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| Toronto Sun reviews Hummingbird Centre show |
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posted by davidt
on Friday October 15 2004, @07:00AM
Mike sends the review and accompanying photo:
Mining The Quarry
A golden night with pop-rock veteran Morrissey
By JANE STEVENSON
Toronto Sun
MORRISSEY
Hummingbird Centre, Toronto
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
TORONTO -- Morrissey is clearly an equal opportunity heartthrob.
What else could explain the number of women and men who went up to give Moz (as he's been dubbed in the British press) -- a handshake, hug or kiss on stage last night during a show at the Hummingbird Centre?
I lost count after the number of overly enthusiastic fans went into the double digits.
Perhaps the explanation for all that adoration is that the 45-year-old pop-rock veteran and former frontman for hugely influential '80s rockers The Smiths is currently touring in support of You Are The Quarry, his first studio album in seven years.
Just maybe all that screaming, swooning and reaching out and touching Morrissey was simply because his fans missed the miserable old sod.
And I use that description with the deepest of affection.
An artist who has built a career on depressing and melancholy songs full of eloquent lyrics and sung in an emotional and expressive voice, even Morrissey made fun of his sad sack reputation last night.
"Am I still depressed?" he asked out loud during his 90-minute set. "Look around you. CNN. Bush. How could anyone possibly be happy?"
Well, at the very least, his fans were.
"I feel you," he said towards the end. "My little wooden heart is full. But for how long? That is the question."
The show began dramatically enough with the stage bathed in darkness while a British woman's voice listed off bad things like "drunken abusers, racists, bullies, the Sun newspaper (The London Sun, fyi), hunger, greed," etc.
At that point, audience members were already on their feet and screaming and crowding the aisles where they remained for the rest of the night.
Then Morrissey and his five piece band -- guitarists Boz Boorer and Jesse Tobias, bassist Gary Day, keyboardist Mike Farrell and drummer Dean Butterworth -- came on stage and took a bow together before a single note was even played. Morrissey's name spelled out in huge red lights behind them added to the larger-than-life vibe of the evening.
Somewhat surprisingly, Morrissey, who would eventually sweat his way through three dress shirts before leaving the stage shirtless at the end, opened the set with The Smiths' 1986 tune Bigmouth Strikes Again, before trotting out the first Quarry song of the night, The First Of The Gang To Die.
"This is an evening of loud music and poetry," he proclaimed. "More specifically, it's the dying art of live music."
Working his microphone cord like a bullfighter with a red cape, Morrissey's performing style was definitely memorable.
And not even his chastising of the Canadian government for allowing baby seals to be clubbed to death and the public allowing it to continue -- "You're spineless," his scolded -- could end the love affair between performer and crowd.
Other set highlights included such Quarry songs as I Like You, The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores, Let Me Kiss You, How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel? and Irish Blood, English Heart, and such Smiths' classics as How Soon Is Now? and There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.
Opening last night was Montreal buzz band The Dears, who just got a huge mention in Rolling Stone as one of "10 artists to watch."
Judging from their uneven half-hour set, the occasion caused some nervousness within the group, who have been compared to The Smiths in the past, as frontman Murray Lightburn announced: "I can't express what Morrissey has meant to me in my life. I just wanted to take this chance to say thank-you Morrissey and I love you."
Obviously, it was a sentiment shared by many.
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A different review by Bruce Scott is on the Toronto Sun website.
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