2 February 2000
Roseland Theater, Portland, OR

The Boy Racer
Tomorrow
Reader Meet Author
Hairdresser On Fire
November Spawned A Monster
Lost
Half A Person
Speedway
A Swallow On My Neck
Break Up the Family
Meat Is Murder
Alma Matters
Is It Really So Strange?
The Teachers Are Afraid Of the Pupils
I Can Have Both
Now My Heart Is Full
/Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
This concert was probably the best of the first week of this leg. Morrissey was very playful and sexy and he constantly joked with the audience. The fans were very receptive and sang along to their favourite songs.

All songs from the setlist bar the bookends were scrambled, and in the process "Shoplifters Of The World Unite" and "Heir Apparent" were replaced by "Lost" and "Now My Heart Is Full", both played for the first time in 2000.

Morrissey came on stage shouting "Stand up and be counted!". After set opener "The Boy Racer" he properly greeted his fans with "...and welcome to a night of depressing folk songs!". After "Tomorrow" he asked someone in the audience "I'm very impressed with your t-shirt, where the hell did you get your t-shirt from? Oh, from me! I should've known!... From me..." After a pause he asked someone else who was handing him a gift "What's wrong? Why are you screaming? Oh, thank you..."

Morrissey was very playful with "Reader Meet Author". He changed the line "he says: no one really sees me when I cry" to "you see, no one really knows how are I try" and sang "books aren't drugs and knives", "you'd be the first away because you're very middle class" and "have you ever escaped from a pointless life?" At the end of the song he flexed a bicep and exclaimed "Oh my God!". He then joked "As you know tonight is sponsored by MTV... who take a particular interest in everything I do... that was a joke..."

During the opening bars of "Lost" Morrissey commented on how he didn't think people knew the song. After it was done he said "I completely understand why you're screaming because if I saw me in a club I'd probably scream... and run... just kidding..." He then introduced "Half A Person" with "This song you're too young to remember, and I'm too old to forget it." After "Half A Person" he said "My trousers keep falling down I'm sure it's something to do with the (?) that I have... it's a good sign..."

Following "Speeway" Morrissey asked someone "Are you alright? Do you need a sandwich or anything? Tea? Would you like some tea? Oh it won't take long, it won't take long... (then to someone who handed him a book) thanks, this is something I really need." There were sound problems during "Break Up The Family". As was customary in that song Morrissey changed a line to "I want to be with my friends tonight" but he followed this with the comment "Oh, I see you are... forget it!"

"Meat Is Murder" was introduced with "Now I know statistics are really boring but... every year 10 billion non-humans are murdered in the United States and... it never makes the news, it never makes the Maury Show... but somebody cares...". After the song he said "It's okay, I know I'll never be as culturally significant as Beck, but I'm trying..." After "Alma Matters" he returned to the subject of Beck: "You realise you're missing Law And Order... and it's very good tonight as well... Beck is in it..." Someone shouted "Fuck Beck!" and without missing a beat the singer replied "No thanks..."

In "The Teachers Are Afraid Of the Pupils" Morrissey jokingly sang "to be Finnish would be a relief / to be Swedish would be a relief". After the song he commented on his body again: "It's not such a bad body when you consider that I'm actually 62... and I'm not joking!". When he was done with his vocal part in "I Can Have Both" he repeated many times "...and it's true... it's very true... It's true, it's true! It's so true... It's completely true... I don't believe it, it's true!"

Before going into "Now My Heart Is Full" Morrissey announced "Boz said we're ready, so that means we're ready..." The reason why he was checking up on Boz is that this was going to be the live debut of a new arrangement for that song. It started with a slow acoustic intro over which Morrissey sang softly until halfway through when the band switched to electric. Morrissey also updated it with many new lyric changes. He sang "just some rain coated lover's sisters", "Anthony Newley raised to wait", "now this heart is full" and "loafing oafs in all-night pharmacies". He also did some previously heard changes such as "every jammy Stretford poet". Morrissey would drop this new arrangement and returned to it a few weeks down the road.

When he returned for the encore Morrissey announced "In 10 minutes I'll be in the lobby selling t-shirts and home-made jam" and introduced the last song with "This is for all the sailors of Portland".

 


A good audience recording of the complete set minus the encore is available on bootleg compact discs as well as in digital format on the internet.

 

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