21 November 1997
State Theater, New Brunswick, NJ

The Boy Racer
Alma Matters
London
Billy Budd
Spring-Heeled Jim
Now My Heart Is Full
Speedway
Reader Meet Author
Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself
Roy's Keen
The Teachers Are Afraid Of The Pupils
The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get
Paint A Vulgar Picture
/Shoplifters Of The World Unite
This show went down without any hitch, but the crowd was rather unresponsive. Morrissey wasn't very talkative besides the few rants about the lack of enthusiasm from the crowd. He was still playful though, he teased the fans with swinging pelvis motions during key lyrical moments in certain songs, like the end of "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get" for example. The security was very tight and sometimes brutal. Some fans still managed to reach Morrissey and hug him.

The opening song "Do Your Best And Don't Worry", "Sunny" and "Hold On To Your Friends" were replaced by "Now My Heart Is Full", "Speedway" and "The Teachers Are Afraid Of The Pupils". "Satan Rejected My Soul" was on the setlist after "Paint A Vulgar Picture", but wasn't performed.

Morrissey greeted the crowd with a simple "Hello!" which sounded more like a primitive grunt. After the first song, he commmented: "Welcome to a quiet friday night in...". His only other significant banter of the evening was "I told you you should have gone to McDonalds instead", delivered after "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself". In "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get", a line was changed to "Whether you like it or do not".

After "Paint A Vulgar Picture", Morrissey simply left the stage even though there was still "Satan Rejected My Soul" on the planned setlist. This took his musicians by surprise, but they left their instruments there and followed Morrissey off stage. After a short break, they all came back to play the planned encore of "Shoplifters Of The World Unite". Before going into it, Morrissey thanked the fans "Thanks for your patience...".

 


A reasonably good audience recording of the full set is circulated on bootlegs and on the internet (recorder: Patrick).

 

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