Overall a very solid show from Moz and the boys. He sounded great to my ears and the band was top notch. Lots of stage banter. Morrissey mentioned he was staying in San Francisco and that he spent the morning trying to find something good on TV. Nothing. He then threw the question to the crowd via microphone. Someone answered, "Because you're not on enough." Very flattering...but can you see me on The View?" The crowd groaned. "I can!" he replied. Cue song...

For some strange reason he followed the entire set list from Seattle / Portland but as the the band was clearly getting ready to play 'OK By Myself' he motioned for them to follow him off the stage and leave. Boz shrugged his shoulders as he followed the band off. They then returned to play 'First Of The Gang' for the encore.

During this final song the stage invasions started. I was standing in the first row (against the small wall) on the left behind the pit. Moz walked over to the side of the stage and a girl made a break for it. A security guard quickly grabbed her as she grabbed Morrissey's hand. As he tried to pull her up he said "This is your stage, let her go (Or was is "This is OUR stage?)". I jumped over and helped push her up to him trying to shove the guard away. She embraced him and they spoke a bit. Somewhere in there he grabbed my hand and gave me a good solid handshake before I was then pushed into a metal barrier smashing it down into a group of people in the pit. I got up and simply walked back to my standing place. The guards were not happy. Yikes.

A few others made it up on stage and Morrissey seemed to lose interest, almost angry. He finished the song and walked off stage right. No goodbye. The band stayed to shake hands and wave. I grabbed a thrown drumstick and was out of there.

So, yes...fantastic show. Looking forward to LA. (Sorry for the foggy details, just arrived home).

This was my first time seeing Morrissey and I've been a fan since I was a teen so I really enjoyed the show. I loved that he chattered with the audience at times and even 'thanked us' for putting up with him and sticking by.

The idiot fans that decided to bum rush the stage and trample security guards at the end of the show was not cool. I think Moz did a fine job of finishing the song while the body guards scrambled to get the people off the stage. The show seemed short to me, about an hour? Was still an enjoyable experience for me. Moz sounded great and was in good spirits. I have a bunch of pics that I will be adding to the gallery.

At least 13 songs...almost an hour and 15 minutes. He was very sweet and appreciative and, yes, chatty. Joked with twins about telling each other apart in the bath and accepted gifts later on, including a Sinatra record. Started out in a blue shirt, changed to a black one offstage =(. (He seems to have worn a blue shirt and black shirt every time I've seen him. A Wednesday thing? haha) Big ring on right hand and gold chain. Tallest man in room in front of me again but at least he didn't stand the whole time. Looking forward to Sicy's pictures as I was in row E but chickened out till the end and managed to get zero pics. When he gave the little "come here" finger motion to the guys I didn't know if he felt sick or something was wrong with the equipment or what. Thought for a second he just needed help from one to go get something ha. Hoped is more like it. Btw was nice to see them wearing plain long sleeved black shirts and jeans as opposed to funny obvious outfits. Final bow came before First of the Gang so it was even harder for me to call it a night than usual, although I felt less desperate this time probably because I don't feel he'll never be back. Anyway, just was happy to see and hear him again. Oh - and someone gave him a Too Frinky sign, yay!

Many of my friends thought the show was great, but I thought it was lacking - especially when compared to all the Fillmore shows and others I attended a couple years back. I really am worried about him, he barely moved around and though his voice was good, he seemed to struggle at various points. The setlist (I thought) was just ok, was far superior at the Fillmore. I had to tell my friend that many of the songs were B-sides cause she hasn't followed him as much in recent years. I was right next to the aisle down towards the front when the melee happened at the end - a holes! I felt bad for the security guy and tried to help (cause I do security at other venues), and in the process banged up my knee and now it's swollen and bruised a bit. ouch!

I really feel this is the end for Moz. :(

Firstly, apologies to Moz for my being too much of a loafing oaf to be able to get on stage in my birthday dress! I tried twice (unaided) unsuccessfully. My pride stopped me from failing a third time. Lesson learned, don't be pretty in the pit. Wear jeans!!! Sheesh. And I'm telling myself it's not because I'm another year older.

Congrats to the folks who did get up during the encore (including the wiley Nobody's Nothing who ducked from the security guard's grab! Good job, man!).

Okay, on to the show...
Doll and the Kicks did a strong set. It took a few for the audience to really warm up to them, but they eventually did. The singer, Hannah, told a funny story about how the guys in the band chose the Jeep they're traveling in thinking it was a macho car, then they saw a commercial that totally marketed it toward women. Song-wise, the heart-wrencher today was "What Goes Around Will Come Around." Before that song, Hannah explained that it was about a girl who befriended her only because she (the other girl) wanted the guy who eventually became her (Hannah's) ex-boyfriend. Ouch! Outfit-wise, she wore a cute vintage halter-top/shorts set, bejeweled at the top and lined with silver studded cuffs and belt (very fitting for the venue).

Moz songs (not sure if I'm missing one or two):
This Charming Man, Black Cloud, When Last I Spoke to Carol, Ask, Ganglord, Death at One's Elbow, I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris, One Day Goodbye Will be Farewell, Cemetry Gates, Teenage Dad on His Estate, This World is Full of Crashing Bores, Why Don't You Find Out for Yourself, Is It Really So Strange, Irish Blood/English Heart, Because of My Poor Education (?), How Soon Is Now, The Loop, ...? Encore: First of the Gang to Die.

The crowd:
Moz seemed very elated to see many familiar faces in the audience, calling people out by name (maybe these were personal friends as opposed to just fans?). As referenced by neonmadraslady, Morrissey called the name of someone by the wrong name and he mentioned to everyone that the reason was because they (a Heidi and Kim?) were twins and not even they could tell each other apart unless they were naked taking a bath together (something to that effect). Interestingly, Julia did not seem to be there.

The venue:
Beautiful art deco. The lobby is just magnificent!

The wardrobe (as referenced by neonmadraslady):
Moz did most of the show in a pressed sea-green shirt and blue jeans, then later went backstage and changed to a black shirt. Neither were thrown. The boyz wore thick navy-blue shirts (kind of looked like guys thermal tops) and blue jeans.

Highlights (some referenced by neonmadraslady, sicy, and Neckdeep):
- Moz bantering with the audience after every single song. It was like an ongoing conversation (sorry I don't remember all of it at this hour).
- Cemetry Gates - "stonely read the graves" again and at the end sang "...while Anne Sexton is on mine!"
- Moz holding up the big Frinky sign (sorry, don't recall the exact text on it). In the middle of the sign, there was a picture of the same gun posed with for Quarry.
- Moz pointing out a girl in the first row behind the pit who wore a NY Dolls t-shirt. He looked right at her and smiled saying, "Nice t-shirt!"
- tough, petite security women who were really holding their own with the crowd (although by what I heard the male security was a bit over-bearing, so that's not quite a highlight. And the scuffle between audience members with security was pretty crazy. Will Moz be invited back to a venue when something like that happens?)

It did seem Moz beckoned the boyz to follow him back earlier than planned before reappearing for the encore. However, all things considered, about 18 songs were performed, which is pretty much a full set for the shows.

Cheers to the Boyz, Lloyd, his friend Henrik, Milky, Thom and Miro.

On to Vegas!

I am fed up of reading negative comments about how Moz is finished and how he is struggling.

Cheer up everyone Moz is far from retiring!

and plays Something is Squeezing my Skull for oncore.

In my opinion, any Morrissey show is a great show, for there is always something new to take home from the experience. While people complain about the same songs being played, I have no problem listening to them. Each song has an intrinsic value or meaning, something that speaks me. It's beautiful. Of course, I am always delighted to hear Morrissey give old songs new life by changing the words. It affords a different perspective.

Last night during HSIN, he made notable changes to the song like, "I am STILL the son . . . I am Still the heir . . . ." Also in this song, he changed "You could meet somebody who really loves you" with "You could meet somebody who ISN'T SOMEBODY." Then he closed the song with "So you go on your own, and you leave on your own, WHAT A BIG SURPRISE!" And the musical arrangement: Wow!! I'm always impressed my the subtle changes made to keep the song fresh.

As I was in the balcony during the performance, I had a great view of the crowd down below. The Pit seemed enervated until the end. Great job to the woman who made it onto the stage with Morrissey's help. What did you two talk about?

Anyway, Ventura next week.

anyone know how the moz merch is setting up to be? i will be in pomona and would like to know

thanks

I don't think these have been mentioned yet:

1) the show of course was at the lovely Paramount Theater, which is in not-so-lovely downtown Oakland. In introducing Ganglord, Moz said something like, "Nice neighborhood we're in, eh?"

2) in the interaction with the girl in the crowd re: why there's nothing good on TV (I had a pretty good look at her and I think that girl was a model btw), the first poster correctly described the conversation, but left out one line by the Moz. The girl said the reason there's nothing good on TV was that "You're not on it enough," and then Moz said "That's very flattering," but then added, "But that's not very realistic, is it?" He then went on to say, "I mean, could you see me on The View" etc.

3) earlier in that same conversation, when Moz said he was looking for something decent to watch on TV, someone called out from the audience "Gay porn!" Some titters from the audience, not sure anyone on stage heard it.

4) I didn't like the way they performed This Charming Man or Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself. Still enjoyable though. Moz seemed to get more into it after the first few songs. No one in the audience seemed to be familiar with "Because of My Poor Education" which is disappointing because it's a great song. Moz changed the line at the end to say "Reality .. is VERY real to me." (not sure if he's doing that every show though)

5) and yes, the pit definitely got more into it during First of the Gang to Die. Not sure why people are down on that song as an encore, I think it's terrific. Anyway, I didn't witness any actual fighting with the security personnel, and thought all the stage-rushing I saw was in good fun, and seemed to be well-received by Moz. Security on stage seemed to be handling it well and not being excessively rough.

He was certainly chatty with the crowd last night! Aside from cutting out I'm OK by Myself (which I would have LOVED to hear, dammit), it was a fun, albeit a tad short, show.
Some notable quotes and lyric changes no one's mentioned yet:
in Ganglord "Get your FAT ASS to the ghetto, get your SCRAWNY ASS back to the ghetto"

Re: Oakland Cancellation earlier in the year "in light of 29 cancellations on this tour, I thank you for sticking with me".

He mentioned that while staying in his hotel in San Francisco that day he did something he "vowed he would never do again, turn on the TV". He said he "was determined to find something watchable even if it took 12 hours of channel surfing", and "after 1 hour" (making remote control flipping motions with his hand), he found...(waiting in anticipation...).."nothing", and handed the mic to the pit with the question "Why is tv here so terrible?" and mentioned its just a problem in THIS COUNTRY. A girl in the audience said "Because you are not on it enough!" and he said "That's nice to say, but unrealistic, I mean, can you imagine me on 'The View'?" and the audience yelled "YESSSS!" and he laughed and said "I can too!"

He went backstage for his shirt change, and when he came back out in a fresh black shirt he said "You are all still here? I CAN'T understand it!"

Very sweet night, thank you Moz, come back to us soon.

Overall, a good show in a beautiful venue. I was glad I ended up going. Originally, I was misinformed that the stage was lowered to thwart stage invaders last time. Apparently it was not intentional; it's just that when so many people hopped over the wall to invade the pit area over the course of the show that their fat asses (cue Moz singing "Get back to the ghetto...") weighed down the pit a good foot or so. The pit floor was springy, so it was lots of fun to feel the bounciness during a rowdy song like the Loop.

Got a funny handshake at the beginning where Moz flipped my hand over back and forth, as if examining my palm. Oddly enough, somebody had read my palm earlier in the day and told me a bunch of flattering b.s. I was hoping to get "One Thursday you will be dead."

Good on the Moz twins, who had met duh goodlooking man about town wandering around the streets earlier in the day! Their spontaneous answers were very clever. Could their day have possibly gotten more exciting?

Show was going quite well even if Moz is noticeably lacking energy (just earlier this year he had much more energy) this tour leg. But the change up at the end made me nervous. It was 22:09 when we were wondering what the hell was happening with them walking off the stage far too early in the evening. We thought he must've cut a couple songs from the setlist, but it turns out that Moz only skipped one song (I'm OK by Myself), and I'm actually thankful that that particular song was dropped. If only he had replaced it with Goodlooking Man, Handsome Devil, or basically any other song. He also made the late decision to deviate from SKULL as the encore, as printed on the setlist, and revert back to FOTGTD. Urgh, and he didn't do If You Don't Like Me. :(

Oh well. Loved it! And will be quite happy even if it's my last show.

Thanks for the pics so far, but I need more! Anyone take video? Post it up, please!

came when Moz asked us if we knew all the famous people who had stood on this stage. He first said "James Cagney," and asked if anyone knew who that was or something like that. Then he asked someone in the audience if they knew anyone else. Couldn't hear what that person said, but apparently they didn't know anyone, so then Moz said "George Raft" and asked if the audience member had any thoughts or knew who George Raft was. Again, nothing. At this point, Moz comedically rushed back to the band and said "Next number please!" (or something like this) as though he was seconds away from losing the audience and the show was going downhill if he continued on this topic.

Cagney and Raft are both actors famous for their gangster roles of course (Cagney was in Little Caeser, The Public Enemy and White Heat, and Raft was in Scarface and Some Like It Hot) - I had no idea they performed at the Paramount in Oakland. Does anyone else? Regardless, they certainly mix Moz's love of old movies and fascination with gangsters and crime (Ganglord, First of the Gang to Die, etc).

The show lasted an hour and 15 minutes. The set list was:

intro
this charming man
black cloud
when last i spoke to carol
ask
ganglord
death at one's elbow
i'm throwing my arms around paris
one day goodbye will be farewell
cemetry gates
teenage dad on his estate
the world is full of crashing bores
why don't you find out for yourself?
is it really so strange?
irish blood, english heart
because of my poor education
how soon is now?
the loop
don't make fun of daddy's voice
encore: first of the gang to die
outro

I've confirmed this by listening to the recording I made.

The show last Night was awsome Moz was great and his voice sounded perfect. It is not the end of him he has millions of fan who will follow him until the end no matter what so good one....luv moz great night last night oh and by the way some of the fans were a dissapointment they need to get more in to the show....looking forward for LA and ventura

Anybody know if winners have been notified yet?

Short but sweet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAj_jgonFlM

So who's the new guy?

I rate it 4 out of 5. I would have liked it to have been longer, which I think it may have been if those thugs who stormed up to the front had been removed earlier.
Also, paying a hundred dollars to be 30 rows back or more felt like a rip off, but thats not Morrissey's fault either...

I'm just curious because last week, I was still able to pull up 6th row ORCH on Ticketmaster and that kind of freaked me out for a Bay Area Morrissey show. Paramount Theatre is somewhat big as well.

Is there an opening act for the west coast shows? I ask because I'm seeing him next Friday in Ventura, and was just curious. Thanks...and I'm looking forward to my 12th Moz show. Hoorah...

Seeing the mounds of people who streamed into the Hard Rock on a Friday night that were non-Moz fans made me glad to arrive a night earlier when fans kind of just had the run of the place and it was less crazy and crowded. Then again, maybe that's why some folks go to Vegas.

After a wrong turn coming back from sightseeing where water makes power lighting Vegas to Los Angeles (Hoover Dam), I was unfortunately delayed and missed Doll & the Kicks tonight, but I heard that the crowd were really great and the best they've had yet. The band was very happy for that. The singer. Hannah (aka "Doll"), wore the bustier with stars and leopard-print knickers, and it was actually really fitting for Vegas and the Hard Rock. I'm kicking myself for that wrong turn!

So "The Joint" inside the Hard Rock casino was pretty impressive: quite large (maybe 8 or 10,000 capacity?), multi-tiered balcony, multi-tiered floor with railings, slanted at a grate so people could see. Whereas the stage at the Oakland Paramount was shallow (Doll and the Kicks even had to put their drummer all the way stage left that night), the Hard Rock stage was hugely deep. To say the stage area could have housed the Roseland is only a slight exaggeration. We could have had our own little show just in there! Anyway, it was basically a very nice venue built perfectly for GA/standing rock concerts.

The vibe before and in the beginning of the show was great. Very warm and positive. Guys and girls were singing along together with Moz (the guys more loudly ;). Security seemed to be integrated into the crowd to assist with anyone who needed to leave the front for air or deal with any troublemakers, and it was really a good thing at least in house right.

Then some words between a couple guys were exchanged, people were moving away, then I got enthralled in the perimeter of a brawl! Jeezus! I got away with some bruised bones and thankfully okay enough to type this review. I have to say it changed the mood of the entire night after that. Everyone in my section was a little traumatized by it. I really wish it would have stayed as 'we all love Moz, let's sing along together because we love him.' I mean, he's made this special leg of the tour for all of us on the West Coast. Let's show our appreciation and just stay cool with each other, because it's not about us. It's about him.

So Moz opened the show with "Welcome to Moz Vegas!"
As Anonymous' have said, the set was cut short a bit. About 16 songs were performed. Not sure about the order: The Loop, __?___, This Charming Man, Paris, Death at One's Elbow, Black Cloud, Ask, Ganglord (M asked the crowd if they liked the song), Let Me Kiss You (almost looked like he wasn't going to take off his shirt, but he did a few lines after "but then you opened your eyes"), One Day Goodbye Will be Farewell (yes, so let's not fight amongst ourselves), Cemetry Gates ("stonely read the graves" is possibly here to stay, "Wilde is on mine" returns), Teenage Dad on is Estate, If You Don't Like Me Don't Look at Me (miscommunication for the intro it seemed and Moz had a bit of background music with his banter. He and the band handled it very well in the moment and Moz jumped into the song after he bantered, then Jesse and Solomon joined in on cue with the electric guitar and bass. It's possible Moz wanted to start the song over (it kind of seemed like it), but once into it there was no going back --always keep going after any mistakes, as they say, as sometimes the audience doesn't even know what happened wasn't planned. Anyhow, this is the beauty of a live show as opposed to a taped and edited television program that we can just sit at home and watch from our couches), Daddy's Voice, Why Don't You Find Out (?), How Soon is Now.

Wardrobe: Moz in a black suit with white collared shirt (I think no tie), the boyz in white collared, short-sleeved shirts, black bowtie (?), and black pants.

Sorry I forget how he intro'd the band, but he followed it with, "And I'm not sure who I am" or something like that. Everyone cheered.

That's all I got for now.
Cheers,

Crap, I'm tired, sorry. I'll paste the review to the right show!

Cheers,