Athens (Greece), Arena
PanicThe Greeks love Morrissey (newest album "Ringleader Of The Tormentors" hit #1 in the Greek charts) and this concert was a success. The man looked very relaxed and at ease, he addressed the audience in Greek at times and was very energetic and playful. The crowd up at the front had a great time, they sang along and danced to most of the songs. As is often the case, the older material, particularly the Smiths-era songs, were greeted with the most enthusiasm. There was no change in the setlist.
First Of The Gang To Die
The Youngest Was The Most Loved
You Have Killed Me
Disappointed
Ganglord
William, It Was Really Nothing
Everyday Is Like Sunday
Dear God Please Help Me
Let Me Kiss You
I've Changed My Plea To Guilty
In The Future When All's Well
I Will See You In Far Off Places
Girlfriend In A Coma
Irish Blood, English Heart
Life Is A Pigsty
How Soon Is Now?
I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
The National Front Disco
/Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
At the start of the show Morrissey greeted the audience with something like "parte me kai kafte me". He then shouted "Panikos!" before going into set opener "Panic". Near the end of the song, as he sang "hang the DJ, hang the DJ, hang the DJ" he pulled his tie up and mimed someone being hanged. Then as the song was finishing he repeated "panikos!", thanked and welcomed the audience, and went into crowd favourite "First Of The Gang To Die". At some point Morrissey thanked everyone for buying his recent albums "Ringleader Of The Tormentors" and "You Are The Quarry". After he removed his first shirt he joked "I know I'm a bit fat but I'm hardly Demis Roussos... that's next year..."
Reaching out to the local culture, Morrissey declared "Athens has the Acropolis, America has... well em.. McDonalds..." As a reply to the audience's cheers, he said "Me, I'm just a Scandinavian artist". He asked his semi-official webmistress Julia in the front row how her Greek was and she replied "efkaristo" which means thank you. The audience wasn't probably very familiar with the new material because after the first part of "Life Is A Pigsty" many people started clapping as if they thought the song was finished.
After "How Soon Is Now?" Morrissey extended his thanks to the audience with "Jolly nice of you..." He then said, holding a copy of his new single "I Just Want To See The Boy Happy": "So in the real world we release our new single. In Greece, in Pakistan, in Iran, in the Disunited Kingdom, in Iceland where they kill whales... Why? I don't know and (crowd cheers)... why are you applauding? What? Julia why are they applauding? Julia is my interpreter. Julia why are they applauding?" She answered something along the line that they agreed with his animal rights views. Someone shouted something derogatory about her, which prompted Morrissey to tease "Julia he loves you! (more negative remarks from someone else) Oh you love Julia as well... yes, you love everybody! Well, maybe not everybody... Which... (then someone shouts a request) National Front Disco?" The song in question was not next on the planned setlist, but just one song away.
After the encore of "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" Morrissey shouted "God bless you, ciao!" through the ecstatic crowd's loud cheers before fleeing backstage, leaving his musicians to distribute setlists and other such memorabilia to the fans in the front rows.
This concert is not really circulated on audio or video bootlegs at this point in time.
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