Morrissey is still driving hard

by Sarah Rodman
Sunday, February 20, 2000

Morrissey at Avalon, Boston, last night and tonight.

If you're a Morrissey fan and you've been waffling about going to see him tonight at the second of his two shows at Avalon, get thee to a box office.

Reports that the former Smiths frontman and '90s solo star was losing both his love of and his gifts for performing were soundly contradicted during last night's 90-minute, sold-out show.

The 40-year-old Brit's dreamy croon is still in great shape, as he displayed on tunes canvassing his 16-year career. Steven Patrick Morrissey, backed by a four-piece band, proved that he is still a mope, a madcap, a flirt, a firebrand, a complicated man and a good old-fashioned rock star.

He queried the audience, ``How come regardless of what's happening, I'm alternative? And when alternative starts happening, I'm still alternative.''

Morrissey still felt, deservedly, confident enough about his physique to periodically peel off his sweaty t-shirts and fling them out into his small sea of adoring fans, where they were snatched up like so much chum.

The first fling came during the bouncy, retro rock of ``Hairdresser on Fire.'' The excitable crowd, members of which tried to fling themselves back at the singer, cheered for the rock crunch of ``November Spawned a Monster,'' held their hands aloft swaying during the jangly ``Lost'' and lapped up the squealing electric guitar coda - played flashily by the axeman's incisors - on the taut ``The Teachers Are Afraid of the Pupils.''

Depending on your viewpoint the show was either a refreshing slew of lesser known tunes that pleased the diehards like ``A Swallow on My Neck'' or sorely lacking the hits - inasmuch as he has them - like the Smiths ``How Soon is Now'' that hooked the mostly thirtysomething crowd back in their '80s high school and college days.

But most seemed pleased with nuggets like the pointed vegetarianism lament ``Meat is Murder,'' which was played under blood red lighting, and the British invasion infused ``I Can Have Both.''

Boston's own Sheila Divine, themselves admitted Smiths fans, were an excellent choice as an opening act. Morrissey himself chose the trio to play on his next 10 dates after hearing their finely wrought, melodic pop rock.