The Club Rio concert - everything you want to know and more!
by Shelley


The Club Rio show was just nearly perfect for me.

We waited in line for 7 and 1/2 hours outside in the 100 degree weather in the sun and another 2 hours inside the place. But every single minute of waiting was worth it. I was in the VERY front, about 2 feet left of center, and stayed there the entire show.

El Vez did not open for Morrissey. Some local guy that just sang with a guitar played for about a half an hour before Moz came out. He was boring. Interestingly, David Tseng (you know, the guy that runs this marvelous website) was in the area in front of the stage with the security guards taking pictures of Morrissey for the first couple of songs. I suppose he must have had special privileges. There were two girls with fairly professional camera equipment taking pictures as well. But they were gone after a few songs.

Morrissey came out about 9:15 smiling. He stuck his tongue out and waved. He went to the microphone and said, "Hello. We're the Sweet and Tender Hooligans" (very amusing) and then launched into "You're Gonna Need..." Morrissey seemed happy and excited to be performing. Of course, he has aged a bit, gray hair is noticeable on the sides, and gone are the days of the pompadour. His hair is pretty short and mostly messy. He was wearing a blue shirt with "West Ham Boys Club" written on it with red writing and a suit jacket over that. Blue jeans and a belt--the belt buckle was the Mexican Flag.

During "Boy Racer", at the part that goes "he thinks he's got the whole world in his hands" Morrissey reached into the pocket of his suit jacket and whipped out a banana which he proceeded to swing in front of his groin. He then tossed it into the crowd. He took his jacket off after a couple of songs as it was VERY hot in the Club.

During "Lost" two people got and stage and locked onto Morrissey. The security rushed to pull them off but they had a really good grip on him. They were nearly pulled free, but then this girl (the girl with a Moz on her back) jumped on stage and pulled Morrissey to the ground and kissed his neck. When Moz finally got up he looked a bit perturbed at the ordeal. Morrissey continually reached out to the crowd, grabbing hands as usual (I touched him 5 times!!!). His hands were very sweaty. He was very attentive to the crowd and this girl who had made her own "Oye Esteban" t-shirt was in the front and he said (mid-song) "That's nice. Did you make it yourself?" He took all the notes and stuff that were being held out for him and put all letters in his pocket, larger things he laid near his water bottles. He threw back all flowers.

Morrissey kept laughing during the show, I think it was because everyone was singing all the words of all the songs very loudly. He would stop singing for a line or so and let the audience sing it for him. He seemed amused by that for some reason.

Near the beginning of the show Morrissey said "I think this must be the sexiest show in town". He also mentioned something about the state fair thing, which I can't remember word for word, but to the point of "we never should've been there".

How did Morrissey change some of the words in the songs?

In "Teachers" he says "to be Mexican would be a relief" and in "The Edges": "My only mistake is I'm hopeful... I'm Intelligent... I'm English..." and other things. "Break up the family": "I'm in love for the LAST time..." Other changes, which I can't remember right now.

"Meat Is Murder" is definitely an awesome song played live. At the end, Morrissey collapsed to the ground and lies there while the band sped the song up to a fury.

The band looked like they were having a fairly good time. Some guy near me kept yelling "How's it going, Boz?" and Boz smiled and gave us the thumbs-up sign. Morrissey heard this guy yelling and he must've thought he said "How's it going Moz" because he replied: "Not too bad". Then the guy was yelling "Say hi, Gary" and Gary raised his hand to sort of wave. The new drummer was pretty good, I guess. He sort of looks a bit out of place. I don't know, really.

After a wonderfully long set, the crowd was really enthusiastic about the encore (see my review of the SB show). We did well with the Morrissey chant (the "here we go!" thing). Everyone seemed to be yelling and clapping in synch. The band came out with drinks in hand and cigarettes in mouth and Morrissey bounded up on stage in a sailor outfit (dark blue slacks and that blue sailor shirt with white stripes on the sleeves--a very attractive look for him, might I add) and a big smile on his face. "Thank you" he said and started "Last Night I Dreamt". The crowd went crazy, and then everyone was trying to get up on stage. Many made it, it was all-out chaos. Moz made it through the end of the song, and ran off stage. And then he was gone.

Thank you, Morrissey, for such a great show, and to everyone who was waiting outside for what seemed like eternity. It was absolutely perfect!!