my ever so lengthy diary of Toronto...Milwaukee, you are next!

T

thelastofthefamous

Guest
You’re the one for me, Toronto!!!
Tuesday, October 12th 2004
The Hummingbird Centre

One of the most amazing nights of my life!

After my incredible experiences in D.C. and Philly at the beginning of the tour, the anticipation was mounting for me to see my beloved Morrissey again in Toronto…especially given his many cryptic remarks as of late alluding to this possibly being "farewell".

So the plan was to meet up with a crew of friends at the lovely Mary-Kate’s abode at 4 pm Tuesday afternoon. We hit the road to Toronto in her magnificent Jeep Grand Cherokee. Aside from an annoying, almost hour delay trying to get across the border to Canada, the trip up was smooth otherwise and we arrived in the city plenty early enough.

My first task, to meet up with the lovely Sara (miss Bored At Unemployment of Moz-Solo.com fame) to sell some extra 6th Row tickets I had. We met in front of the Hockey Hall of Fame (across the street from The Hummingbird Centre)…made our little transaction..and had a nice, brief chat with her and her boyfriend. I was tugged away by the rest of my entourage who were eager to go hunt for food before the show. Mary-Kate and I parted ways with Jay, Nick, and Alex. We quickly hit up the local Timmy Ho’s to grab a bagel and coffee…and made our way back to the venue.

Personally speaking, I prefer to get inside the venue a decent bit prior to the show starting to really soak up the atmosphere and get myself mentally prepared for what is to come. The initial security pat-down was really very mild…probably could have smuggled in just about anything. We decided to go and check out our exact seat locations and the general layout and setup of the venue. We strolled down the aisle in search of Row DD seats 50 and 51. Now of course, we knew this was 4th row and would be terribly close to the stage…but when we got up there we realized it was even better than could be expected. We saw a site we were not prepared for…

NO STAGE BARRIER to speak of!!! I have never before witnessed a Moz show with NO barricade between the audience and the stage. This in essence means that there is no little empty pit separating Morrissey from the audience. No area in which a row of burly security thugs can stand in your way. This looked simply too good to be true. It was almost more than my “little wooden heart” could bear. I literally began to have a mild panic attack with the knowledge of the possibilities this sort of arrangement could bring. My heart was thumping along at rapid pace. Mary-Kate wisely suggested that we make our way back to the hallway/lobby area for a pint to calm my nerves.

I did my best to try and relax, breathe slowly, and partake in a little people watching. I do somewhat regret not beign inside to catch the opening act, The Dears. But this simply could not be helped. I had heard a couple of their songs previously which I do believe are quite fabulously haunting…but I needed this valuable time to regroup my soul back into a slightly less-rattled state.

I ran into the rest of our crew again and continued my wait in the lobby…as The Dears ended their set…and the time began to approach 8:45, I decided it was time to literally go in and face the music. I sauntered down the aisle once again back to our seats. Mary-Kate was there conversing with the Toronto native Rob, who would end up standing to my right for the show itself. We were just sort of standing around there by our seats, when a couple (Mona and her bf/husband?) approached me and asked me if I had been at the Philly shows as they believed they recognized me from there. I replied that indeed I had attended the Philly gigs, and we proceeded with some Moz banter. I believe they commented that their seats were a couple rows back of ours perhaps, but their plan as was ours, was to hopefully move up when the lights dimmed prior to Morrissey’s appearance. The minimal security staff that stood in the aisles was hardly the usual intimidating bunch you see at most venues. As the time was drawing nearer, we saw a handful of devotees piling up towards the aisle on the left hand side of the stage. I had my sights set on the front of the stage, just right of center. I told Mary-Kate the time was now to indeed make a play for the front row…and almost instantaneously as I said so, the lights dimmed in preparation for “The Imperfect List” (The final rallying call/song played before Morrissey hits the stage). As the crowd began to move up, we darted around the security statue and took claim of the choicest of locations, just a few feet right of center stage. We could hardly believe our eyes…almost difficult to process how close we would be to Moz…our arms literally resting upon the very stage. Absolutely no security between us. No real way of being easily stopped from quickly jumping up onstage when the right time would come. A breathtaking evening was about to begin.
As my pal Joey Lawrence would say….”Whoa!”

Morrissey and the lads made their way to center stage and took a bow for the eager audience. The boys all decked out in dress shirt and tie…The Mozzer looking as dashing as ever in dark jacket over light dress shirt and perfectly pressed black trousers. His quiff as remarkable as I have seen it since the early ‘90s…he is certainly The Handsome Devil!

Initially Moz appeared in a somewhat lackluster mood. Someone, Julia perhaps, asked how he was feeling and he simply replied “OK”. If he seemed slightly reserved at first, this changed VERY QUICKLY as he soon gauged the soaring energy unleashed upon him and how passionate and receptive the crowd was before him.

The show would open with a rousing rendition of The Smiths classic “Bigmouth Strikes Again”. A perfect track to gain momentum from the very start with it’s frenetic pace. “Sweetness, I WASN'T KIDDING when I said…” was a new substitute and as he has done thus far on the tour, he continued to update the verse of “…and her walkman started to melt” with “IPod”.

Morrissey was very chatty as has been increasingly his m.o. in recent years, and especially so this tour. He began chastising the Canadian government’s support of seal-clubbing. There were also the obligatory “Julia” remarks. He did declare early on in the proceedings that "this is an evening of loud music and poetry. More specifically, it's the dying art of live music,"…how very true it seems.

Following “Bigmouth…”, Boz (with his tommy gun guitar) and the boys belted out a rollicking version of “First of the Gang to Die”. I do believe this has already become an instant classic in the Moz solo cannon of work…and is undoubtedly the premier track on ‘You are the Quarry’…in fact, I would venture to say it is amongst the top handful of tunes he has penned in his career altogether. I was extending out a REINFORCE cd w/ note for Moz …Rob also had a note for him…both of our arms were outstretched as Moz came our way. He came right in front of us, looking down at our offerings. His head quizzically glancing from one to the other..back and forth…it was most comical…and then the coy Mozzer fled the scene, not taking either of our gifts. I told Rob, “he’ll be back for us, don’t fret”. The old Mozza standard “November Spawned A Monster” would come next…complete with a writhing and animated Moz…and a chilling flute solo from Boz. During one of the verses, Moz reached down and held my hand and looked me in the eyes as he crooned…always so very touching to feel that connection.

It must be noted that many of the selections from ‘You are the Quarry’ sound significantly more vital and powerful than they do on record. “I Have Forgiven Jesus”, “The World is Full of Crashing Bores”, “I Like You”, “Let Me Kiss You”, “How Can Anyone Possibly Know How I Feel” etc all really sound so compelling live.

The fifth song of the night was the sometimes overlooked ‘Bona Drag’ track “Such A Little Thing Makes Suck A Big Difference”. Whereas some people find this song to be slight, I really do appreciate its tender thoughts myself. As he has often been prone, he changed the lyric to “how I love, all of the COMPLICATED things in life”. And now that Mikey is in the band playing the appropriate keyboard parts, this song sounds so much more effective than it did on early tours. In reply to the line “most people keep their brains between their legs”…Moz wryly concedes “I do.” It was also during this song that Moz did indeed come over to our outstretched hands once again, happy to take and receive our offerings…specifically after the apt line of “…written words on paper - can you write?” He walked around continuing the song with our cd/notes held to his side…before placing them down on the drum riser at the end of the song.

I was pleased to hear a jubilant “Shakespeare’s Sister” come next. Although he had played it previously several times this year, this was the first show I had actually seen it live myself. A very sprite Smiths single indeed. Mozzer’s mic whipping was in top form tonight. It always looks so artistic and photographic and was definitely one of the Moz-isms I began to steal back in my band days with REINFORCE. A few songs later came the ‘Vauxhaul and I’ hit “The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get”, a crowd fave and great singalong…only to be topped with perhaps the largest looming song in Smiths legend, “How Soon Is Now?”…which certainly got the blood boiling.

The stage invasions came fairly early on in the set and continued throughout the rest of the night at moderate pace. The venue setup with no barricade really made this all so inviting for such. The security, which upon the stage was really only a couple of “Mozzer’s Men” was just so gentle. Allowing nearly everyone to go up to our beloved hero and show their affection and love with a hug, kiss on the cheek or handshake. Especially after my near miss in Philly, I really hoped I would be able to go up and show my appreciation and love for Moz this night…given the circumstances of this show and venue, I was fairly certain I would be able to accomplish this…just wanted to wait for the right time, and didn’t want to leave my wonderful spot and view to early in the show. I was very tempted to go up during a couple of heart-wrenching songs towards the end of the set, “Rubber Ring” and “Now My heart is Full”. I decided, however, to wait until the encore, which I knew would be my favourite song of all time.

The set closed with the towering ‘Quarry’ epic “You Know I Couldn’t Last”. Like so many of the ‘Quarry” songs, but particularly this one, it really comes to life in the live setting. The contrast of the serene verse set against the edgy, muscular chorus really is striking. And the end of the song featured some blazing guitar work from both Boz and especially Jessie that brought it to a roaring crescendo.

There was a mild fear that stage chaos would erupt during the moving finale of “There is a Light that Never Goes Out” and Moz may have to bail before the end. I have never witnessed a Moz show in the flesh before where there was so much stage invasion to pay tribute. It really was a beautiful sight to see so many devotees able to share that interaction with Him. You could really tell that the relationship between Morrissey and his fans really is a two-sided love affair. I figured I should try and get up early on in the song when hopefully I could have Him all to myself for a few seconds...and not do so at a time when a handful of fans would all jump up at once. The time had arrived.

I told Mary-Kate and Rob, on either side of me, that I was going up. I jumped up onto the stage and headed towards the oh-so-inviting Morrissey who was in the midst of the opening lines of the song, “take me out tonight…”. As I walked up to him and put my arms around, he looked at me in such a welcoming way and actually broke from the song to say “you had to”. I thanked him and gave him a quick peck before being whisked off the stage…in a state of pure bliss. Words cannot even eloquently express how moving all of this was.

I was directed through a few corridors off the side of the stage and finally into a little side foyer of the venue. Being hustled off right behind me was a charming lass named Campion who had flown in from Vancouver. We watched the remaining minutes of the song and show on closed-circuit TV playing there….and continued to chat it up for several minutes. We then parted ways and I made my way outside to meet up with my crew.

We hung out around the front of the venue for a little while…talked to some friends we had met…and then moved on, as Mary-Kate ran down the sidewalk towards some guy who had this big sign proclaiming “we need Morrissey tickets”. For some reason Mary-Kate needed to possess this sign for herself..and as she usually gets what she wants, she did indeed get the sign. As this wondrous night came to a close, we headed to the legendary “51 Toppings” for a quick bite before exiting Toronto back to our little humdrum town of Buffalo.

Finally arrived back to my flat around 2:30 am…and as exhausted as I was, even knowing I would have to be up in a few hours for work, getting to sleep was far from easy. My head and heart were still ablaze and racing, just attempting to process the ‘wholeness’ of the evening.

Thank you to the new friends I met at the show. Thank you to the gang who came along with me from Buffalo. Thank you to my fave Olsen twin, Mary-Kate (so happy we had this together!). Thank you to the ever-so-gentle “Mozzer’s Men”. Thank you to all the devotees who were in attendance.

And of course, thank you MORRISSEY!!! You have been a pivotal part of my life for the last 17-18 years…one of my life’s few constants..you are always there…in your own strange way. And in my own sick way, I’LL ALWAYS BE TRUE TO YOU!

One more show to go for me…Milwaukee, YOU are the quarry!!!
 
Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing your lovely account of the Toronto concert!

I remember seeing you onstage, and heard Moz say "You had to". Congratulations!

Hope you have a great time in Milwaukee (but then, how could you not? It's a Morrissey concert, after all)!
 
What a great story! I felt your excitement just by reading it. Thanks for sharing your night!

K
 
thank you both for the kind remarks!

Perhaps i'll see you at the moz/smiths night in Toronto next month...feel free to drop me a line anytime..always nice to know other moz friends in the general area. cheers!
 
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