'A head-scratching evening': Review: Morrissey, 02 Academy, Glasgow

The Herald Scotland

3 days ago

Three stars
'There's so much destruction all over the world and all you can do is complain about me …'. Wednesday night in Glasgow and Morrissey - Narcissus with a quiff - is reminding us that we are all still obsessed with him.
Is that the case? I guess we all know where we stand on where Morrissey stands these days. But behind all the sturm und drang, behind all the vexing, contentious statements, the more apposite question tonight might be, is there still an artist behind the provocateur?
Wednesday night's show - the first of two sold-out gigs at Glasgow's 02 Academy - emphatically suggested there was. But who is that artist for?
This was a head-scratching evening. On the up side the former Smiths front man still sounds amazing; that voice remains a thrilling instrument, even if he doesn't break out his falsetto on The Smiths' classic Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me during the encore.
And it helped that he has a largely American band around him who are more than up to the task; lean, tight, urgent. For the most part, they rattled through songs like they were trying to catch a bus, only to slow things down now and then, stretching songs out as far as they would go (and sometimes beyond as on Life Is a Pigsty, though it's possible I was the only one in the audience who thought so).
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Some of the song choices did seem tailored to the band's strengths. The Smiths songbook was ransacked for the noisier, brawnier cuts; Shoplifters of the World Unite and How Soon is Now, notably. Other inclusions just seemed eccentric. Solo single You're The One For Me, Fatty hardly felt essential when it was first released back in 1992, never mind now.
As for Morrissey himself, he was on his best behaviour this evening. In fact, he didn't talk that much between songs, though there was the odd mention of long-gone Scottish soap Take the High Road.
And he seemed to be enjoying himself, playing maracas or wiping the sweat from his bare chest. The moments where he did that 'old man hoicking up his trousers' movement (it happened more than once) were sweetly human. It comes to all of us.
But I can't deny that I found much of the evening slightly dull. The first half of the show in particular saw him essay songs from the 21st century - I Wish You Lonely, One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell - and obscure cuts from his back catalogue, like 1995's Best Friend on the Payroll, most of which felt like placeholders for better songs.
When he did sing Everyday is like Sunday - that still exquisite slice of Britannia Moribunda - I did wonder if maybe when he moved away from the UK he left his muse behind him.
But the song choices did answer the question, who this show was for? His fans, obviously, those ardent true believers who have remained faithful to him all these years, despite everything.
And maybe they do know something. Because the highlight of the evening was not a Smiths throwback, but Bonfire of Teenagers, the title track of the album he can't find a label for and which Morrissey himself has called 'the best album of my life'. It's a torch song and he sang it beautifully.