Las Vegas Weekly

Five notes and a setlist from last night’s Morrissey show

Morrissey performs Friday night at the Cosmopolitan.

Photo: Erik Kabik/Retna/ErikKabik.com

Full review of Morrissey’s Cosmopolitan concert to come in Thursday’s print edition of Las Vegas Weekly, but for now …

Photo: Erik Kabik/Retna/ErikKabik.com

1. Morrissey played with The Smiths for six years and has been a solo performer for 24, yet his crowds continue to cheer loudest for his Smiths songs, of which we got four: “I Want the One I Can’t Have,” “Meat Is Murder,” “I Know It’s Over” and “Still Ill” (the encore).

2.“Ouija Board, Ouija Board,” a non-album single preserved on the 1990 compilation Bona Drag, received the most excited reaction among Morrissey’s non-Smiths selections (at least, near where I was standing), with lots of fans singing every word.

3. One day after Thanksgiving, Morrissey dedicated “Meat Is Murder” to “all the beings who yesterday were eaten.” Videos of cruel animal slaughters accompanied the song, which found the singer and his five-piece band cloaked in gloomy, red lights.

Photo: Erik Kabik/Retna/ErikKabik.com

4. It looked like Morrissey might perform an entire show without baring his chest … until he removed his shirt during the encore and tossed it into the crowd. (No exact count on how many pieces it got torn in to before it exited the venue.)

5. For those wondering (as I was), the woman in the black-and-white video screen image that served as the show’s backdrop was British screenwriter Shelagh Delaney, who died on November 20 at age 72. Morrissey once said, “At least 50 percent of my reason for writing can be blamed on Shelagh Delaney.” Fans might also recognize her from the cover of The Smiths’ 1987 album Louder Than Bombs.

Setlist:

“I Want the One I Can't Have”

“You Have Killed Me”

“You're the One for Me, Fatty”

“When Last I Spoke to Carol”

“Black Cloud”

“Maladjusted”

“Ouija Board, Ouija Board”

“I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris”

“Action Is My Middle Name”

“Meat Is Murder”

“Satellite of Love (Lou Reed cover)”

“I Know It's Over”

“Scandinavia”

“All the Lazy Dykes”

“People Are the Same Everywhere”

“Speedway”

Encore:

“Still Ill”