6 October 2007
Los Angeles (CA), Hollywood Palladium

Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
You Have Killed Me
Sister I'm A Poet
I Like You
The Loop
Whatever Happens, I Love You
Irish Blood, English Heart
That's How People Grow Up
Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?
In The Future When All's Well
Tomorrow
Disappointed
I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris
Stretch Out And Wait
All You Need Is Me
Billy Budd
London
Dear God Please Help Me
How Soon Is Now?
/First Of The Gang To Die
This show was quite different to the one from the night before. The place was packed and Morrissey was in top form and very talkative. He did appear to be irritated with his microphone now and then, but not to the point where it affected his performance or mood. The crowd was very loud and receptive, and obviously enjoyed every minute. In turn Morrissey fed off that energy and sent it back. There was a good deal of crowd surfing, but only one fan made it on stage.

Once again the setlist was completely reworked. The songs "You Have Killed Me", "I Like You", "Whatever Happens, I Love You", "Irish Blood, English Heart", "In The Future When All's Well", "Disappointed", "All You Need Is Me", "Billy Budd", "London" and "First Of The Gang To Die" returned to the set, while the following titles were temporarily dropped: "The National Front Disco", "The Last Of The Famous International Playboys", "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side", "Ganglord", "Human Being", "Everyday Is Like Sunday", "Shoplifters Of The World Unite", "One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell", "I Just Want To See The Boy Happy" and "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want".

When he entered stage Morrissey greeted the audience by singing a few lines from Jimmy Buffett's "Another Saturday Night", but with his own twist: "It's... It's another saturday night, I ain't got nobody, bla-bla-bla-bla 'cause I just got... striked!" At the end of set opener "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" he shouted the question "where am I?" In live performances of "You Have Killed Me" at the time he usually changed a line to "Anne Sexton you will always be". However on this date he changed it again, this time to "Diana Dors you will always be". Similarly in "Sister I'm A Poet" he usually sang "A plastic bag stranded at the lights, this once was me", but here he extended that to "A plastic bag stranded at the traffic lights, this once was me".

At the very end of "Sister I'm A Poet" Morrissey roared "Thank God!", then thanked the crowd in Italian ("Grazie!"). He then told the audience "And of course, however you feel, whatever happens, don't hold it back, (roars) just let it out!" After "I Like You" he teasingly asked "Are you interested in more?" and the crowd answered by cheering very loudly. "Whatever Happens, I Love You" was introduced with the line "I have always found... in my life, that... whenever I tell the truth, something awful happens... however, whatever happens I love you..." After the song Morrissey proceeded with the traditional introduction of the band: "When I first met them, they were selling balloons in the streets... but at least they were happy... The one and only Boz Boorer... the extremely lonely Solomon Walker... with his neat cymbals, Matt Walker... (in Mexican accent) all the way from over the border, Jesse Tobias... that's the Canadian border... and last, but by all means least, Michael Farrell..."

In "Irish Blood, English Heart" Morrissey punctuated the line "Irish blood, English heart, this I'm made of" with an exclamation of "look!" Next up "That's How People Grow Up" was introduced with the announcement "We are... we are... next week, we are scheduled to appear on one of your phone-in programmes (crowd cheers/boos)... and we shall sing this song, which is called..." Morrissey bridged from the latter new composition to the fan favourite "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself" with the words "That's 'That's How People Grow Up'... however, as we know, there are other ways, such as..." After "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself" he went to the side of the stage and said a few words to someone. When he returned to his microphone he told the crowd "Sorry I had to slip off stage to complain for a few minutes... I feel so much better. Nice! nice! nice! nice! nice! nice!... Jesse!"

After "In The Future When All's Well" Morrissey took a copy of T-Rex's "Boy Love" single which was given to him by a fan, and asked him "Where did you buy this? Amoeba? It's very nice... Did they have any Sasha Distel? Or (?)... Really?" Over the final bars of "Tomorrow" he shouted "Some of us... is turning... nasty!", which also happened to be the words on drummer Matt's base drum's skin on this leg of the tour. The latter comment may have been prompted by the fact that some drunk fans were caught in a fight. He then said "To you!" and handed the microphone to his favourite fan Julia, who asked him how he was. He answered "Well Julia... I think I'm okay, but I don't know... I have no idea..." He then said "deh-deh-deh-deh!" in a funny voice and passed the microphone to someone else nearby. This fan requested something from the "Kill Uncle" album. The crowd cheered in approval and Morrissey retorted "As long as there's blood in my veins, no... don't rake up my mistakes..."

In live performances of "Disappointed" at the time Morrissey usually changed a line to "All your friends and your foes would rather die than have to sleep with you". However on this day he took this to "...they'd rather kill themselves than have to sleep with you". The Smiths classic "Stretch Out And Wait" was introduced with the words "Well... about 150 years ago, there was... this song..." Morrissey updated one line in the latter number to "How can you stand there and contemplate". The song was obviously very well received so Morrissey said "You're very gracious, thank you..." He then teased the crowd by saying "And I know, I know some of you have driven all the way from Glendale and... and Downey!... And of course, the majority of you are from Beverly Hills (crowd boos)... just kidding... just kidding, just kidding! Just... kidding!"

Just as the band was about to launch into "Billy Budd" Morrissey shouted "Si! Si! Si!" After the song he said "I just accidentally chopped somebody's head off..." He then shouted "These things happen!" and added in a lower voice "all the time..." He followed the line "Now I'm spreading your legs" in "Dear God Please Help Me" with the comment "Well I’m trying!" In live performances of "How Soon Is Now?" at the time Morrissey often changed "How can you say I go about things the wrong way" to "How can you say I live my life the wrong way". However on this date he took this to "How can you say I sing my life the wrong way". His final words before going into the encore song were lifted from the Smiths classic "Unloveable": "I know I'm unloveable, you don't have to tell me..." They were in answer to the loud cheer that had just welcomed him and his band back to the stage.

 


There is no significant video recording of this concert in circulation yet. The most interesting visual souvenir out there at this point in time is a 30 minute digital file featuring bad sounding video recordings of "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before", "You Have Killed Me", "Sister I'm A Poet", "The Loop", "That's How People Grow Up", "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?", "Tomorrow" and "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris", plus one minute of "Stretch Out And Wait". The material is credited to recorder FDR but some of it seems to have been taken from another source. Some footage of this date (source unknown) has been included on a bootleg 2-DVD set featuring material from all Morrissey shows at the Palladium in October 2007.

An audio-only audience recording of the complete set is also traded between collectors (recorder: D. Hamblen). The sound is muffled and rather subpar for a 2008 recording.

 

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