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11 November 2004 Universal Amphitheater, Los Angeles, CA
How Soon Is Now?This was one of the highlights of the 2004 tour. Morrissey was in his element and his usual talkative and sexually suggestive self. He took the stage in his priest attire again. He later successively changed into three shirts which he threw into the audience after they were used to wipe the sweat off his chest and down his crotch. The audience was very cheery and welcoming at first, then became quieter when unreleased material or the b-sides were played. By the encores the fans woke up again and started invading the stage, occasionally with the help of security which had been relaxed most of the show, but who then started to fear that someone would get hurt. Morrissey's adopted hometown was given a record 19-track setlist which included the first ever performance of his cover of Patti Smith's "Redondo Beach" as well as, surprisingly, three encores. The near regulars "Such A Little Thing Makes Such A Big Difference", "How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel" and "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get" as well as "Shoplifters Of The World Unite" were dropped, but the almost forgotten "I Have Forgiven Jesus" was reinstated. The on-and-off b-sides "The Never Played Symphonies", "Munich Air Disaster 1958" and "Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice" were also played. Before Morrissey took the stage his manager Jed Weitzman, dressed in a janitor outfit, came on and mopped the floor. The whole thing was obviously staged, but the meaning of it, if there was one, escaped everyone. When Morrissey came on he greeted the audience with "Here I am, I'm back in your bosom!" After set opener "How Soon Is Now?" he extended it with "I can already feel the warmth of a hometown crowd... shucks!" After "First Of The Gang To Die" he added "We are delighted to be here and thrilled to see your spotty faces..." He then looked around for front-row regular Julia and called out her name. "Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice" was introduced with the warning "You can stick me in jail, and you can kill me, but don't make fun of daddy's voice..." After the song Morrissey addressed the subject of the outfit he was wearing: "And by the way I don't wear these clothes for any kind of effect, I have actually taken the holy order, I really have..." The rocking "Bigmouth Strikes Again" was then introduced with "This song you may have heard on the wonderful Jonesy's Jukebox on 103.1... God bless the man!" Morrissey then announced "I Like You" with the line "And thank you to... (he answers someone) me neither, me neither... (back to subject) thank you to everybody who's bought 'You Are The Quarry' so... very generous of you to do that and... you might not like the fact, but it really is nonetheless a fact, I like you..." The debuting cover of Patti Smith's "Redondo Beach" was introduced with the line "And now we'd like to take a swift swirl to the left and confuse everybody including Julia. I'm sorry Julia but this is a confusing moment..." The song did leave many fans perplexed and after its performance Morrissey asked the audience "And of course that was a cover version of a song by (waits for a correct answer, gets it)... Yes... Though, not Patty Smythe. I know it's really difficult to get into, but still... (to someone) See, that's a great whistle you got there!" Following "Munich Air Disaster 1958" Morrissey introduced his musicians: "Please say hello to the wonderful boys... Initials B.B., Boz Boorer... the two and only, Gary Day... the pride of the PTA, Deano... a miracle of modern science, Jesse Tobias... a man with his own private parts, Mikey V Farrell..." After "Rubber Ring" Morrissey commented on the results of the recent American elections in which George W Bush was re-elected: "Now I'm very sorry to say that the good people lost the election and it's unfornate that the president of terror and illiteracy continues and... I don't say these things out of hatred, I say them out of fear because I think we're all really in trouble..." After "Irish Blood, English Heart" Morrissey acknowledged the dedication of his favourite fan: "It's been a long tour and every single night of the tour Julia has been there... and Julia you must be very tired (he hands her the microphone and says it's been worth it, Morrissey adds) We rehearsed this earlier!" After "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores" Morrissey returned to the earlier subject of the recent American elections: "The reason why I know that the world if full of crashing bores is simply because... this is only my view of course but on all matters the majority is always wrong (giggles), always wrong..." Besides the usual lyric changes in "Now My Heart Is Full" Morrissey also sang "just some rain-coated beautiful brothers", "Steven Patrick, raised to wait" and "every jammy simili-poet". Halfway into the song he exclaimed "God help me, God help me!" In the song's outro he sang the chorus to "The More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get", which pleased the audience immensely. "The Never Played Symphonies" was introduced with the line "This is a song about... (to someone shouting) What's wrong? This is a song about the death of the heart..." Before going into "I Have Forgiven Jesus" Morrissey thanked Nancy Sinatra who warmed up audiences for Morrissey on these two Los Angeles dates: "I am indebted for at least 700 years to Nancy Sinatra for opening tonight... She is a living example of perfection and God bless her..." He grabbed his crotch during that song's line "why did you stick me in self deprecating bones and skin". After the song he called his microphone "my best friend... my only friend..." In live performances of "Everyday Is Like Sunday" at the time Morrissey often sang "Oh mama! how I dearly wish I was not here", but on this date he took it a step further and sang "Oh mama! How I dearly wish I was not born". Before going into "You Know I Couldn't Last" Morrissey asked the audience "Do you know what the strange thing is about things like this? Can I tell you? The very strange thing is this: if you saw me tomorrow in (supermarket chain) Ralph's, (audience cheers) you'd just walk right past me! (audience disagrees) You would!" At the end of that song Morrissey extended a line to "your royalties bring you luxuries, two, maybe three..." Before going into first encore "Let Me Kiss You" he echoed the intro to "First Of The Gang To Die" and exclaimed "Los Angeles, we are too hot!" He wasn't as sexually suggestive as usual during that song. Before going into second encore "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" Morrissey repeated his latter banter, but with a slight twist: "I may have said this somewhere before, I can't remember but, (takes Spanish accent) Los Hang-eles, you are too hot!" After the song everyone left the stage again, and surprisingly, came back for a third encore. Before going into that final song Morrissey's final banter was "I know you won't be here tomorrow because you probably have to wash the cat or something but we'll be here, thanks for coming, God bless you, thank you..." During the song, as one female fan was trying to climb on stage but was being pulled off by security, Morrissey sang "leave her, leave her" between the usual lyrics. There were rumours that Morrissey would introduce the Smiths' song "Rusholme Ruffians" into his set besides his cover of "Redondo Beach", but this didn't happen. To the day these lines are written, the song has yet to be done live by Morrissey without the Smiths.
Two different audio-only audience recordings of this date are also out there on compact disc and in digital format for bootleg collectors. Both are of reasonably good quality. One features the full set while the other one gets interrupted halfway into "Let Me Kiss You". The incomplete set was recorded by Julian while the other recording remains uncredited.
Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.
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