Morrissey

Another unexpected gig, many thanks to David and Cordlchen for thinking of me :-). I have never been into his music, but Morrissey in Wiener Konzerthaus cannot be left out easily. 

Buddies: Chordlchen, David, Serge

Score: 4 out of 5

Merch: nope, except for this flyer :-)

Again: that one will be hard to top

We are seated at the very centre of the balcony with a nice view. Stalls seats have been removed, and a lot of fans are here indeed. Compared to Kraftwerk in Burgtheater, the entire thing has much more of a gig feeling from the very beginning. There are these old videos from The Ramones, The New Your Dolls, Charles Aznavour and further obscure Super8 material - not what your really expect at a gig, still nice.

Then comes Morrissey, and I am surprised. I have never experienced Wiener Konzerthaus that loud before, and its acoustics are ok. You still have distortions and a lot of feedback as it should be at a rock concert, but there is a lot of reverb. Besides a strong volume, it's a kind of rock concert, which I really like. At least two guitars and a powerful Morrissey makes it very likeable for me. Morrissey play some Smiths classics, and one of the really big moments is - of course - 'How Soon Is Now'. This version here is really powerful and rocky, with a drum inferno at the end - wow!!! There are also quite some songs with acoustic guitars that still are powerful expressions of Morrissey's music.

And it would not be Morrissey if there weren't another surprise: The last song of the regular set, 'Meat Is Murder', entails a very long video about animal cruelties with scenes from animal slaughter farms that I can hardly sustain. At the end of the song, the crowd is hardly capable to cheer, but that's a fair-enough statement. The encore brings some cheer back with 'Every Day Is Like Sunday'.

At the end of it, a rather bizarre scene reminds me of how much Morrissey are hyped right now: When Morrissey throws his shirt into the crowd, an intense fight starts between 5 guys in the crowd, and this fight does not end after some minutes. Then a roadie arrives with a big scissor and starts cutting the shirt, so that everybody has something to take home. It is hard to explain how strange this scene looked like, also considering what Morrissey's music stands for.

Never mind, it's been another very special event which will be remembered for quite some time. And of course, all the best to you, Mr. Morrissey, we'll keep our fingers crossed, and rock on!

Here is the complete setlist:
1- The Queen Is Dead
2- World Peace Is None of Your Business
3- The Bullfighter Dies
4- Speedway
5- Kiss Me A Lot
6- I Am Throwing My Arms Around Paris
7- Earth Is The Lonliest Planet
8- Istanbul
9- How Soon Is Now
10- Trouble Loves Me
11- Yes, I Am Blind
12- Neal Cassady Drops Dead
13- Kick the Bride Down the Aisle
14- Suedehead
15- I'm Not A Man
16- Staircase at the University
17- Meat Is Murder
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18- Asleep
19- Every Day Is Like Sunday

Kurier also has 4 stars for the gig (however was not very impressed of the sound):
http://kurier.at/kultur/musik/morrissey-im-wiener-konzerthaus-jeder-tag-ist-sonntag/93.225.818