The Morrissey Pilgrimage – San Diego
Monday, January 4th, 2010Hold on to your friends
Oh where to begin. The third concert stop on my Morrissey Pilgrimage took me to San Diego… for all of about 3 hours. Since the show was an assigned seat type, I didn’t have the opportunity to queue for 10 hours. What a shame. So I didn’t get to see all the wonderful sights of San Diego, such as… well, I have no idea what else I would even want to see besides a concert hall where Morrissey is performing. Is there really anything else? There’s more to life than music you know, but not much more. No, not much more.
After a short two hour drive that expanded into a grueling three and a half hour trek, my friend April and I finally arrived in time for the doors to open, just 1 hour before show time. As we pulled into the parking lot that stole ten dollars from us to store our car we noticed a small gathering near the stage entrance. It was about time for Morrissey to walk into the venue, we just knew. Good thing it was a one-way street that I ran across, for I certainly didn’t look both ways while running to see what was about to happen. We saw our friend Wayne waiting behind a metal barrier, ready to say hello to Morrissey and offer him a gift. Just seconds after stepping to the sidewalk, and Moz’s car pulls up to the heavily guarded pathway. He stops for only a second, just to look at but not accept Wayne’s gift, and then in the building he goes. This is a giant leap for someone who normally does not even acknowledge that anyone is waiting around to meet him. I can understand this too, as there are some weirdos out there (myself included).
After the anti-climactic event of watching a person walk into a building, we decided it was time to take our own selves into that very same building. As we rounded the corner towards the front door I started to see many familiar faces. It’s nice to go to a city that I’ve never been to and immediately see ten or more certain people I know. Upon entering the venue everyone was groped and manhandled (or womanhandled) by security. As it was so elegantly spoken later in the evening, I was given a “taint massage”. No, not the good kind. Guess they thought my blazer and tie and big bright healthy smile were threatening. Of course they are. Everyone was then placed in a holding area lobby before doors were allowed to open. Though a seated venue, everyone couldn’t wait until we got to run down the aisle and into our seats. “No running! NO RUNNING!”, uh, sure. I don’t think that has ever worked for anyone. Everyone got in safely and nobody ran over another person, so we all passed on good conduct to enter the seated pit. I say a seated pit because that’s technically what it was, though the two rows of seats were abandoned quite promptly. A rail? With about a 4 foot gap to the stage? No person would be sitting for this. One of the best parts of this show was that everyone standing on that rail and the very few who got second row were all my Morrissey friends. It was as if Morrissey was playing a private show just for us. How nice.
The seats were hardly filled when Doll & The Kicks took stage, but the pit crew were certainly paying attention. We get our own private Doll & The Kicks show too?! Where do I sign! It was a treat seeing them open every night, and this was one of their best performances. By this show a few of my friends knew most of the words and were able to sing along with them. Even in the big venue it felt like our own intimate show as Doll was smiling while watching us sing along. I think the rest of the people in attendance took kindly to them as well. When the house lights came on after their set there were a lot more seats that were filled with clapping and cheering patrons. I was also able to finally be close enough to get a few decent iPhone pics of them. No way I could have got a real camera in after the above mentioned taint massage. I still urge you to listen to them, as I still have their CD playing in my car.
Then there is this charming man
Every time Morrissey arrives on stage an angel gets its wings. That’s a little known secret I heard on the internet and I believe it to be very true. Moz and The Lads hit the stage where he proclaimed, “San Diego, I give you my heart.” and then burst right into This Charming Man, pulling everyone into the show. Not that everyone wasn’t already anxiously awaiting to hang on every word during the set. However, when Morrissey walked on to the stage he was holding an Elvis record that he signed. Morrissey signed it, not Elvis (that would have been even cooler though). M was waving it around throughout singing This Charming Man, covering his face with it at times as if to sing through Elvis. If anyone is allowed to do that, it is Morrissey. I brought a gift into the venue of an Elvis vinyl record titled Let’s Be Friends, I figured he’d get a kick out of the title if he saw it. Seeing him come out with an Elvis record too made me smile; he has incredibly good taste. Nearing the end of the first song I knew that record couldn’t last, one can’t hold vinyl for an entire set. What was to come of it? Hold your horses and I’ll tell you. The song ended and he is moving across to stage right, where I just so happened to be standing. Morrissey takes the record, looks right square at me, and says ,”For you.” Other than looking at the setlist, I couldn’t tell you what he played next. I stood there holding my new record, unable to move. Someone could have set me on fire and I would not have even blinked an eye. I was not able to fully comprehend what had just happened (I’m still having trouble with it). Morrissey, possibly my favourite artist of all time, OF ALL TIME KANYE STYLE, presented me with a gift. It was like a scene in a movie where everything is in slow motion and you can’t really hear anything, just murmurs for a while until everything comes back in focus. What made it even better was that all of my friends were surrounding me and congratulating me, I felt at home. So yeah, I was having the best week ever.
*High quality MSPAINT skillz right there
The passing of the record wasn’t all there was to the show though. Morrissey crooned through the now typical setlist with Smiths classics such as Ask, Cemetery Gates, and Is It Really So Strange?, and solo b-sides like Ganglord, Teenage Dad On His Estate, and the song that is becoming an all time favourite of mine – Because Of My Poor Education. Somewhere in the midst of the set I noticed a stage invasion attempt was about to happen. If anyone was ever going to try it, this was the time and place to do so. Out of nowhere comes a friend of mine making a flying leap that would shame Superman. He made it up for only a second, but the bruises that would follow were worth the effort. After the song ended Morrissey looked at the successful invader and said “Action Man! Where’s Action Woman?”. We in the know were shocked by this, as the song title Action Man has been floating around for years but has never seen the light of day. Was this a hint at something to come?
Though there were no more successful stage invasions, there were plenty of handshakes going around as Morrissey seemed to be in a pleasant mood. Dare I say it again, was he… happy? As they came back on stage to take a bow before the encore, Moz passed by and I motioned him a thank you for my record and he gave a graceful motion of “you’re welcome”. I’ll still go to as many shows as I can, but I don’t believe anything will ever top this one.
More photos…
…below the break
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