Summary by Brad
Warden
Kleinhans Music Hall (which looked like a high school auditorium from the outside) is
situated outside of Buffalo's downtown core. The hall was not even half filled, with most
patrons occupying the floor seats, especially near the stage. Smoking Popes' performance
was well received. However the vocal's mic was drowned out by the other instruments, so
there was some worry that Morrissey's set would be similar.
When Morrissey came out the entire floor audience rushed to the stage. A muffled laughter
came over the hall as the audience noticed Mozzer tossing an orange up in the air. A quick
"Hello Phila... Buffalo" and just before he broke into his first song, he tossed
it (the orange) into the audience. Later he remarked that the "Buffalo Pest"
(Buffalo Press) said that the evening's performance would be depressing. Nonetheless
Mozzer retaliated saying, "Depressed... I am NOT". (actually it said
"somber")
Unlike Toronto, his confidence was more evident (he didn't ask if he was singing out of
tune this time!) and his distance with the audience seemed more apathetic. Morrissey first
came out in a black Oxford shirt, black dress pants and black shoes (along with a silver
ring and a dangling silver watch). For the encore he changed into a starched white tux
shirt.
He reached out into the audience about eight times. Three times to the sides of the stage
and twice to the middle. Three people made it up on stage. The first was a girl who ran up
and kissed his cheek, as he stood there eyes closed, lips pursed and rolled up
shoulders. Per usual, Morrissey was delighted to invite the offers.
Summary by Leah Murray,
Norm Simpson
We drove down from Toronto and arrived in Buffalo at approximately 1:30PM. The venue,
Kleinhans Music Hall, was located in a dreary Buffalo suburb, so we had nothing to do but
wait. After hours of anticipation, the doors opened at around 7:00PM. It was then that
some ticket bitch in a vulgar red pullover ripped our floor tickets in half, leaving us
the part of the ticket that didn't even have Morrissey's name!
The Smoking Popes took the stage on time, but only played to about half the crowd since
many spectators arrived at the last minute. The set was mildly entertaining, most didn't
seem to be all that interested. After about 45 minutes, an exceptionally long wait for
Morrissey began.
He finally took the stage at about 9:20PM. By this point we had wormed our way from seats
in the 21st aisle all the way to second row! The first thing he did was to throw an orange
into the crowd, which was caught by the very loud and boisterous nine-foot fellow to our
left. Immediately following the spectacular catch, he fumbled the fruit, and was trampled
beneath our unwitting feet. Morrissey's first remarks to the audience were "Hello
Dallas. Whoops, this is Buffalo." Right away, he seemed to be enjoying himself, he
laughed and said that the Buffalo PEST had forecasted that tonight would be very
depressing.
Our recollection of the song order is terrible because we were so mesmerized from being so
close to this charming man. The first person (out of five) to grace the stage was a blonde
girl who embraced Morrissey and was then gently escorted off this stage. Security's
approach to removing male fans however, differed harshly. One poor fellow who Morrissey
actually attempted to help onto the stage was thrown in a terrible choke hold before his
body was even entirely on the stage! With his arms held high in surrender, he was quickly
passed from one security guard to another who continued the abuse! Lucky for us, we were
pressed up against a very nice security guard who, although in pain, appeared to enjoy the
evening as much as we did.
At one point in the show, a towel with the words "I'm Karen" was thrown onto the
stage. Morrissey proceeded to pick up the towel, and examined it with a perplexed look on
his face. "Who's Karen? Where's Karen?" Karen of course let out an excited
squeal, to which Morrissey said "Hello Karen." In general, the evening was full
of intensely pleasurable moments, brought on by Morrissey's lip-licking and posing. One
memorable pose consisted of Morrissey crouching on the floor with his side to the
audience, while dangling the microphone by its cord for a what seemed a good 60 seconds.
At the very last beat of the song, he let the microphone touch the stage. At one point
toward the end of the concert, Morrissey said jokingly something to the effect of
"Thank you for a somber evening." And finally, Morrissey last utterance was the
much appreciated phrase "I love you."
Additional note from Saba
The crowd was noticeably older than the crowds I'd experienced at other shows on this
tour. He sang "London" in his set, but didn't sing "Alma Matters" or
"Maladjusted", which I found strange as those songs, in my mind are directly
associated with this tour.
A girl held up a banner that said, "I'm Karen" on it. He caught it when she
threw it at him, and after reading it, he asked, "Is this a cry for help?"
A few songs into the performance I realized that no one had really made it on stage... and
security was hardly present last night, AND there was no pit, so the crowd was directly up
against the stage... a couple of people attempted to go up, but were immediately nabbed...
but anyways, "Shoplifters" was the encore, and into the song, I just jumped up
on stage and went and embraced him from behind. He kept singing, and it was the most
amazing feeling. I had waited for that moment for many years, and of all the other
performances I'd been to, either security or bad seating made it impossible to get up. I
was the last one up there, and I gave him a book I had put together for him... no words
can describe the euphoric feeling I had. Security was extremely nice -- for a change. I
have photos of the show I took if anyone is interested, please e-mail me. I also have some
photos of Toronto and Kalamazoo.
Additional note from Dave
Towers
I just picked up a recording of the show... For the record and clarification on
other reports. Upon entering the stage he says "Hello Paris...BUFFALO". Also as
far as the Karen thing he says "Is this a cry for help? Who’s
Karen...KAREN!" And later in the show he asks "So wil you all be leaving to go
to New York. Isn’t that what everyone in Buffalo does... Move to New York?"
(After a few no’s from the crowd) "Ohh... well you should really." I
thought it was rather humourous. |
