We caught Morrissey at the Paramount downtown on Sunday night, May 6th. It was that Charming Man's first show in Seattle since 2002, when I was living "back east" and had only a dimly vague idea of who Morrissey was ("he's the guy who sang How Soon is Now?, right?"). I have since been introduced, and how, to the music of the man and his former Manchester mates. And, although I may still be unclear on which tunes are Smiths, and which are solo, I have developed a true (albeit not quite fanatical) appreciation of Moz, who really is just amazingly talented and cooler than most earthly things. He (along with his collaborators) has compiled a stunning body of work, including dark, moody anthems, arty rockers, and countless pop gems.
Sunday at the Paramount, the sweaty, slightly graying icon held court in front of a couple thousand intensely adoring fans, only a few of whom made their way onstage to try to touch the hem of His garment. Morrissey seemed a bit rough of voice and had to fight monitor problems, but he and his rocking band offered up a varied batch of well-played tunes, including a few Smiths numbers and some nice selections from his latest release, Ringleader of the Tormentors. He also played some lesser-known (by me, anyway) tunes from his solo catalog. There were several highlights, including two recent songs, I Will See You in Far Off Places and Life is a Pigsty which, after a lengthy outro including a nice bit of Auld Lang Syne from the keyboardist, segued dramatically into the aforementioned How Soon Is Now? And I can tell you that even after seeing that song performed live (on video, and right in front of me), I still don't know how they get that guitar-vibrato thing going. But, it's surely one of the 10 coolest things on earth, n'est-ce pas?
Another highlight was the sweetly-sung encore of Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want, one of only two songs I felt comfortable singing along with. The other was (YES!) the greatest pop song of the past 20 years, Everyday is Like Sunday. How great is that? Answer: Pretty God Damn Great.
