Morrissey at the Hammerstein

Morrissey; Girl in a Coma
@ Hammerstein Ballroom
New York, NY - October 26, 2007

Everyone's second favorite Manc (behind Karl Pilkington of course) was light on the Smiths, heavy on his own material, and as he put it, can take "poetic license" with all of it as he sees fit. And the crowd let him do as he pleased. As a Morrissey concert novice, this writer was a bit worried that the old Mancunian warhorse would be a bit icy and distant but on the contrary, Our Man Morrissey was warm, interactive, and insistently charming. He even had macho frat boys going "Dude, I wish I could hug Morrissey right now, bruh" (true story). The genius of the whole thing was the brevity. Most of the man's songs would suffer if they went on too long, but only 1 seemed to go past 4 minutes. A rock n' roll spirit to English pop never hurts. No "Everyday is like Sunday" but "First of the Gang to Die" sufficed. And he's a decent looking bloke too.
Piss-poor mini-clip of Moz
Girl in a Coma were a replacement for Kristeen Young (who was dismissed from the tour) and with all due respect, Morrissey would have been better off going it alone. The San Antonio trio of girls seem to think they are playing some kind of authentic punk rock - and god bless 'em for their spirit - but they sound like nothing more than the suburban pimple rock that has plagued rock n' roll for a decade now. They need a little bit of soul, or maybe even a dash of Texican spice, to make it work.

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