6 May 2007
Seattle (WA), Paramount Theatre

The Queen Is Dead
First Of The Gang To Die
The Youngest Was The Most Loved
You Have Killed Me
Disappointed
All You Need Is Me
I Will See You In Far Off Places
Lucky Lisp
Ganglord
The National Front Disco
I've Changed My Plea To Guilty
The Boy With The Thorn In His Side (aborted)
Everyday Is Like Sunday
In The Future When All's Well
Irish Blood, English Heart
Let Me Kiss You
Life Is A Pigsty
How Soon Is Now?
I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
/Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
/You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side
This was an excellent concert. Morrissey was in fantastic spirits and very energetic. He was also quite talkative and treated the audience to a good deal of witty banter and improvised funny lyric changes. However, he was somewhat annoyed with the sound and even aborted a song halfway into its performance (read further). The audience wasn't the most energetic, but they were still extremely receptive and appreciative. Security was tight, sometimes a bit too rough, but obviously not as much as on some recent dates such as Santa Rosa. Three or four fans managed to make it on stage.

The setlist length was brought back up to 21 songs with the return of "I've Changed My Plea To Guilty" and "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want". The Seattle audience was actually almost treated to 22 songs. "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" was on the planned setlist between "In The Future When All's Well" and "Irish Blood, English Heart", but Morrissey decided to skip it as the band was about to launch into it. This decision was possibly due to his dissatisfaction with the sound.

As he entered stage Morrissey greeted the audience with a simple "Beloved!". In set opener "The Queen Is Dead" he mistakenly sang "life is very long when your lonely" instead of the two "Passed the pub..." lines. Then when he should have been singing "life is very long when your lonely" he just stayed mute. Over the last few bars of the song he shouted something undecipherable. After the song he told the audience "steady on!" Over the opening bars of "First Of The Gang To Die" he ordered "Stop smiling!" Further into that number he slightly extended a line to "and the first lost lad to go - where else? - under the sod".

Before going into "The Youngest Was The Most Loved" Morrissey cajoled the audience by saying "And of course, it doesn't need to be said but, it's delightful to be in your gracious city... didn't need to be said, but I said it..." After the song he teased "Contrary to all of your predictions, we had a great time in Spokane (crowd cheers)... so, pfftt!!" He was very playful with "You Have Killed Me". Instead of the usual live change to "Peter Rossellini is me, Pasolini I'll never be", he sang "Pasolini is me, me, I, me, but Rosselini I'd rather be". Similarly further into the song he sang "Visconti is me, I, me, Anne Sexton you will never be". He also sang "I entered nothing and obviously nothing entered me".

After "Disappointed" Morrissey joked "You obviously think you're in Utrecht". He was referring to the live version of the song recorded in Utrecht in 1991 which had been released on the "Pregnant For The Last Time" single, and which was probably more familiar to people who owned the centenary edition of the "Viva Hate" album where it appeared as a bonus track. New composition "All You Need Is Me" was introduced with the line "Of course, as all of you know, I live completely in a world of childish fantasy (crowd cheers)... and as a direct consequence I write songs called 'All You Need Is Me'."

After the latter number Morrissey had a funny story to share with the crowd: "You will be very surprised to know that several years ago when I moved to Los Angeles (crowd cheers/boos)... well, it's so easy to upset people, you know, you just mention Los Angeles, Boise in Idaho it upsets people... Well, when I moved to Moz Angeles (crowd cheers)... all the furniture that I bought for the house, I bought in this city... and of course it all fell apart (crowd laughs)... I think you're used to that, really, but for seven days the furniture was useful. Thank you for your furniture!" Besides most of the usual lyric changes in "I Will See You In Far Off Places" he also sang "I will close my mouth forever". However the most memorable change was the one to "If George W. Bush doesn't kill you".

"Lucky Lisp" was introduced with "From the wreckage of the past, we have salvaged this curiosity... me!" At the beginning of the song Morrissey playfully sang "...and when your talent becomes apparent. If! If!". He must not have been happy with the sound on that one because after it he said "I think we should've left it where it was... but thank you anyway... What's wrong? Please tell me what's wrong and I'll do my best to... make it worse..." He then handed the microphone to a fan in the front row who said "I would like to have your shirt". To this Morrissey retorted "Yeah but does it stop there, I mean next is shoes, then it's trousers then it's... then it's sports cup, which I wear every day..."

After "Ganglord" Morrissey had an interesting fact to share with his fans: "As you know I've never been on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine... and I never shall... unless tonight maybe somebody shoots me, I dunno... and I might be on page 90. Paris Hilton, on the cover, all the great American stars, the cover... I don't complain, I just disagree..." Following "I've Changed My Plea To Guilty" he answered someone with "Thank God I play ice hockey..." Then to someone else he said "You've done this before, you must be tired by now... No you cannot! People!..."

Halfway into "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side" Morrissey started to make faces and said "I can't hear..." He then skipped a few lines and starting singing again at the next chorus. He didn't go very far before getting enough. He motioned to his musicians and said "Whoa, stop, stop... I can't really hear what I'm singing, I'm sorry... So is it a question of just hearing voice and no band, or just hearing the band and no voice?... Could I just recite some poetry? Does anybody know any, 'cause I don't... Oh dear... Julia? A solution Julia, you will always have the right thing to - Julia was at the Smiths' first rehearsal, she's been everywhere. Julia? Can you please find some inspiring words, please? Please? (she says we need to hear his wonderful voice) Well, do you have a cd on you? Cause I think that's the only way... So if I can hear everything, the voice and the music, it would be nice... Well we'll try the next song... maybe there is a God, I don't know..."

In "Everyday Is Like Sunday" Morrissey punctuated an occurrence of the chorus "Everyday is like Sunday..." with "...except today!". Further into the song he extended a line to "on your face, on your sweet little face". In "In The Future When All's Well" he sang "I will lie down anywhere and be counted". After the song he joked "It's funny when occasionally I hear somebody shout Johnny Marr's name and I look into the crowd, and it is Johnny Marr!" In the crowd favourite "Irish Blood, English Heart" he followed the line "I will die with both of my hands untied" with "...maybe not, I don't know!" In "Life Is A Pigsty" he sang "How come I'm still the same underneath".

` In "How Soon Is Now?" Morrissey extended a line to "I am human and I need to be loved, but so what! So what! So what..." then another one to "and you go home and you cry and you want to die, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again..." He also sang "you could meet someone who actually likes you" and "I already waited too long and look at this face, all my hope is gone". He bridged the latter number into "I Just Want To See The Boy happy" with the simple and effective "And out of the blackness, into the blackness!" He changed the final line in the latter number to "why is this so impossible!".

 


A quite good audience recording of the complete concert is being traded between collectors and is also available in digital format on the internet (recorder: OasisDouglas).

 

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