Morrissey: Still Crooning After All These Years

Ex-Smiths frontman Morrissey isn't currently signed to a record label, and hasn't released a new album in more than two years. Regardless, the artist, now 40, is currently on tour in the U.S., having already wowed a sold-out crowd at New York's Roseland Ballroom last week before yesterday's show at the Beacon Theater.

Although Morrissey's reputation as a perpetually miserable crooner remains justified, his performance last night was full of energy and an unusual proliferation of between-song chatter. He reminisced about playing at the same venue some 16 years earlier with the Smiths, and satisfied fans of the late group's melancholy pop with credible renditions of Smiths favorites such as "Meat Is Murder," "Is It Really So Strange?," and "Half A Person."

Virtually ignoring his last two studio albums, Morrissey and his band instead concentrated on vintage rockers ("November Spawned A Monster," "Tomorrow," opener "You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side"), obscure b-sides ("Lost," "I Can Have Both," and "Swallow On My Neck"), and years-old album tracks ("Now My Heart Is Full," the giddily droll "Hairdresser On Fire").

A surprisingly well-done cover of David Bowie's "Drive In Saturday" closed the show, despite Morrissey's request for the audience to count how many mistakes the band would make while playing it. The tour moves on to California for two final dates this week before resuming in Mexico later this month. A host of dates in South America will follow.

-- Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.