Morrissey delivers the personal touch

REVIEW: At Bren Center, the crown prince of pain and asexuality gives a lush performance rife with flourishes and angst-laden posing.

March 7, 200-
By STAN KABAL
Special to the Register

If you think Tori Amos or Depeche Mode fans are obsessed, you ain't seen nothin' until you've been to a Morrissey concert. More than an hour before the crown prince of pain, angst and asexuality came onstage at the University of California, Irvine, Bren Events Center on Sunday night, the fans on the floor became a jostling, roiling sea of desperation yearning to inch as close as humanly possible to the stage barricade.

But then, it has been often said that Morrissey tends to attract the obsessive types of personalities.

Playing songs like "Hairdresser on Fire," "November Spawned a Monster" and "Break Up the Family" for a fair-weather crowd just wouldn't cut it.

All things being equal, it was a lush performance, rife with Moz's trademark flourishes and anguish-laden posing, but one couldn't help becoming mildly distracted by his constant accepting of token gifts such as letters, trinkets, and the occasional bouquet of gladiolas (which is reported to be his favorite kind of flower).

To compound matters, as those he called his "sexy little children" were being hauled over the barricade to avoid being crushed by the force of wave after wave of pushing, he would reach out to many of them, often pulling them onstage for an impromptu embrace.

In Morrissey's defense, maybe he feared they would be manhandled by the security. Or maybe he truly wanted to connect with a few of the fans who have made him a mainstay in the alternative music scene.

Still, in a way typical of Morrissey, one couldn't help but find the gratitude toward his fans as sincere

Artists of his stature often keep the public at arm's length, preferring to preserve their personal space at all times. In a sense, Morrissey still does, regularly refusing to allow autographs or meet-and-greet sessions before concerts.

But giving the fan an opportunity to physically connect with the artist harkens to the glory days of the early '80s, where fresh, young superstars such as U2's Bono would bring a fan onstage to play the guitar solo of "New Year's Day" or some other song.

Moz also played such favorites as "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" and his personal anthem, "Meat Is Murder," but the highlight of the night was "Half A Person," after which he made every girl (and a few guys, for that matter) swoon when he said, "I'd like to sleep with you all, but there isn't time."


Phantom Planet opened the evening, and while they did not appear to be a logical choice for warming up the crowd, they wowed the audience with a sound made wonderfully complex by a trio of harmonizing guitars, made even more credible with their cover version of the Cars' "Just What I Needed."