15 August 1986
Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, IL
Still Ill
I Want The One I Can't Have
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
How Soon Is Now?
Frankly, Mr. Shankly
Panic
Stretch Out And Wait
The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
Is It Really So Strange?
Cemetry Gates
Never Had No One Ever
What She Said (with Rubber Ring intro and outro)
That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
Meat Is Murder
The Queen Is Dead
/Money Changes Everything
/I Know It's Over
//Hand In Glove
///Bigmouth Strikes Again
Chicago loved the Smiths and the band was extremely well received. Rows of chairs were destroyed by rowdy fans. At show's end there was a huge pile of them in the rear-center of the venue. Beer was being sold in Tupperware containers and some people kept throwing some at the band who didn't seem to care. It was also dreadfully hot that night and the smash of the crowd drew out squirt guns and water from security. Many fans, especially women, were pulled over the barrier by the guards and taken away, not because of their behavior, but because of the heat. No changes were made to the setlist.

At some point into the show a fan threw a large bouquet of flowers up on stage. Morrissey picked it up and smashed it all over the microphone stand and other equipment as he danced around. He wasn't very chatty, but he introduced the songs that were unreleased in the USA, such as "Panic" with the line "This song... this song is... shhh! 'Panic'!" and "Is It Really So Strange?" with "Thank you, that song was called 'Is It Really So Strange?'..." The UK b-side "Stretch Out And Wait" was also unreleased in North America, and it was introduced with the words "This song... this song was... heavily... inspired... by... Ozzy Osbourne..." Before "What She Said", Morrissey said "Your kindness is strangulating, thank you..."

Some of this info was provided by Douglas Brown and Michael Farrell.

 


A good audience recording of the concert is available on bootlegs. Two different transfers of this can be found on the internet. The one usually found in lossless format is from a very low generation tape, and sounds the best. The other one sounds significantly more muffled as it very likely came from a higher generation tape.

 

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