It was a really wonderful show tonight, imho. M in great form and a great mood. Crowd was as good as Stoke. Sang along a bit more, I think. Got to watch from the balcony today, what a sight to see so many people jumping in unison and hearing everyone's singing voice carry up to the roof!
Setlists were tossed/flown in paper airplanes out to the audience afterwards, so that means we got the full show, which was lucky because some bloke in a green shirt who went over the front barrier near the end took advantage of M reaching his hand out to him and hurt him. It took three or four security to get him off, then M walked back and faced upstage in front of the drums and shook his hand out and was obviously hurt then walked off. The band jammed to the rest of the song then also walked off. Thank God it was just the encore after and they came back on to finish the show with Panic (as mentioned before). I think I saw a plaster on one of M's fingers (soak that hand in cold water tonight, M!) It would be nice if fans would just chill and be content with a high-five like with Iggy. Let the man have his hand back, Thank you very much!
In any case, back to the show. The audience was great, and M's great mood was apparent with his fun body language. Others around me and I couldn't stop giggling, it was very cute. At one point mid-show, totally drenched in his yellow button-down shirt (black lining alongside the buttons), he tugged open his collar with both hands as if he couldn't wait to rip it off his chest. It ended up looking very seductive as well
. After enough tugging and sweating, he did go back and came out in (if I remember correctly) a dark navy button-down shirt, which matched the aqua blue t-shirts of the band very well (hope someone can chime in on what the design and/or text on their t-shirts were).
Music-wise, I must correct (now that I could see from above) that the Shoplifters guitar interlude is most awesomely played by Boz. And the audience sang along again (lah-deh daahhh-deh, deh-dahh, deh-dahhhh... Love It!!) and Jesse does play the Ouija outro (did some cool noodling and whammy bar stuff today... sorry I'm not a guitarist, best way I can describe it).
Before they appeared on stage, the latter third of The Operation featured some cool red lights blinking fast in sequence across the stage. Looked like traffic lights and went really well with the tire shred/ drifting sound coming at the end of that drum solo, like turning in a car and seeing red lights flash before your eyes.
I Want the One I Can't Have... Moz shakin' his groove thang with the tambourine, great energy and start to the show. Gustavo also supported with a second tambourine from the keyboard area. The whole band rocked (okay, well, the entire show).
Fatty - everyone jumping and singing. Great spirits in the house.
You Have Killed Me - surprising mass singalong. I don't know if any Ringleader songs have ever gotten this much love. It was great.
I Know It's Over - M sang really well again, very touching especially the end and the crowd singing so strongly in support was what made me tear up tonight.
There Is a Light - also got a great singalong.
Everyday Is Like Sunday - I think it was this song that had such a strong group voice that M basically road on the wave of it and listened to the audience sing, interacting with us. It was great. He even prodded on for more when the level dropped. He knew we knew the song.
Irish Blood, English Heart - very touching that the entire house sang, perhaps being in the North helps? I remember the London Roundhouse shows when people were shy on how to approach it at first and then by the second and third shows totally warmed up to it.
Action Is My Middle Name - some funny banter before, something like 'unfortunately my middle name is Action' or something. Then a great rendition of the song.
People Are the Same Everywhere or Kids a Looker (hmm, can't remember which now) - the intro really rocks and I think M was really noticing how tight the band were and then jumped in a couple words in. One of the great things about live shows, especially M's, is that it's so human. You can see a song grow with him and the band. I really felt a New York Dolls-ish quality to the song tonight, both melody and accompaniment. And I think I understood the meaning better too (or just my own interpretation), about all those folks who go for American Idol or the X-Factor. The "la-lah's" are those folks standing on the stage trying to sing and be a star, being judged and probably not saying much to the world (totally just my interpretation connecting previous articles where M has commented on those shows).
Sorry I don't remember how the band were intro'd.
Solomon came up and rocked out during I think First of the Gang. They didn't do One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell tonight. I loved whenever the band all came forward and rocked out. Boz came up and kept us going to keep singing along when M left the stage after his hand got hurt.
Meat Is Murder done very well again, tonight I noticed the sad footage of the cow being prodded or branded from within the cage, obviously suffering. After stepping offstage, M came back and watched the last third or so with us, sitting crouched and facing upstage towards the screen. The lights blared bright at the audience at a couple points, asking us to perhaps symbolically wake up and become aware and more compassionate about the treatment of animals. With the bear comment preceding the song (mentioned previously, Thank you) M took the perspective of the Canadian brown bear and quipped that they would like their life but the Queen says her soldiers need hats. Time to go synthetic on that one, methinks.
First of the Gang - Funny thing that what picks up the pace and the mood after Meat Is Murder was this song. Made me think how only Moz fans would understand how 2 songs about death are so different. Mortality is in nearly every song and somehow M's songs help us deal with its reality in our lives, imho.
At the end of the Panic encore - Boz balanced his guitar on one hand and Solomon tossed his bass to the floor face down where low bass feedback continued to ring as the band threw out the setlists and plectrums (guitar picks) and exited. The feedback kept going until the amplifier was turned off by the crew and the lights came up.
The last detail I can recall (sorry none of this is in chronological order) is M's banter about coming to the venue from Mary Barton's (??) (someone please chime in or correct that).
And that's my two-pence.
Rock on, Middlesbrough...
romeogirl