14 March 2006
Bricktown Events Center, Oklahoma City, OK

First Of The Gang To Die
Still Ill
You Have Killed Me
The Youngest Was The Most Loved
Reader Meet Author
I Have Forgiven Jesus
I Will See You In Far Off Places
My Life Is A Succession Of People Saying Goodbye
Girlfriend In A Coma
Let Me Kiss You
Life Is A Pigsty
Trouble Loves Me
How Soon Is Now?
Suedehead
At Last I Am Born
I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
Irish Blood, English Heart
/Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
The second warm-up date for the upcoming Tour Of The Tormentors MMVI went as well as the first one, despite the venue being only half-filled. Morrissey delivered every line with a passion and was very talkative. The fans were very appreciative despite not being familiar with the material from the soon-to-be-released new album. They sang loudly to the songs they knew such as "Girlfriend In A Coma", "Trouble Loves Me" and "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before".

The setlist was very similar to the previous one in Tulsa but it was significantly scrambled and "In The Future When All's Well" was dropped.

Morrissey came out on stage with a walking cane, which he used to point and gesture with during opening song "First Of The Gang To Die". After that song he greeted the audience with the words "Welcome to our music show!" He bridged the gap between "You Have Killed Me" and "The Youngest Was The Most Loved" by introducing both songs: "Thank you that was 'You Have Killed Me' which is our new single in the civilized world and... 'The Youngest Was The Most Loved'..." He wildly shook a pair of maracas as he ad-libbed the final lines of the latter number. After that he thanked his opening band: "Can we send our love and respect and our thanks to Tiger Army?..."

Following "Reader Meet Author" Morrissey said "Thank you to those of you who traveled from Japan... (crowd cheers) and thank you to those of you who traveled from Wichita Falls... (crowd cheers again) which takes more guts I'd say... What do I know?" He then went on to introduce "I Have Forgiven Jesus" with the words "This song was written by the legendary Hank Snow..." He wasn't satisfied with his performance of the latter number but still managed to poke fun at himself in an elegant way by saying "I think you'll agree, I sing off key beautifully..." He then introduced the following song on the setlist, "I Will See You In Far Off Places". He changed a line in the latter number to "It's so easy for us to be here together / But it's so hard for our flesh to combine". After that song he had a question for someone who was shouting at him: "Yes my friend? What do you have to say? (person answers) That's too easy!"

"Girlfriend In A Coma" was again very well received and following its performance Morrissey introduced his band as well as himself: "Would you please put your teeth together for the beloved Boz Boorer... and once again for the beloved Gary Day... and our new boy Matt Walker... the belovely Jesse Tobias... and the outstanding Michael Farrell... and that's it really... my name is Bob Hope!" After "Let Me Kiss You", which was also very well received, Morrissey tried to calm the audience down with the words "No applause because gratitude swells the head..." Then the epic "Life Is A Pigsty" was introduced with the line "I wrote these words to this song when I was three years old... it's called 'Life Is A Pigsty'." After that song he self-depreciatingly announced "'Ringleader Of The Tormentors' is the name of our new album, which will be buyable - or not, you decide - in roughly two weeks and apparently, apparently, Walgreens' has ordered 4 copies so this is the big one!"

"Trouble Loves Me" was again preceded by an old-style piano intro. The choice on this day was the official anthem of the State of Oklahoma, composed and written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. The Smiths classic "How Soon Is Now?" was introduced with the words "Of course, it's astonishing how the years, and the decades just melt away..." This was of course followed by an explosion of cheers when the fans recognised the song's opening vibrato. Morrissey changed a line in "Suedehead" to the brilliant "You had to sneak into my room just to play Your Arsenal / It was just to see, just to see all the crap you knew I'd written about you". Before "Irish Blood, English Heart", the final song of the main set, he announced "One more song and you are free!", which obviously got a reaction out of the audience.

When everyone returned to the stage under a thunder of cheers, the musicians lined up on each side of Morrissey, arms around each other, then everyone bowed at once before returning to their respective places. Then Morrissey delivered his parting words, "Thanks to you, you've been very nice..." before the band launched into encore "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before". At the beginning of the latter number's second verse, Morrissey was tackled to the floor in a melée between security and a stage crasher. He quickly got up again and resumed the song as if nothing had happened.

 


There are two bootlegs of the complete concert in circulation at this point in time. The best one was recorded by JG, it sounds quite good and only lacks the intro to "First Of The Gang To Die". The other one is actually the audio from a video recording, so it doesn't sound nearly as good. The bootlegger tought the footage was not good enough for distribution, bar the two songs put up on the internet as digital video files ("Trouble Loves Me" and "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before"). So the audio portion of the full concert was ripped and distributed for the enjoyment of fans. However since there is a better option out there, the latter recording has become obsolete.

 

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