.

Morrissey Live at Congress Theater


by Anthony Kuzminski

.
(Congress Theater � Chicago, IL - December 17, 2011) "I've been here for six weeks�where the hell were you?" Morrissey crackled at the sold out crowd at the Congress Theater in Chicago. It was spoken in a wry and defiant manner, much the same way he and his five piece band powered through 18-songs over the course of 90-minutes. The show was originally scheduled to open his six week tour and instead, it served as the penultimate performance and what a performance it was. Rescheduled shows are always better because the artist knows they owe the crowd a little more than what they'd usually dish out and Morrissey was no different. The Manchester crooner was dressed in black and looked more like a mature and suave crooner than an adolescent singing about heartache and yet he belted out his compositions covering nearly thirty years of his life in a manner than wasn't just enjoyable but unreservedly believable.

Kicking off the show was the Smiths classic "I Want the One I Can't Have" he serenaded the crowd with the lyric of "What the hell is my life for?" setting the tone of emotional unleashing early which he complimented immediately with "You Have Killed Me" from his Ringleader of the Tormentors album. His voice surged but it was his facial reactions that stood out with his imposing eyebrows making you believe he's not simply singing from a piece of paper but from deeper within. Throughout the course of the show Morrissey sold these songs with his emphatic vocals while his backing band provided aural textures of torment, elation and despair which they channeled through their hands to their instruments. The crowd lapped up every last note. No one has ever made misery feel and sound as elegiac as Morrissey. The set list was full off dreamy dread with "You're The One For Me, Fatty", "Ouija Board, Ouija Board" (with some shimmering guitar) and "First of the Gang To Die". A pair of new songs were performed, "People Are the Same Everywhere" was the edgier and more raucous of the two with tickling telescoping guitars and Morrissey upfront and center swinging his microphone like a whip. "Scandinavia" began with death march drums evoking impending doom. Morrissey doesn't have a label lined up for the record but here's to hoping he releases it in 2012 as the songs are as biting as anything he's ever recorded, a rarity for anyone with three decades under their belt.

Two early highlights of the show were the Smiths classic "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" and the Morrissey solo classic "Everyday Is Like Sunday", performed back to back. These two songs, above all others warrant encore performance, but that wouldn't be Morrissey. Here he is delivering two of his most endearing, drama filled and cinematic songs early in a set. "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" has always endured but it's now forever enshrined in popular culture due to (500) Days of Summer . The film singlehandedly took the Smiths from being a cult act to a cult act with recognition. If my mother were to ask me about the Smiths, I'd tell her they sing the song that brings Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel together and she'd immediately know. Morrissey has always worked against type and created a landscape of majestic, conspicuous and downright sick sentiments of love and death. No one can conjure up acute ache in the way Morrissey does and yet make it seem to a flush with romanticism. "Everyday Like Sunday" isn't your typical stay-in-bed and mope song, its paints a serene picture of ennui and yet it's as sweeping as any love song.

Paying homage to his influences he introduced Lou Reed's "Satellite of Love" by saying "Here's a song by someone who made America great". He then told the crowd that if they didn't know that song "to get the hell out". It was followed in short order by the Smiths classic, "Meat is Murder" which was complimented by images and videos of cattle slaughters. Two more Smiths songs provided a walloping knock-out to the crowd; "I Know It's Over" and the encore of "Still Ill" which found security working overtime as crowd members were leaping to the stage non-stop for the song's duration. Three generations of fans were leaping and hoping on stage to be near Steven Patrick Morrissey. Watching Morrissey and the pulse he still has on not just the crowd but his own inner child and you can see why he was never meant for the masses. Don't get me wrong, his legacy with the Smiths and his stupendous solo career has reached far and wide in a most powerful manner but he was never one that ascended to sit at the throne inside a stadium. If he had, some of the spite that sprinkled his performances would be missing. The Chicago crowd was vociferous in their reaction singing every word at the top of their lungs. One of the reasons for the extreme connection his fans feel with him is because they feel his pain is theirs and if he ushered his career into larger arenas, something would be lost. Having to share Morrissey and his romantic notion of misery with the world at large would be unfathomable to his followers. In his lyrics, they see themselves, they relate and they find an equal. Despite being only one song it was the most physically and viciously awesome encore I've seen since August of last year when Slayer closed out their show with "Angel of Death" from their Reign in Blood album. The 90-minute Chicago performance was burning but also steeped in significance as it offered stunning glimpses of the past and signs that the future is just as concentrated. It may have bee delayed six weeks but proved to be worth the wait as Morrissey displayed his confidence, craft and vulnerability for 4,500 of his closest friends.


Anthony Kuzminski is a Chicago based writer and Special Features Editor for the antiMusic Network. His daily writings can be read at The Screen Door. He can be contacted at thescreendoor AT gmail DOT com and can be followed on Twitter

Morrissey Live at Congress Theater

Share this article

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Pin it Share on Reddit email this article

More articles for this artist .