That song would end up being the final one of the main set. "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" and "You Know I Couldn't Last" were both on the setlist after this, but Morrissey had had enough of the sound problems and they were dropped. When he returned for the encore Morrissey's final significant words were "Thank you, you've been very kind and very generous and... thank you..."

This concert was filmed for later television broadcast. At this point in time the footage has never been shown, but the audio portion of it was broadcast on Argentinean radio Kabul Rock FM 107.9.

 


The radio broadcast mentioned above is commonly circulated on bootleg compact discs and in digital format on the internet. However, fans and collectors might prefer the original pre-broadcast audio which has also leaked on bootlegs. The radio recordings in circulation are all staticky and muffled, they are interrupted by station identification, and in some cases Morrissey's banter was edited out. The original audio is not interrupted and the sound is excellent, but it must be said that small gaps were badly trimmed out between songs. These only affect the listening flow and not the content.

 

Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.