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11 December 2009 Ventura (CA), Ventura Theatre
How Soon Is Now?The Swords Tour, marred by health problems, cancellations and concert interruptions, ended on a high note. Morrissey was great, his voice was virtually flawless, his energy was really good, and he looked like he was having fun. The crowd was very excited and appreciative. The setlist was completely resequenced for this final show. It was also shortened to 17 songs. Live favourites "Irish Blood, English Heart" and "Let Me Kiss You" returned, at the expense of "When Last I Spoke To Carol", "Because Of My Poor Education", "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores" and "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?". Morrissey didn't greet the audience until after "Irish Blood, English Heart" when he asked "Are you happy? How do you know?" After "Let Me Kiss You" he proceeded with the introduction of his musicians, but he did it in reverse order from usual: "My band is your band... and we have Gustavo Manzur... we have Jesse Tobias... we have Matt Walker on the drums... on the bass we have Solomon Walker... and the irrepressible Boz Boorer..." After "First Of The Gang To Die" he thanked the band who had supported him throughout the year: "As we swing our way around the globe, we have been very glamorously accompanied by Doll and the Kicks, to whom we are very grateful... the pleasure and the privilege is all mine... and please support them in the future, they deserve your support, and Doll and the Kicks, thank you..." Following "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris" Morrissey sarcastically remarked "Good for you, you made yourself plain... Wow, thank you... More?", which obviously got loud cheers out of the audience. "Ganglord" was introduced with the line "We are well aware that in spite of yesterday, we still have five friends in Echo Park and this song is for them..." After the song he asked "Was that song in tune? No, it wasn't. Honesty is always best, I find. It's a relief, I find, to meet people to whom you can tell the truth. It never happens..." When he came back on stage for the encore, Morrissey's parting words were "This is our final gig, and I would like to say thank you to our beloved crew... thank you to those of you who follow us from city to city... please remember: whatever happens, I love you..." The choice of encore was a surprising one. Instead of the standard "First Of The Gang To Die" or its occasional replacement "Something Is Squeezing My Skull", Morrissey sang "One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell". He may have chosen that song because he feared this might be his last concert ever, or because he wanted to tease the fans into thinking that this goodbye might be farewell. As usual, there were many attempts to make it on stage during the encore. Early in the song, before he started singing, it seemed Morrissey caught sight of someone crowdsurfing and asked, "Where are you going?" He made a few playful lyric changes when he sang "when I die, oh let me go to hell!" and instead of ending with "so grab me while you still have the time", he just yodeled "Soooooooooooooooooooo... goodbye!"
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