Ann Arbor (MI), Michigan Theater
The Queen Is DeadThis was a great concert. Morrissey was obviously enjoying himself and gave the best of himself. The crowd was very lively at the front, less so at the back. The sound wasn't the best and this sometimes distracted Morrissey and had him enquire mid-song about his voice. Security was not very strict and quite a few fans made it on stage throughout the show. "In The Future When All's Well" was added back to the setlist.
First Of The Gang To Die
The Youngest Was The Most Loved
You Have Killed Me
Disappointed
Panic
Let Me Kiss You
I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
I Will See You In Far Off Places
I've Changed My Plea To Guilty
The National Front Disco
Ganglord
Everyday Is Like Sunday
At Last I Am Born
All You Need Is Me
The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
Irish Blood, English Heart
In The Future When All's Well
Life Is A Pigsty
How Soon Is Now?
/Drive-In Saturday
/You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side
As soon as he picked up the microphone Morrissey set the tone of the evening by announcing "I must warn you, I'm ready for a good, hard, clean, wrestle!" In "First Of The Gang To Die" he slightly extended a line to "The first lost lad to go under the sod where else!". Fans from the first few rows had been allowed into the pit and seeing this Morrissey asked "What the hell are you doing in this hole? It looks really ridiculous but... they wouldn't do it for Kris Kristofferson..." The first of a string of stage climbers made it up to Morrissey during "You Have Killed Me". Seeing this Morrissey exclaimed "Wow! Excitement! Oh my God! Back to bed (?)".
At the very end of "Disappointed" Morrissey pretended to sneeze. He then teased the audience into action by saying "So, when we announced... when the tickets were on sale for our very elaborate and completely unnecessary trek across your country, the first night to sell out was this one (crowd cheers)... So, I think we all thought that we were gonna get eaten alive or something but... maybe, praise the Lord, there's still time..."
Following "Panic" Morrissey said "Now steady on, really..." He then proceeded with that evening's introduction of the band: "Demure... demure and teetotal, Boz Boorer... the newest wonder of the world, Solomon Walker..." At this point he was interrupted by someone trying to get on stage, something that never happens during band introductions. The fan was thrown off by security and seeing this Morrissey exclaimed "My God! Jesus! Wow! That will be a front page of the newspapers tomorrow... Shut up! Are you afraid of someone alive? Well yes I am actually..." He then resumed the band introduction: "Sibling rivalry provided by - (?) you're bowing - Matt Walker... he, here, Jesse Tobias... and last, and always least... just kidding, Michael Farrell... and I am a goblin from hell..."
After "Let Me Kiss You" Morrissey had a story to share with the audience: "A few weeks ago I was with your favourite son in Los Angeles and his name of course is Iggy (crowd cheers)... and yet I walked through the town and I don't see the Iggy statue or Iggy (?)... Now why is this you think? Why could this be? Some silly old turd person who invents taxes gets statues... Sorry? I am sorry... So you should be very proud of Jim-Iggy because he's a world influence and also a very nice person... which matters to me..." Following "I Just Want To See The Boy Happy" he told the audience of his band "Considering they're all just semi-professional they're not really bad..."
After "The National Front Disco" Morrissey told his favourite fan "Well Julia, where there's a will there's a way... occasionally!... Thank you..." In "Ganglord" he slightly extended a line to "haunting me, taunting me, wanting me to break their silly laws". As usual he changed another line to "get your fat ass back to the ghetto", but on this date he followed this with "get your scrawny ass back to the ghetto". After the song someone handed him a gift and he told the fan "I never accept gifts from strangers, never!... (shakes hand with a fan, turns around and says) See a little handshake isn't really so bad... isn't really so terrible, a handshake..."
New composition "All You Need Is Me" was introduced with the line "Now if you can bear a new song, or maybe this is your time to go to the pee pee place... 'All You Need Is Me'..." The Smiths classic "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side" was introduced with "And now we could take you back - as always, never forward - to the 1950s!" Beside the usual live changes in "In The Future When All's Well" Morrissey also sang "every day I play a very sad game called..." and "I thank you with what's left of my heart". Between two lines of that song he asked "am I off key?" At the very end of the song he shouted "shucks!" twice.
In "Life Is A Pigsty" Morrissey distractedly went into the "I am in love again" part of the song too early. Besides the numerous other changes in "Drive-In Saturday" he also sang "she knows she's bound to have him". His final words before going into the final song were "So you're all itching for your bed and that fluffy pillow and those little holly hobby dolls that you have on your bed... we know, so we shall detain you no longer and just remember, hold on to your friends, risk everything, but be careful!" That final song was "You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side" and in it Morrissey sang "you're gonna need someone on your snide" and "you've thrown away every day of your teenage life".
Two different good audience recordings of the complete concert are out there for collectors, either on compact disc or in digital format on the internet. One of these recordings is credited to taper Aron41.
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