You Have Killed Me

Wow. Saw Morrissey last night. It was amazing. He played 5 Smiths songs. I never dreamed I would get to hear "The Queen is Dead" and "Boy with the Thorn" live. Being born a decade too late, but there it was. It was fantastic.

Since the seats were free they weren't great so we decided to move a little closer to the stage, which was great because the venue was anything but full, so we got moved to just off center and 4 rows back. Which would have been great if the whole floor wasn't general admission, so we were seated behind that, but we had a perfect view and all the people I brought with me had a good time. Even Summer, who was a bit appalled when he took off his shirt (twice) and threw it into the crowd. Which was when I knew that Morrissey is getting old. He's got a bit of a gut, I mean I know he will be 48 later this month, but it's hard to see your idols grow old, it reminds of the slow march towards death that we all are on.

Opened with 'The Queen is Dead' which was amazing. I was happy that he played 'You have Killed Me' just because it was a song that i knew Magen would know. We got to hear 'Ganglord' which is a great b-side that I seriously need to get. When they played 'Boy with the Thorn' I was thrilled. I love this song so much and the whole time I couldn't stop jumping around and dancing and grinning like a fool. I was super happy for Erika when he played 'I've Changed my Plea' because even though she's only been listening to Moz, for, what, a week? She really loves this song. 'Life is a Pigsty' into 'How Soon is Now?' was incredible. Morrissey laying on the floor and the 'Auld Lang Syne' in between was very poignant. All in all, it was spectacular, I was so pleased that I was able to go and I'm kicking myself that I didn't spend the money and get some tickets on the GA floor. Oh well, these were free.

Afterwards (with no coaxing from me) my friend suggested we wait around to see if we could see the Man himself. It was no use, we spend about an hour and a half only to see his town car speed away without even seeing him since the windows were so dark, but it was still fun to hang out and get giggly that late at night. So now I'm at work with only 6 hours of sleep under my belt and I was actually here early! How did that happen? No idea, but if i found out, then I'm going to bottle it and use it every morning.

I don't know how Husband and Child did without me last night, but there isn't any poop on the walls and Husband managed to leave for work early this morning, so it couldn't have been too bad.

Steven (You Don't Eat Meat)

Thank you Erika. I'm now totally jazzed to buy Morrissey tickets tomorrow. We started goofing off on youtube and now I'm just watching all my favorites. I had no idea that he ever performed 'Jack the Ripper' live. That man puts on a great show. It's kind of sad to see the progression to old Morrissey. He used to be that dapper lad with daffodils and now he's just filled out so much. He's still in really good shape, but the year have definitely aged him. Even just a few years ago there's such a difference.

Why do idols have to get old? What happened to the good old days when they all died of drug overdoses? I think one reason that Hendricks and Morrison have the following and love that they still do because they left beautiful corpses. There was no "Gosh, he got old and fat and now his music seems irrelevant" phase that most musicians slip into. of course there are some people that will never stop. I'm sure that Mick Jagger has made a deal with the devil so that even though he actually died seven years ago, he still keeps touring and rocking it, zombie style. Either that or he's a vampire. He's the undead of some kind.

But Morrissey, geez, he still looks good and has aged well, and Quarry was even a pretty good album. The single from the new album "You Have Killed Me" is stellar, but I don't know whether the rest is. I haven't bought it. I know, I've only had about a year to do it, but I don't go hang out in record stores anymore, poring over what albums I need to own. Perhaps it's the new grown-up in me saying that paying bills is more important that music. Crazy, I know.

I do try to keep current somewhat, but I suppose those old favorites will always be favorites. There's no way Snow Patrol or Death Cab is going to topple Morrissey from his pedestal, no matter how old he is, even if he's tottering around the stage with his walker crooning "Everyday is Like Sunday" and it won't matter that his face is all sunken and old, he'll still be amazing. And every time I look at my birthday card from Erika, I will all the sudden have "Unhappy birthday" stuck in my head for the next hour and I will savor it.