Chicago Shows - Paint a Vulgar Picture
by Monte Householter
| Sept. 28, 1997 At Friday’s show at the Aragon, Moz commented that he had contracted the "Chicago Flu" but since he was a "Big boy" he would continue playing which seemed to account for the lackluster (and short) performance. Granted, there were moments during the show when he seemed the Moz of old, flailing and moving about during "Ambitious Outsiders" & "Maladjusted" but this performance was bogged down by poor song selection - too much "Southpaw Grammar" and not enough songs from "Maladjusted"(only 4 songs) and "Your Arsenal"(no songs). Nobody got near the stage. He almost made up for it by doing "Paint a Vulgar Picture" and "Shoplifters". I would consider this show the worse performance (by Moz) I’ve ever seen until I saw the show on Saturday. On Saturday, he began by letting out a muffled "Hello again, Chicago". He was quite simply in dreadful form. His singing was horrendous, practically skipping whole verses & choruses. And again the song selection was mostly from "Southpaw Grammar". Whether or not he was still suffering from the "Chicago Flu" I don’t know, but I do know that during "Satan..." he had to stop the song because his band was playing it so poorly. I think Boz was the culprit. Thus having skipped "Satan..." they played a limp-wristed version of "Maladjusted" and attempted feebly to play "Now my Heart is Full". Towards the end of "Now My Heart is Full", Moz simply walked off the stage, never to return. 40 minutes into the show and it was over. The crowd was shocked and stunned. People started shouting for him to come back, but when the roadies started to take down the stage the booing and cursing started to begin. Even the die-hard Moz fans were booing and shouting names. It was a quite hostile scene, and I think it was warranted by the performance. No explanation was given by anyone, but I would have to think with Moz having the Flu and his band playing poorly there was no need to carry on. When the band (less Moz - don’t know where he was hiding out) went to board the bus, they were hostilely greeted by a mob of fans calling them "Assholes" and such. They quickly got on the bus and left without saying a word. As a devoted Morrissey fan for the last 10 years, I am very disappointed with the 2 shows in Chicago. They were simply 2 of the worst shows I’ve ever seen. Normally, I wouldn’t care all that much if it were somebody like Echo & the Bunnymen or Gene, but when it’s Morrissey, my favorite performer, that’s when I take serious issue with him. He’s much better than these 2 shows in Chicago, and we, as long-standing fans, deserve better. During the recent KROQ interview, Morrissey vowed with staunch resiliency that his US tour would go on barring death. Well, I think he’d better cancel the rest of the tour because the Morrissey we all know and love is dead. There’s an imposter masquerading as Morrissey giving the real Morrissey a bad name. Paint a Vulgar Picture, Indeed Monte Householter |