Morrissey – Vicar St – Live Review – 15/07/23
by Killian Laher

The air was thick with anticipation for the first visit of Morrissey to Dublin in five years.  Or at least amongst his fans, it was.  By and large, ignored by mainstream media for his frankly objectionable views, Morrissey fans were at Vicar Street for one reason – to pay worship to Morrissey, presumably for his music.

His set was preceded by an overlong montage of movie clips and music, covering standard Morrissey obsessions, everything from the New York Dolls, James Baldwin, Sylvia Plath, the Stooges, Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand.  Eventually, the singer and his polished band arrived, and launched into The Smiths’ favourite How Soon Is Now? and the audience, understandably, went nuts.

With an odd bandage on his neck, Morrissey was mostly on form vocally, despite some odd grunting midsong.  It felt unusual at times watching Morrissey playing songs he must have played a thousand times, Suedehead and Everyday Is Like Sunday almost felt like cabaret.  Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before, although this one was a little muddy-sounding.  Of course, a Morrissey show is never just about the music, and the singer found time to complain that he has never been invited on Irish TV – ever! preceding an excellent rendition of Irish Blood, English Heart.  He’s clearly kept up with the RTÉ media frenzy.  There was plenty of new material from his two unreleased albums.  Notre Dame sounded impressive, singing “Notre Dame we will not be silent” to a backdrop of people putting their fingers to their lips.

The show was a visual feast, with video backdrops for each song, and plenty of New York Dolls photos.  He excelled on slower material such as My Hurling Days Are Done and the as-yet-unreleased Bonfire of Teenagers, another excellent new song reminiscent of Bowie’s 70s ballads.  It wasn’t ruined by the singer’s complaints that “record companies won’t release his music because I am an individual, they want everybody to be the same”.  Indeed.  By and large, it was not a morose but a celebratory night, epitomised by the mass singalong for The Smiths’ B-side Half A Person.  The set closer Jack the Ripper rounded off the set dramatically with lots of dry ice, before an encore of Sweet and Tender Hooligan which climaxed with Morrissey removing a t-shirt and tossing it into the crowd.

Much of Morrissey’s obsessions are old-fashioned, and, despite the diatribes, he is an old-fashioned entertainer, singing much-loved songs to an adoring audience.