If you went into the Morrissey show Thursday night at the Saenger Theater expecting a greatest hits laden set or a Smith’s retrospective, you would have been sorely disappointed. Morrissey is on his US leg of his World Peace Is None of Your Business tour and this was his first night of the new outing. The album was released last year and made up quite a substantial part of Thursday’s set. “Istanbul” and “I’m Not a Man” sounded beautifully gloomy, as did the majority of his performance. This dark cloud was exceptionally magnified by the amazing and classic venue that is the Saenger.
The audience for the most part was just along for the ride, and really only got excited for the few Smith’s songs and Morrissey anthem “Every Day is Like Sunday.” Throughout the evening the stage had nostalgic projections hovering above the bands head amid the fantastic moving and specialty lights. During “Meet is Murder,” Morrissey couldn’t help but step high up on his soap box. The beautifully brooding tune was accompanied by the most disturbing images of the evening. While I’m not a vegetarian or vegan by any means, the video did and does give you pause. Morrissey himself, as I’m sure he must do every night the video plays, turned around to watch. The validation it gives him only pushed the point home even more. The encore was by far the most enjoyable part of the evening as Morrissey came back to the stage and played the classic Smith’s tune, “The Queen is Dead.” You can see more pictures here: http://jalbum.net/a/1631675
