I would have never guessed that when my friend Lance sent me home with his copy of The Smiths’ Louder Than Bombs cassette tape in 1988, that nineteen years later I would be shaking hands with the group’s lead singer. In fact, I would have been surprised at that prospect even one month ago. I wasn’t really even aware that Morrissey was touring. My ex-wife Lisa had bragged to me that she would be seeing him in San Diego - then my friend Robert Hill told me that Morrissey was coming to Columbus. On a whim, I googled “Morrissey Columbus” and several minutes later, I found myself purchasing front row seats to the show on May 18, 2007 from a ticket broker.
I was actually leary about the whole transaction. The party I was dealing with, Las Vegas Tickets, was a broker for other brokers. My tickets were coming from EveryTicket. They asked me that ‘in the event that my tickets are not available’, would I accept equal or better seats? The whole thing sounded fishy. Then when the tickets arrived, they were merely pieces of paper from Ticketmaster (rather than a traditional stubbed ‘ticket’). Coming from a broker, I wondered what would stop them from selling photocopies.
In my Smiths shirt and ready to go
Anyway, as it turned out, they were real, so Christi and I enjoyed an amazing performance with Morrissey’s stage at our waists. There was not even a buffer area between the crowd and the stage, so we were literally leaning on the stage for the whole show. Morrissey was in support of his latest album Ringleader of the Tormentors. The opening act was Kristeenyoung (one word) at 8:00 pm and she was okay, but I had never heard of her and didn’t know her music. I also didn’t think to bring ear plugs - and music that you don’t know somehow seems louder.
Before the show we met a girl named Julia who claimed to be a special guest of Morrissey and the editor of his favorite tribute website True To You. As a guest, she didn’t actually have a seat so we allowed her to squeeze in with us. We first began chatting with her when Christi kept asking her for the time, so she simply gave Christi her watch!
Morrissey came on stage about 9:15 to an almost-packed house at the Palace Theatre. This was the third show I had seen here, but the other two were not musical acts at all, but Jerry Seinfeld and Penn & Teller. It was a nice venue, but seemed a bit unusual for a concert. Seeing Morrissey was also not a new experience as Christi and I (along with my sister Denise and Matt Bohlander) had seen him in 1991 at Riverbend in Cincinnati. We had been close…but not this close.
It is not unusual for Morrissey to extend his hand to his many adoring fans throughout the concert so I was able to shake his hand no less than three times. The first during his singing of First of the Gang to Die, the second during the Smiths’ The Boy with the Thorn in His Side, and finally during the Smiths standard fare How Soon Is Now? It was quite an amazing experience overall to see one of my Big Seven up this close. Morrissey approached and talked to Julia, the girl we had become friends with, twice during the show.
Morrissey had a great supporting band, all neatly dressed in white shirts and bowties, among them guitarists Boz Boorer and Jesse Tobias, both of whom have been in Morrissey’s band for a while. Brothers Solomon (bass) and Matt Walker (drums) and Mikey F*rrell (keyboards) rounded out the band. At the end of the show, Mr. F handed Christi a set list. Although it was nearly mangled in the melee to grab it, she ended up with it. We got off easy. When Morrissey had thrown his shirt out, it resulted in a fist fight. Children, please!
Christi and what was left of the set list
The only time I nearly regretted the front row position was at the end of the show, when several fans did their best to get on stage to touch or hug Morrissey. Some made it peacefully, others were callously flung onto the floor by security. But it felt a bit dangerous as we were pressed up against the stage and some nearly fell on top of us. But all was well that ended well.
Morrissey’s set list that Christi got was typed out as follows, with the band distorting the song titles in a somewhat comical way. In parentheses are the actual names of the songs performed during the show.
After the show, Christi and I headed over to Denise’s to stay overnight. It worked out well because we were also picking up Briana the next morning to bring her back to Dayton. I didn’t get to sleep until late. We had wine and Christi found Denise’s gin, so it was a bumpy night.
I had a blast…thank you for taking me, Brad. When’s the next one?!
christi
June 7th, 2007