How Soon is Now?

Monday October 15th brought Morrissey to Utah once again. He performed at Thanksgiving Point at at very small venue called the Barn. Because, well it looks like a barn.

I was a bit worried, I didn't get ticket right when they came out because I didn't know if anyone would come with me and I didn't want to spend $60 to go and stand on my own and leave on my own and go home, etc, etc. But the lovely Erika said she wanted to go and eventually we bought tickets which were only row 9 which seemed very, very good. We drove down with our Taco Bell crispy twists and our excitement building. Going into the venue we both noticed that the seating looked very much like we were at a work conference, it was a very small venue and our row 9 tickets were almost the last row before the first and only tier level. We walked around the venue, which didn't take much time at all and looked at all the new Morrissey shirts. Too bad I'd already gotten a shirt last concert and could see spending more money, but I really could have gone for one of the red or green "Lads Club" shirts instead. Or the Je Sui Morrissey one, it's clever.

Anyway, Kristeen Whatsherface played her set and I want to like her, but really it's just so much feedback and noise that it's difficult. Someone yelled at her that all her songs sound the same. She started the keyboards for the next song and said "Really sir, you think this song sounds the same as the last one?" and then all the feedback started, and yes, it did sounds a lot like the last song since it's mostly just a wall of noise with her wailing in the background. She's just hard to appreciate live I guess.

After her set, I told Erika we really should join the crowd standing up front by the stage and so we pretended to get some cheesy nachos and picked a spot stage right just off the corner where the crowd didn't seem so big. After the old video montage I ended up standing behind a tall girl who was up against the railing and Erika was right behind me. He came out and I think this was the closest I've ever been to him. When we saw him at Salt Air the stage was a lot longer and so it was very rare for him to really be near us, but here he played up the sides of the stage and gave us a great show. Lot's of Smiths songs like 'Stretch Out and Wait' and 'Shoplifters' which are favorites of mine and also 2 songs from Vauxhall, which I feel is my first real Morrissey album, since it was the first release after I was introduced to Mozzer. 'Death of a Disco Dancer' and 'Jack the Ripper' were also some highlights. Erika was rewarded with 'Dear God, Please help me' which is one of her favs and 'First of the Gang' but he messed up the second verse on that because of being so interested in the crowd and the stage invaders. Morrissey was incredible chatty and said lots of amusing things. The thing that amused Erika and I was his comment about how Tony Blair was finally out of the UK and next year we would be done with the "munchkin" meaning Bush and people cheered. Erika commented that more than likely the people cheering had either voted for Bush or not voted at all, but we want Morrissey to like us. I find it interesting that people will seriously take political advise from pop stars and actors, since the only reason people is the fame factor, but that's another discussion.

He asked some kid if we were close to Ogden and the guy said yes. We all yelled no. I wish I had been given the mic to answer, I'm not a retard.

The girl in front of me was able to touch his hand twice when he proffered it to the crowd, but even with as tall as she was, she had to move around the barrier to do so, and I ended up being about 4-5 inches from being able to touch him, but oh well, I would have had to wash my hand again sometime.

After ward Erika and I, not learning anything from the last show, walked around the venue a bit. After meeting some guy from Phoenix we decided the best view of an exiting Morrissey would come from the other side of the venue. When we got there we were so shocked to see a huge crowd. Boz was there signing things and talking to blokes on people's cell phones. He was really funny and sounded just like Ricky Gervais from The Office. We got to keep the Sharpie that he was signing things with and he jumped on the band's tour bus. Then Morrissey come out, we cheered and he waved. Surrounded by security guards he jumped onto his own bus and it quickly drove away and we could see just a bit of him as the bus drove past, which was way better than the last time. We left feeling all giddy and extremely happy. We got some ice cream from Scone Cutters and sat in my car in the driveway and talked about music and artists and ti was really fun.

I love that I was able to introduce someone to Morrissey and they really came to love him and his music. It's interesting for Erika because she likes Morrissey more then the Smiths and was introduced to all of the songs at the same time, so she really has lots of love for the new album and songs, unlike the rest of us who have old favorites that he'll probably never play again. It was also odd to think that even though he wrote the lyrics to the Smiths songs and Johnny Marr wrote the music, they are really his. There's no way Johnny would be able to get away with playing these songs in concert, being in another singer (or singing them himself, which I think he has done once or twice) and they get the same kind of reaction. Morrissey made the Smiths. There can't be any argument that Marr is a great guitarist, but Morrissey owns it. He's the life blood of every Smiths song. I'm really glad that he's started playing these songs because they are such classics and everyone loves them so much.

All in all, a 100% successful trip!