Morrissey at the Hollywood Palladium

I was lucky enough to catch four out of five nights at the Wiltern Theatre when Morrissey did a mini residency a few years ago. The idea of ten Morrissey shows was intriguing to me. It wasn't a matter if I would go. It was the matter of what do I talk about for ten nights?(ed. note...now 8 nights)

The Hollywood Palladium is not really known for having a stunning soundsystem. I have been to a lot of concerts at the Hollywood Palladium in my lifetime and can honesty say it was one of the best sounding shows I have attended at the Palladium. I think Morrissey brought in his own soundsystem and sound engineer.The one thing the Hollywood Palladium is world renowned for is their annual check up you receive entering the venue. After getting a clean bill of health from the security guard, I settled in to the historic venue.

I only caught the last few moments of Kristeen Young as she was pounding on her keyboards. Some of the Morrissey fans have been mixed on her live shows, but she does give it her all and Jeff White(Drums) is a solid drummer. I will talk about her more on some of the other shows.

The boys of Morrissey looked quite dapper as they were clothed in green Morrissey 101 t-shirts as Mikey Farrell played the piano riff to "Hooray for Hollywood". Morrissey started the evening with a shimmery version of "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" from the Smiths era. I was relieved to hear the song as I had missed it in Santa Barbara . Boz Boorer (Guitars) was playing the acoustic guitar melody and Jessie Tobias (Guitars) worked out the solo on his Fender Guitar. "Tomorrow" was just as dynamic as I remembered in Santa Barbara and featured the lyric change by Morrissey of "Useless Body". Morrissey welcomed the fans to his lifetime residency at the Hollywood Palladium that had some the fans chuckling in the audience. During "All You Need Is Me", a female stage invader clothed in a leopard skin print charged on stage and practically raped Morrissey to which he later commented that she must have be siphoning gasoline from a 747 airplane. I think the whole audience busted up at that point.

"London" was simply astounding and played at twice the tempo I remembered from the Smiths live recording "Rank" with Jessie adding extra harmonics throughout the song. "Billy Budd" had the phasers going in full effect that made me forgot about the wah drenched guitars on the recorded version. The song even included the spoken word sample at the end of song. Morrissey had worked up quite the sweat at that point as he changed into a fresh purple shirt. Solomon Walker (Bass) pulled out the upright bass to perform the toe tapping bass line to "The Loop" with Morrissey banging the tambourine. Morrissey proceeded to introduce the whole band saving himself for introduction as "I'm plain Nasty!".

When it came time to turn the microphone to the audience, one crowd member wanted to remind Morrissey that Marc Bolan celebrated his birthday recently. Morrissey replied with a "Very well said". One other audience member had mentioned they came from Japan to which Morrissey replied that the only Japanese word he knows is "Kabuki". "Stretch Out And Wait" had Boz back on the acoustic guitar. During "Let Me Kiss You" Morrissey changed the lyrics to "zig zagged all over Los Angeles".

Another humorous point in the night came while Morrissey was singing the suggestive song "Dear God, Please Help Me" that had elicited some cat calls from the audience. Morrissey managed to quickly tell the crowd "It's A Serious Song" before effortlessly going back into song. The epic tremolo intro of "How Soon Is Now?" had the lights synced up with the guitars that was the auditory/visual experience of the night.

For the encore of "Irish Blood, English Heart", the boys were clad in Chivas Football jerseys. Morrissey was wearing number 14 and seemed to have autographed the shirt before dispatching it in the crowd. I think Boz had "Boozer" on the back of his number 6 Chivas uniform. Will they do this every night? Stay tuned.

Morrissey Setlist for the Hollywood Palladium Night #1 (10/1/07)
"Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before"
"Tomorrow"
"All You Need is Me"
"Sister, I'm A Poet"
"That's How People Grow Up"
"London"
"Billy Budd"
"The Loop"
"Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?"
"Stretch Out And Wait"
"First Of The Gang To Die"
"Let Me Kiss You"
"Death Of A Disco Dancer"
"Disappointed"
"You Have Killed Me"
"In The Future When All's Well"
"I Like You"
"One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell"
"Dear God, Please Help Me"
"How Soon Is Now?"
"Irish Blood, English Heart"