31 October 2007
Baltimore (MD), Rams Head

The Loop
Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
The Last Of The Famous International Playboys
Sister I'm A Poet
All You Need Is Me
London
Billy Budd
Girlfriend In A Coma
Irish Blood, English Heart
That's How People Grow Up
Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?
The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores
I Like You
Shoplifters Of The World Unite
Tomorrow
Stretch Out And Wait
I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris
Death Of A Disco Dancer
Jack The Ripper
How Soon Is Now?
/First Of The Gang To Die
This was a good show. The crowd was quiet overall, but still very appreciative. Nobody made it on stage. Morrissey was at the top of his game, and seemed like he was enjoying himself. It must be said that this being Halloween, he came on stage wearing a tuxedo while his musicians were all dressed as Tarzan, shirtless with loinclothes. They also had words written on their chest. Boz's said "Disco Dancer". Solomon's said "Stosh Me" inside a box, with red hearts painted over his nipples. Matt had the word "Waukegan" on his chest. Jesse had something that looked like "Let's Feely" on the front, and "Henchman en Mexico" on the back. Finally Michael had "Yes Sir I Can Boogie" on the front and "Cleveland Is My Woman" on the back, with an arrow pointing down. During the encore Morrissey was almost pulled into the crowd by someone shaking his hand. He had to be helped back up by security.

This was a very unusual setlist because, with the dropping of "One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell", "The National Front Disco", "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side" and "Dear God Please Help Me", and the return of "The Last Of The Famous International Playboys", "London", "Girlfriend In A Coma", "That's How People Grow Up" and "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me", this meant Morrissey did a record eight songs from the Smiths days and nothing from his most recent album "Ringleader Of The Tormentors".

Early into the show Morrissey joked that he had begged his musicians to wear their normal clothes but that they had still wanted to come out dressed as Tarzan. Later he asked "It's Halloween, what does that mean?" Various answers were shouted his way, but he seemed dissatisfied with all of them and just said "Is that all?". He mentioned with no small amount of sarcasm how glad he was to be #94 in the list of 100 top living geniuses which had just been put together by The Telegraph. He also added that there's always a big but and that out of all the names, they could not spell his correctly and that "...after all, it's The Telegraph and how can we expect such things out of them, eh?" He used this as an introduction to "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores".

Morrissey commented now and then on the crowd's lack of energy. He said "I can see you're trying to restrain yourselves..." or something to that effect, then added "...and imagine! I'm ME!" Following one of the new compositions, perhaps "That's How People Grow Up" or "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris", he self-deprecatingly said, "Thank you, music lovers! All twelve of you." He had his traditional chit-chats with some regulars in the front rows. One of them gave him a box of candies and started to ask him something, but he just shouted back "No, no, no!" Later in the set he handed the microphone to his favourite fan Julia. She asked him how he was but other fans behind her started laughing so Morrissey asked them "Why is that funny?... People are strange..."

Late in the set Morrissey changed into a black shirt and said, "I wear black on the outside because... beige is how I feel on the inside!" He thanked the fans for dressing up... and added that if they hadn't, that was okay as well. When he came out for the encore his final significant words to the audience were "Thank you for being very frightening... you scared the shit out of me!"

 


No audio or video recording of this show are to be found on bootlegs at this point in time. One audience recording of the complete or near-complete concert has been reported, but it has not made it to common circulation yet.

 

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