Something I Can Barely Describe

Morrissey @ Bowery Ballroom 3/21/2009
This Charming Man / Billy Budd / Black Cloud / How Soon Is Now? / Irish Blood, English Heart / Let Me Kiss You / I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris / How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel? / Seasick, Yet Still Docked / The Loop / I Keep Mine Hidden / The World Is Full of Crashing Bores / Why Don’t You Find Out for Yourself? / Ask / Best Friend on the Payroll / Sorry Doesn’t Help / Something Is Squeezing My Skull / I’m OK By Myself // First of the Gang to Die

Morrissey “Something Is Squeezing My Skull”

Something that becomes very obvious upon seeing a Morrissey concert is that he and his band need not engage in any sort of theatrics on stage, and that it hardly even matters what they play, or if the songs are sequenced in a particularly dramatic order. Morrissey is the spectacle, to the point that anything that would distract the audience from focusing their attention on him would be jarring and wrong. Really, this isn’t much different from the songs themselves — aside from the old Smiths tunes, the music for most of the numbers would be fairly nondescript were it not for Morrissey’s dominating presence. It is probably true that he is coasting on the passion of his audience, but that just feeds into one the most entertaining aspects of his shtick: Despite the fact that he is among the most intensely beloved cult figures in pop culture, he insists that he is under-appreciated, and demands yet more love from his fans. In other words, he’s basically Miss Piggy with a pompadour. It’s brilliant.

Morrissey seems extremely comfortable in his skin these days, often coming across on stage and in the excellent covers of his three most recent albums as though he has waited his entire life to be exactly as old as he is right now. He wears his age very well, and it provides him with a bit of gravitas that serves him well, particularly when he sings his most petulant lyrics. His sex appeal now is actually quite similar to that of 30 Rock-era Alec Baldwin. Both men have a handsome, bearish quality, with substantial yet lean bodies capable of surprising grace. They both have very strong presences, and when you look at them, it’s hard not to picture a younger, softer version of their face buried just beneath the heavy masculinity of their adult visage. Maybe it’s an Irish thing?

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