Binyamina-Giv'at Ada - Zappa Amphi Shuni (July 2, 2023) post-show

Post your info and reviews related to this concert in the comments section below. Other links (photos, external reviews, etc.) related to this concert will also be compiled in this section as they are sent in.

Setlist:

Suedehead / Alma Matters / Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before / Irish Blood, English Heart / Our Frank / I Wish You Lonely / I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris / Knockabout World / Notre-Dame (live debut) / Jim Jim Falls / Sure Enough, The Telephone Rings / The Night Pop Dropped / My Hurling Days Are Done / Half A Person / Everyday Is Like Sunday / The Loop / Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want / Jack The Ripper // Sweet And Tender Hooligan

Setlist courtesy of Hagit Yaron FB.

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• Photo from @tomerabram / Instagram:
  
  
• Not every day is like Sunday when Morrissey’s in town - review by Liam Forberg (2 photos by Ariel Efron) - The Jerusalem Post. Link posted by goinghome (original post).
  
  
• Morrissey May Not Be Sending Flowers to Haaretz After This Review by Ben Shalev (5 photos) - Haaretz. Link posted by Thewlis (original post).
• Morrissey thrilled to be in ‘God’s country’ as he performs first of two shows by Jessica Steinberg - timesofisrael.com. Link posted by Famous when dead (original post).
  
  Excerpt:
  
  English singer Morrissey brought his crisp baritone and familiar, turmoil- filled lyrics to Amphi Shuni in the northern town of Binyamina Sunday night, and while all 1,350 seats of the restored Roman amphitheater were full to bursting with dedicated fans, Morrissey himself seemed a little, well, listless.
• Notre-Dame lyrics posted by This Charming Bowie.
  
  Link to video posted by federico (original post):
  
  

 

[NealCassidy]

Catholic news

 

[NealCassidy]

 

[Anonymous]

Ok superfans lets just review your assertions.

Moz is not a racist, he's just misunderstood.

Moz is not a functional alcoholic, he's just a social drinker.

Moz is a nice man who is loved and respected by the record industry.

Anyone who disagrees is either a member of "The Woke Fascist Mob" or stupid.

I think I got it now.

 

[Luxo]

Maybe they just like it and you don't.

Maybe, but I honestly don't see how anyone can really like that song. There's difference of taste in music, different opinions etc and then there's just legitimately bad music. Notre Dame is the latter, and it's the usual suspects doing the mental gymnastics.

 

[FROSTY]

I think this song was written very quickly in an ice-cream van.
Hence the cold hand that touches him at one point.

(Barney S. was touched by the hand of God, Morrissey was only touched by the hand of Gelato.)

..I'm looping "Noter Dame " and while reading this I read it in time with the song ha ha

 

[Mayfly]

I don't know if his inspiration is faded.. perhaps the things that inspire him to write are topics he wants to be straight-forward about but the problem with that is how nuanced his writing has always been. This song has no nuance.

Well, if he only writes 3 or 4 lines to a song and then repeats them over and over, I can’t help but feel he’s lost the inspiration. Ocaasionally it works, like Knockabout World and maybe Love is on its way out. But he’s really overdoing it now. And Notre Dame is just plainly reactionary.

The other thing that has been missing from most of the songs from the 2 unreleased albums is they lack a resolution.

The topics haven't been that interesting to me as a whole. I think "I Live in Obvlion" is incredible. I think "Bonfire of Teenagers" is clunky. "Notre Dame" also feels clunky. "The Night Pop Dropped" just goes around in a circle a little bit and then just ends.

BoT was certainly clunky in paper, but it still had emotion in the live rendition and I like the composition.

I think BoT songs are much stronger than WMTWD songs we've heard so far.

Agree with you 100%

 

[Jeffrey7777]

The guitar sound on Notre Dame saves the song for me

 

[Mike Rourke]

I think you’re overreacting here. It was more a media thing, but the fans remained, as witnessed by the tours we’ve seen since.
Sure, he lost some casual fans maybe, but there have always been periods in the Morrissey timeline where there was more success followed by lesser success. Which is normal, too.

I've dished out these figures so many times before it just gets tedious. But here goes.
He was touring to 60,000 in the UK before the For Britain nonsense. The live fanbase is now 20,000 max.
Low in High School - critically, probably his worst ever album sold 25,000 in week 1.
Dog on a Chain (which came out post For Britain) sold 6,000 and disappeared immediately from top 100. He has never before experienced this rapid a decline in his commercial fortunes.
This very clearly is not losing a few casual fans. In fact it's the people who were most massively into him and the Smiths (like Uncle Skinny) who were most disgusted by his decision to support/defend Nigel Farage, Tommy Robinson and For Britain.
The radio support for his new songs has vanished for the first time in his entire career.
The fact that he has two albums written and recorded, and has been unable for two years to attract an acceptable offer, should signal to you that this is not business as usual.
There will always be plenty of people willing to see his live shows for indie nostalgia reasons, who couldn't care less about his political nonsense. It's like me going to see The Cure or Depeche Mode. I have no interest in their studio albums, recent stuff, singers' politics etc, I wanna hear their songs from the good old days. So, the live fanbase is never affected to the same extent as sales of a new album. Hence he is (and will always be) able to tour albeit to smaller crowds than pre-2018.

 

[Johnnie Ray]

Camila plays a pretty piano (keyboard).

Lifeless. The Morrissey aesthetic is completely gone. This is a sad day for me having witnessed this. I guess all good things MUST come to an end but still sad.

 

[Mardy_Cat]

Yes, the skinhead scene in particular which raised some eyebrows in the music press at the time, in combination with the Union Jack, and of course the three infamous songs plus the things he said.

If social media had existed in those days, he would have been crucified there and then. Now only the NME did a hit piece, which really was the start of all the racism rumours/accusations we are still stuck with.

Yes, however the NME went after homosexual men back then as a lot of the press did in the 1980s, (I remember coming across some unsavoury things said about Jobriath, most things seemed to wiped from the internet now) which I think could well have been part of the driving factor behind the hit piece. I was under the impression it was also why the skinheads at the concert were not too best pleased by Morrissey's way of dress or the way he presented himself in what they saw as an effeminate matter. It's possible Morrissey was doing this to deliberately incite reaction from them, I suppose, I wasn't there so I cant say.

 

[Luxo]

I've dished out these figures so many times before it just gets tedious. But here goes.
He was touring to 60,000 in the UK before the For Britain nonsense. The live fanbase is now 20,000 max.
Low in High School - critically, probably his worst ever album sold 25,000 in week 1.
Dog on a Chain (which came out post For Britain) sold 6,000 and disappeared immediately from top 100. He has never before experienced this rapid a decline in his commercial fortunes.
This very clearly is not losing a few casual fans. In fact it's the people who were most massively into him and the Smiths (like Uncle Skinny) who were most disgusted by his decision to support/defend Nigel Farage, Tommy Robinson and For Britain.
The radio support for his new songs has vanished for the first time in his entire career.
The fact that he has two albums written and recorded, and has been unable for two years to attract an acceptable offer, should signal to you that this is not business as usual.
There will always be plenty of people willing to see his live shows for indie nostalgia reasons, who couldn't care less about his political nonsense. It's like me going to see The Cure or Depeche Mode. I have no interest in their studio albums, recent stuff, singers' politics etc, I wanna hear their songs from the good old days. So, the live fanbase is never affected to the same extent as sales of a new album. Hence he is (and will always be) able to tour albeit to smaller crowds than pre-2018.

I am one of the hardcore fans who didn't bother buying Dog or California Son. Besides a couple songs on California Son, it's just not very good music, and represents the lowest point in Morrissey's recording career imo, particularly Dog. Like, I think Morrissey takes his hardcore fan base for granted, assuming we'll buy and listen to any old lazy shit he's peddling, and that deserves a recording contract just because of his past endeavours.

 

[Johnnie Ray]

I am one of the hardcore fans who didn't bother buying Dog or California Son. Besides a couple songs on California Son, it's just not very good music, and represents the lowest point in Morrissey's recording career imo, particularly Dog. Like, I think Morrissey takes his hardcore fan base for granted, assuming you we'll buy and listen to any old lazy shit he's peddling, and that deserves a recording contract just because of his past endeavours.

Against my better judgement, I bought Dog and it definitely is a dog. No way in hell I was going to buy California Son primarily because Wedding Bell Blues is the cringiest piece of crap he has ever recorded. Those 2 albums hold the distinction along with World Peace and Low In High School as his most amateurish, DIY looking album covers too. His career nosedive is depressing as hell.

 

[Lujan369]

M is mentally ill,,,what a statement.i would love to see the medical records of some of the people on here,would make very interesting reading.
hold judgement on notre dame till you hear the studio version,lyrics dont seem too good,never understood repeating lines and when did this creep in.
first night of a tour is never a good judge,he hasnt sung in months and with new members.

The Notre Dame fire was a long time ago... Why does Morrissey care about this? I want Moz to be depoliticized!! Does all that matter? . Moz doesn't see the dark side of the Church...? Embracing the cross as you sing Notre Dame Notre Dame! Mmmmm!! He is not mentally ill of course. It is that he puts his feet in the swamps all the time all the time and then the dirt sticks to him.. always repeats the same actions, does not learn, should pay attention to Einstein ...

 

[Luxo]

Yep. Morrissey used to sell out large arenas (MEN, the Millenium dome (or whatever it's called now), Leeds Arena), but now he's just doing much smaller venues. Sure, he's done smaller venues here and there over his career, but he hasn't sold out a large arena in some time. He hasn't even sold out the tickets for Leeds, and the gig is on 12th July.

I've dished out these figures so many times before it just gets tedious. But here goes.
He was touring to 60,000 in the UK before the For Britain nonsense. The live fanbase is now 20,000 max.

 

[Hugh]

I am one of the hardcore fans who didn't bother buying Dog or California Son. Besides a couple songs on California Son, it's just not very good music, and represents the lowest point in Morrissey's recording career imo, particularly Dog. Like, I think Morrissey takes his hardcore fan base for granted, assuming we'll buy and listen to any old lazy shit he's peddling, and that deserves a recording contract just because of his past endeavours.

He thought the skinheads would be varnishing their thumb the following day and give him the green light to go down the racist path he wanted to. It took Brexit for him to go down that cul-de-sac.

Israel found him listless last night. Sold his legacy for a handful of magic beans.

Seems destinied create a catalogue of further embarrassments.

Genuinely mournful.

 

[Mayfly]

As I’ve stated many times before, I don’t believe Moz is a racist and that this song necessarily stems from any racist beliefs. I do however, very sadly, think we’re witnessing the end of Moz: surrounded with inept people (Sam, Dodwell etc.) who wrap him in bubblewrap, not getting him the help he needs. That’s not to take the blame away from him: he seems to have a martyr complex that’s only become even more substantial since his mum passed - which in itself seems to have caused a lot of repercussions. The fixation with Christianity for one. It’s just incredibly sad to see this happen to someone you love so much, but I think it’s quite undeniable that it’s (with Alain and Gustavo gone, no record deal in sight) the beginning of the ending stage, where his bizarre need to be the contrarian voice about ANYTHING has gone too far.

Really heartfelt words to express the pain of seeing somebody dearly loved go down so badly. I was thinking today of many great artists and beautiful souls that have gone down the self-destructive road with drugs. I feel the same is now happening to Morrissey. Of course no drugs here. But I see depression and fatigue with all the struggles throughout his artistic life. And now there’s this endless procession of people saying goodbye (Boz, Matt, Mando, Alain, Gustavo) and worst of all the loss of his mother. Sometimes I think that while Morrissey’s voice and physical body is still with us, his soul (spirit) is already on the journey to the afterlife, seeking to rejoin his mother. It’s a very somber thought.

 

[Hugh]

Considering we now know unequivocally just how much our MSM and govts lie to us on the regular for reasons of expediency and manipulation it seems strange to me that you'd just blindly believe a govt/MSM narrative about anything.

Morrissey may be wrong, I happen to agree that arson was the most likely reason for the fire, we could both be wrong, but I don't see how being sceptical of the official story makes one a crackpot.

We get lied to constantly by the powers that be. Many such cases!

Yet he is focused on his bigoted beliefs.

 

[Johnnie Ray]

It's not that they disagree with 'some things he says'. It's that a huge chunk of the fanbase hated right wing politics, and they were drawn to the Smiths (and to him) partly because it was a group who represented the way they feel about a range of things including politics.
For the leader of that group to start actually endorsing right-wing politics in the most powerful way possible (i.e. a direct personal plea from his very own website, and the wearing of a right wing party's emblem at concerts and TV shows) was nothing short of sickening.
People voted with their feet.

100% This guy gets it. Well done.

 

[Vesper Nocturne]

Morrissey’s voice and physical body is still with us, his soul (spirit) is already on the journey to the afterlife, seeking to rejoin his mother. It’s a very somber thought.

What is actually wrong with you? Do you type every inappropriate thing that passes through your head? Projecting much? Was any thought process happening in fact here, whatsoever? Jesus christ, grab the nearest handicapped rail you can find, and try and get a grip please. On something, Anything.

 

[hectorisdead]

Not surprised Morrissey has chosen to go down this path. The left who supported him all those years have abandoned and discredited him, leaving the crazies and race-baiters to court his favour and given him the respect he feels he deserves. The departure of his long-time band-mates like Boz, Alain, Gustavo, etc should have been a sign that he'd gone too far out there. But now we get 'songs' like this one that are just artless and dull, whether you agree with the sentiments or not.

'Pop Dropped' is at least somewhat clever wordplay on a recurring theme, but 'Notre Dame' makes the typical pop pap seem highbrow. Doesn't bode well for the chances of Without Music to ever see the light of day, never mind actually perform well for Moz. I fear that the right wing who have taken up his banner have turned him into a crashing bore.