Jay just called me from the show. The message he left was that the show was amazing, lasted about an hour and 10 minutes. opening song was First(Last)of the gang to die and - that he did a ton of Smiths songs that have never been done before.

- im sure better coverage will come in soon.

Excellent show, and more Smiths stuff that I would have expected ("Hand in Glove," "There Is a Light ... " "The Headmaster's Ritual," and "A Rush and a Push ... "

He did a lot from the new CD, as well. In fact, he started the evening with, "The First of the Gang to Die." (He also did, "I Like You," "How Could Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?" and "America Is Not the World.")

He looks great, sounds great and did a great show. However, I'm not sure what the flowering branch was doing sticking out of his pants zipper at the beginning of the show! ;)

Steven

It's way past midnight Las Vegas Time, surely you can do better than that. Setlist please!

just got back from morrissey @ the joint. HE KICKED ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i loved the new songs (particularly "the firsts are begining to die") but i wished the show had lasted longer. and dammit to hell he needs to play "bigmouth strikes again"!!!!!!!!!!!!!

was there an opening band? if so, who?

this is what i can remember -- the order might be (is totally) wrong and there are one or two songs i can't remember:

the first of the gang to die
hairdresser on fire
america is not the world
i have forgiven Jesus
the headmaster ritual
i like you
everyday is like sunday
such a little thing makes such a big difference
a rush and a push and the land is ours
little man, what now
jack the ripper
no one can hold a candle to you
how can anyone possibly know how i feel
the world is full of crashing bores
hand in glove
irish blood english heart
(encore)
there is a light that never goes out

the intro was great -- lasted about five minutes with the lights down waiting for the band to enter the stage.

the t-shirts left something to be desired. the only picture one is the cover of quarry with the tommy gun. peta was there with a great morrissey poster which was, unfortunately, not for sale.

no opening band, though mark simpson reading or stripping or something would have been great!

"No one can hold a candle to you" is the real treat here. Will it be a future b-side. He recorded that song in 1997 I think. Unfortunately "Hairdresser" and "Jack the Ripper" are still there, but the rest of the setlist is superb!

"[...]
Morrissey interviewed on KCXX Radio, San Bernardino, August 9, 1998

Another Fawning Fan:

I can barely hear you but I'm going to ask this question and maybe you can answer it. There's a song called "No One Can Hold A Candle To You" by Ray-Mone-Day and there was a rumor that you were going to record that.

That's right. How did you hear the rumor? I'm fascinated to know. How did you hear about it? And they were actually called Raymonde but people would say Raymoande and they were a great group. Do you know anything about them?
   
I do, it's a b-side, yeah but I can barely, barely hear you.

Yeah, but you've never actually heard the group Raymonde? You've never heard them?

Yes, Ray-mone-day, absolutely.

Have you heard the song?

No, I haven't heard the song. I've heard another song called "Ray-mone-day". It's a really good song.

It's a great song, yeah. I did want to do it. I did want to record it a long time ago. But something happened - something silly and messy and something to do with publishing and so forth, but it's something that I'd still quite like to do. So it just didn't happen because of a silly, messy reason, really, but it's a great song.

Yes it is, I'm sorry, I can barely hear you.

Well, that's okay, I'm not saying anything very intelligent anyway.

[...]"

[http://motorcycleaupairboy.com/interviews/1998/radio.htm]

if so, presumably he played all the keyboard bits in Such A Little Thing, Hairdresser, etc?

Fuck fuck fuck!!!! I just got back to LA from Vegas. What an amazing show! Finally getting to hear the new stuff, as well as Hand In Glove, Headmaster, Rush And A Push, Such a Little Thing again....... The new stuff was very cool. but my fave of the night was America Is Not The World. I almost started to cry when I heard it. AMA-zing. And Hey.... I am $20 richer! That was an incredible cover. It deserves studio production at least.

"No-One Can Hold a Candle to You" by Raymonde, written by J Maker and P Huish.

It's the first track on the album "Babelogue", released in 1987.

There's no lyric sheet with the LP, but I've transcribed lyrics as best I can (bits in asterisk, I'm not to sure of)

"Say farewell to your fare-weather friends,
And not a second too soon,
To leave a life among ruins,
Oh there was nothing left but you.

Cut ourselves loose,
These fascists and philistines, of violence and fashion,
These modern-day philistines,
They stamped on your hands, they stamped on my hands,
Any day now will perish,
These are *?* times.

No-one can hold a candle to you,
When it comes down to virtue and truth,
No-one can hold a candle to you,
And I will die *next you you*."

And that's about it, give or take a few unintelliable ad-libs on the chorus towards the end. It is a good song, and sound a bit like "Your Arsenal" era Moz.

Best Raymonde song, however, has to be "Jennifer Says".

the version of Jack The Ripper they did was totally different. It sounded great as well.

No Meat is Murder? I'm very surprised, but happy.

Intro music?
Backdrop?
Keyboard player present?
Moz attire??
Lads' attire?

Thanks!

Great to hear they're doing "A Rush..." and "Such a Little Thing..."!

Did anyone manage to record the show? I'm dying for a bootleg to appear. Anyone's got one or was security too tight?
Cheers
/ Martin, Stockholm, Sweden.

Was Julia there?

And did he make any reference to her inbetwixt songs?

I am so excited to hear the new stuff and love IBEH and am sure it was a great show but let's point out a few bad things.....
1. Opening with FOTGTD is wrong on every level. Just not an opening song.
2. Once again we get Hairdressr, Jack the Ripper, There is a Light as a closer. For a show that is ony 70 mins, he needs to drop these songs. How bout some other unplayed songs are songs Uncle, Arsenal, Vauxhall, B-Sides?
3. A 70 min set! That is just patetic. Every tour we get the same short set. It is a rip to the fans and Moz knows it. And he is charging $75 for tix.
Like I said, I am a huge fan and love the addition of Rush,Such a little thing, Little Man. Never really like Hand in Glove but I guess its cool he is doing it.

Found some photos of last night's show on Yahoo! news posted by Reuters. http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=MORRISSEY&ei=UTF-8&=&c=news_photos

I keep hearing that 'Come Back to Camden' and 'You Know I Couldn't Last' are both epic, and highlights on the album I was certain that these would be part of the new live set. Although, I'm kind of glad that they'll be saved for the first listen of the new CD. Do you think that's why he's not doing them - because they're too good to give away yet.

Including The HEadmaster's Ritual AND Hand In Glove! This is great!

Jose

i was in Vegas a week ago (getting married) with $300 burning a hole in my pocket...where was Moz then? no, i had to settle for Penn & Teller.

so jealous...

Has anyone read any post-concert reviews on the show? Surely, at least a local Vegas newspaper should have a snippet about the show?

PLease more details from Jack The Ripper...thanks

Was the intro to "Everyday..." entitled "Subway" a cover of the New York Dolls' song called "Subway Train"?

Would any of you know?

O.k. I just got up from driving back to la from vegas show...Great Show! Really enjoyed "A rush and a push!" The new songs are great also. As a side note I had lunch in the hard rock (luckys 24/7) and was seated 5 ft. from the gary and alain!!!! I think i was stairing way to much. But I didnt bug them because they where eating (I feel stupied now!) Anyway just wanted to know if I was the only one freaking out trying to stay in there seat.

2 million people live in las vegas and i was born here for the record...
"no one actually lives in las vegas"

The last song before the curtain was raised seemed to be a Sinatra song, and you could tell from the tempo of it that it was probably going to be the segue.

The intro music was very cool. I wondered if he could top Nico's The End. This might not have topped that, but it was very fitting. There was a sparkly backdrop curtain that had wind blown through it and light cast from the left side of the stage so that when the curtain shimmied, it looked tantalizingly like the band was walking around back there. It reminded me a bit of the opening for Cure's Disintegration tour in 89. :)

He came out with what appeared to be mistletoe hung suggestively over his crotch. It was off and flung into the crowd pretty quickly, though. His coiff looked amazing. I didn't think he had it in him anymore.

His dark blue button up shirt showed a little too well the residuals of his physicality (to speak euphemistically).

He said that while it's not right to experiment on animals, it is okay to experiment on people and therefore he'd be trying out some new songs.

He teased (twice?) that they'd be in tune for the Anaheim show.

He said that because we (the audience) were probably all fans of the 80's [and God knows why you are], he was going to do a song from the 80's and then offered 20 dollars to anyone who could identify. After singing it, someone in the front row immediately identified the song, and the promised was handed over to the person via security guard.

While singing "Such a Little Thing's" "written words on paper, can you write?" he picked up a fan's enveloped addressed in big hand-written letters to Morrissey.

Security was ample. A few people almost made it onto the stage, but they had to settle for a clasp of Morrissey's hand.

Morrissey apologized for the Spin magazine cover photo which he seemed not to like.

He described "There is a Light.." as being some other song at first: "Because We Must"? something different, but then it became obvious what song it was.

The band exited one by one: Morrissey first, Keyboardist last. I really liked the added dimension of the keyboardist, and he was easy on the eyes, to boot. ;)

There were shirts, posters, and buttons. $30 for shirts. $10 for poster, and I think? $10 for buttons. They ran out of the only pictorial shirt (Quarry cover) before all wants were sated.

Reading all these posts really gets me wanting to see Moz again! Please come to the Netherlands! Make my life slightly less miserable! Oh well, only four weeks to hear the new album...Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!

Anyone have information on the song Subway that started off Everyday Is Like Sunday? There is a Peter Murphy song called Subway that comes to mind although I can't see Morrissey doing one of his songs.

.... that Morrissey is not playing ONE SINGLE SONG from EITHER of his two best albums: Vauxhall and Arsenal?? What is up with that??

I went to the first of two nights at Washington DC on the 2000 tour, and was hoping, begging, praying to hear my fave song of his, "Now My Heart Is Full".... no dice, he didn't play it :-( But then he proceeds to play it the SECOND night in DC, which i don't get to see! WTF!

And now, apparently, for this tour he is doing NOTHING from Vauxhall or Arsenal... ugh. I know nobody here likes people complaining about Moz's choices, and i WILL see him if he comes to TX, etc. etc. but i am HUGELY disappointed to not see anything from those two albums, particularly Vauxhall.

The lone consolation being that Jack the Ripper (still from around his epic '94-'95 period) and Rush and a Push (off the best Smiths album) are present in the setlist.

-- J.T. Ripper (need to find my login pwd again!)

The Morrissey show @ The Joint - Hard Rock Hotel Las Vega$ was AWESOME!!

I snuck in my camera- here are the digital pix I took:

http://www.msnusers.com/MorrisseyinVegasattheJointHardRock4172004/shoebox.msnw

I got QuickTime video and sound of the opening song "The First of the Gang To Die" but it is 65 MB and unless I find a LOT more web space it won't be anywhere online

BUT- If you are REALLY bored you can load this QuickTime video of Leslie and I on the road:
http://home.comcast.net/~jaytando/Morrissey-In-Vegas-Hard-Rock-Joint-2004/Leslie -Drive-To-Vegas.MOV

Cheers!

Jay "Some Totally Random Moz fan"

Did he have any backdrop images?

I made wallpaper out of the pic of MOZ in the chair from the current issue of NME.

http://free.inkfrog.com/pix/evildeadite/MozChair.jpg

I hope you enjoy it. It's the best I could do.

As a long time Smiths and Morrissey fan I was a bit disappointed. Okay, flame me if you must, but this was the impression I came away with after the show last night.

To be honest, I expected better. Then again, it's probably because it was the first night of the tour, so hopefully things will improve -- the opening Arizona shows from the last two tours started out kinda the same way. I'll find out at tonights show (The Grove) and at the Wiltern shows.

Anyways, the setlist was cool and all, but he seemed to lack the energy and the vocal abilities of years past to deliver them properly. He wasn't able to hit the notes too well on songs such as Everyday is like Sunday and The Headmaster Ritual. When he was whippping the mic cord around, as well, it seemed like a half-hearted attempt.

He wasn't even that talkative. He only interacted with the audience every now and then.

All the people saying the show was great are either:

1) Letting their admiration for Morrissey cloud their opinions/judgements
2) It was their first time seeing him, therefore they had no prior show(s) to compare it to
3) Don't want to admit the truth because it hurts
4) Are deaf and blind

I just know this will get modded as Troll or Flamebait, but this is my personal opinion and is also based on seeing him dozens and dozens and dozens of times before.

The jerked off version of " Every Day is Like Sunday" they always play.That crappy arrangement has ALWAYS been for Shite. And "Hairdresser on Fire" could really be put to rest as well.

I can't resist posing this question. Every show after the Maladjusted tour, I have smelled a pervasive and consistent aroma predominating all others (including sweat), and I'm curious to know what it is. I have a hunch it's CK1 because my brother wears this. Any more definite insights?
;)

If anyone, I mean Anyone would be so kind to let me know how I could get pix or video or even a recording for the Las Vegs show....Pls post a comment here and I will live my email addy w/ you. I really would like some pix or something of that night if possible. Thank You!

What Tour Merchandise was available?

okay okay I think the security at Las Vegas was rediculous. Separating the under 21 people and letting them go in first even though we stood in line over 12 hours. thats ridiculous. If anyone who books shows is reading this never book at the Hard Rock....

Was it an older crowd..long time fans? or a younger new group of fans?

I feel that the show it self was pretty good. Morrissey looked good, he was well dress and sporting the same but, never old hair cut. I was really surprise that MOZ did not have a opening band, which I liked. The show was really short but still was worth wild. I felt that the crowd did lack alot of energy compared to past show at " The Joint" I actually was able to crowd surf my way to the stage during "There is a light..." and got to shake hands with Mr. MOZ. (this was the second time I was able to get that colse to MOZ was the last time was when he played at the "The Joint" during the Malajusted Tour.) I will be at the Apr. 22 Show in LA, so if your going, please Please Please let him get want he wants, Lord knows it will be the first time. ( Bring your Energy)

Did anyone try to?

Okay here is a QuickTime Video of the first song from the Vega$ show "The First of the Gang To Die" - it is 65 MB and the quality is crappy but here you go!

[indieprinting.com] From an  FTP server [indieprinting.com]

[indieprinting.com] From a Bit Torrent Server [aloneta.mine.nu]

Cheers!

 

http://www.ambitious-outsiders.com/

I just got back from Vegas and am still in amazement of the show I saw in Vegas.It was truly the most clear and crisp that I have heard the MOZ in quite some time (Your Uncle Tour '89').The new songs gave me goosebumps, they felt very remenicient of the "Smiths",the band kicked ass.The only complaint about vegas was the two stupid drunk fucks toward the middle of the stage that were getting on every one's nerves, I had to threaten both of them to stop bumping into people and relax!!!!!!!!!(you two little bitches know who you are).It is one thing to drink and have a good time,but don't overdue it.The joint is the best venue for a live and up close concert.Wouldn't of missed it for the world.The man is back!!!!!!!!!