27 September 2007
San Francisco (CA), The Fillmore

First Of The Gang To Die
You Have Killed Me
London
Billy Budd
Sister I'm A Poet
That's How People Grow Up
Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?
The Loop
At Last I Am Born
I Like You
Girlfriend In A Coma
Let Me Kiss You
I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris
Stretch Out And Wait
In The Future When All's Well
All You Need is Me
Irish Blood, English Heart
I Will See You In Far Off Places
Dear God Please Help Me
How Soon Is Now?
/Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
The final date of Morrissey's 4-day residency at the San Francisco Fillmore went down very well. Morrissey was his usual best, and the band was very tight. There didn't seem to be any sound problems anymore. The crowd was mellower than the night before, but still quite receptive and appreciative. One fan tried to get on stage in the middle of the set, but failed.

The setlist was completely resequenced and many changes were made to its content. Recent deletions "You Have Killed Me", "London" and "In The Future When All's Well" returned, and "At Last I Am Born", "Girlfriend In A Coma", "I Will See You In Far Off Places" and "Dear God Please Help Me" were played for the first time on this leg (they had been played on earlier legs of this tour). To make space for these the following songs were temporarily removed from the set: "The Last Of The Famous International Playboys", "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side", "Good Looking Man About Town", "Death Of A Disco Dancer", "I Just Want To See The Boy Happy", "Life Is A Pigsty" and "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want". "Human Being" was slotted as first encore, but Morrissey decided at the last minute to skip it and only do one encore.

Morrissey had been constantly changing the walk-on music so far on this leg of his Greatest Hits tour, digging back into his past concert intros. However on this date there was no recorded walk-on piece. Instead of that the whole band came on stage, keyboardist Michael Farrell played a few bars of "Clang Clang Went the Trolley" on the piano, then he and the rest of the band launched into set opener "First Of The Gang To Die". Morrissey greeted the audience after the song, saying something that sounded like "Welcome to the amusement hall..." Besides the usual lyric changes in "You Have Killed Me" he also sang "how am I that I come to be leaving here". After that song he said "It's (?) number four and you're still standing..."

After "London" Morrissey said something that ended with "...same rhythm, different lyrics... slightly..." At the very end of "Sister I'm A Poet" he pretended to sneeze. He then took a gift handed to him by a young child and asked him "What's your name? (child tells his name) How old are you? (child says seven) Me too, me too..." After "That's How People Grow Up" he asked "Does anybody have anything of any value to say? Yes? Do you have anything to say? (he hands microphone to fan who asks him if he will return) I haven't left... Yes! I will return..." At various points in the show fans threw gifts up on stage and twice the objects ended up hitting Morrissey while he was singing.

Following "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself" Morrissey proceeded with the introduction of the band. He introduced Michael Farrell, Jesse Tobias, Matt Walker, Solomon Walker simply with their names and ended by saying "and God created Boz Boorer..." At the beginning of "At Last I Am Born" Morrissey changed the line "historians note" to "somebody write this down". After the song he handed the microphone to another young child in the front row and asked "What's your name? (the child answers 'Morrissey' and Morrissey the adult replies) Noooo? It can't be true... Is that really your name? (Morrissey looks dumbfounded and walks away) Dear God! I thought I was just a trivial pop singer... In fact! (pause) I am..." The next planned song was "I Like You" and at the end of it the child Morrissey was pulled up by his adult namesake from atop his father's shoulders and onto the stage. Adult Morrissey took him by the hand and twirled around until the song was finished. He then waved him goodbye as security handed him back to his father.

After "Girlfriend In A Coma" Morrissey said "And of course, special thanks to all those of you who braved death by attending all four nights (crowd cheers)... you're very brave. We have your names and addresses... We shall visit you, humiliate you, and we'll embarrass your parents... if you haven't already..." In "Let Me Kiss You" he changed a line to "I've zigzagged all over Siberia and I cannot find..." After the song he asked his favourite fan "Julia, have you seen anything good in San Francisco?" She answered "I am right now!" and Morrissey replied back "That's a very icky reply Julia! Very icky..." He then handed the microphone to another fan who asked him something which prompted the reply "I never have fun...it's very ageing.." He then walked to the other end of the stage and handed the microphone to another fan. This one said something, Morrissey told him "force yourself!", listened to what he had to say, repeated "Wh - dementis?", then walked away. He then thanked someone who shouted "I love you!".

In "Stretch Out And Wait" Morrissey followed the line "And is there any point ever having children?" with the improvised "don't be silly!" The song was very well received and Morrissey told the audience "Steady on, it wasn't that good... The fumes are affecting your rationale... that's for sure..." The fumes in question were from the marijuana that was being smoked by various members of the crowd. After "In The Future When All's Well" Morrissey joked "I would also like to thank the fancy people of the Fillmore for putting up with my voice for 4 days... four people died (crowd laughs)..." In "All You Need Is Me" he changed a line to "you roll your eyes up to the skies and pretend to be horrified". In live performances of "I Will See You In Far Off Places" at the time Morrissey usually changed a line to "and if George W Bush doesn't kill you", but this time he took this to "and if Bush! Bush! Bush! doesn't kill you".

On most dates so far on this tour the main set ended with the trio "Life Is A Pigsty" / "Auld Lang Syne" / "How Soon Is Now?", with each title seguing into the following. However on this date Morrissey replaced "Life Is A Pigsty" with its album-mate "Dear God Please Help Me", and still had it segue into "How Soon Is Now?" but this time without the traditional air "Auld Lang Syne". Morrissey's final words to the audience before going into the encore were "All I can hope is that... (mumbles)".

 


Most of the show was filmed by Suswa and the footage was put up on the internet split up in 20 digital video files. Most of the time the camera is aimed down at the floor so there is very little to see, but these recordings are still interesting for the audio which is boomy, but the only significant audio out there right now. A 8-minute montage of good quality footage from the show is being traded on file sharing networks (recorder: U2Nick). It is arguably the best footage of this show out there at this point in time.

No 'real' audio recording of this concert has been made available in wide circulation yet. One audience recording of the complete or near-complete concert has been reported, but it has not made it to common circulation yet. Audio files of "Sister I'm A Poet", "That's How People Grow Up", "Girlfriend In A Coma", "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris", "Stretch Out And Wait", "Irish Blood, English Heart" and "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" are found on the internet, but those were ripped off video files put up by user Diablovista on Youtube.

 

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