Las Vegas(NV), Pearl Concert Theater
First Of The Gang To DieThis concert was an excellent one. Morrissey was in superb form, in fact it might have been one of his best performances on this tour. He playfully changed a record number of lines in his songs. He was very talkative, but unlike previous dates on this tour he didn't chat with other fans in the front rows besides his favourite one Julia. The audience was generally receptive and appreciative. There were quite a few attempts by fans to make it on stage, but most were unsuccessful.
The Last Of The Famous International Playboys
Whatever Happens, I Love You
You Have Killed Me
Disappointed
In The Future When All's Well
Let Me Kiss You
That's How People Grow Up
The National Front Disco
Ganglord
Everyday Is Like Sunday
Panic
Irish Blood, English Heart
The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side
I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
All You Need Is Me
Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
I've Changed My Plea To Guilty
How Soon Is Now?
/The Queen Is Dead
The setlist was completely resequenced. The usual set opener "The Queen Is Dead" was moved down to the encore slot, while the usual encores "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" and "You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side" were moved up. In the process "I Will See You In Far Off Places", "Girlfriend In A Coma", "Life Is A Pigsty" and "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" were dropped. "Panic" returned, but most interestingly, Morrissey introduced "Whatever Happens, I Love You", a song that he hadn't done live since 1995.
When he entered stage Morrissey shook a few hands in the front rows, then stood there looking pensive before picking up the microphone and greeting the audience by syaing "I am ready to rant and rave..." In set opener "First Of The Gang To Die" he changed a line to "You have never been in love until you've had me down by the reservoirs". Besides the usual changes in "The Last Of The Famous International Playboys" he also sang "In our lifetime those who kill CNN hands them stardom". The returning and unexpected "Whatever Happens, I Love You" was introduced with the line "You do realize, don't you, that whatever happens I love you". In the song Morrissey changed a line to "We wore each other's clothes" as he always did in 1995. After the song he half-apologetically said "You can call it experimental jazz or really you can call it whatever you like to... we won't be offended!"
At the beginning of "You Have Killed Me" Morrissey emphasised "Pasolini is me, yes me! Me!" Further into the song he took the usual live change "What the hell's my life for!" to "What the hell is this body for!" The usual live change "who am I that I come to be standing here" was replaced with "Who am I that I'm walking across this stage". After that song Morrissey added to its final line "I forgive you" the comment "Err, I forgive most of you (makes a 'however' face)... there's one or two of you, it will take days, it will take days..." Most of the usual live changes in "Disappointed" were taken further on this date. Morrissey sang "your friends and your foes, they'd rather kill themselves than have to sleep with you", "young boy (bends to some fan) has to be you, I wanna help you, but I can't!", "see this face, I'm truly disappointed", "don't talk to me anymore about people who are nice because I have lived my whole life, in tears, because of people who are nice" and "oh this world it does lack style I know".
"In The Future When All's Well" was introduced with the declaration "I have a very very silly dream and it's quite pathetic... in fact it's very pathetic... it's called 'In The Future When All's Well'... promise!" After the song Morrissey introduced his musicians: "You are about to witness being fired from a cannon... Boz Boorer... Solomon Walker..." At this point, while everyone's attention was elsewhere, a roadie discreetly tried to remove something that had been thrown on stage by a fan, but Morrissey saw him and introduced him as if he was in the band: "Charlie Brown... Solomon's identical twin, Matt Walker... the identical triplet, Jesse Tobias... nobody's child, Michael Farrell... that wasn't funny... but I'll say it tomorrow!"
Before going into new composition "That's How People Grow Up" Morrissey announced "On the 25th of this month we appear on your David Letterman show where we will sing this song which is called... which is called 'That's How People Grow Up'..." The song was very well received by the audience, but Morrissey still self-deprecatingly followed it with the request "Just give it time, give it time... time..." Over the opening bar of "The National Front Disco" he said "I'm being censored!... So what!" After the song he said "So you see, it's very sophisticated, it's a very sophisticated evening..."
In "Ganglord" Morrissey changed a line to "wanting me to break their silly laws" and then "begging me to break their laws". Further into the song he sang "don't worry, just remember, the police they can always be bribed... right!" At the time he usually changed lines at the end of that song to "get your
After "Irish Blood, English Heart" Morrissey simply said "Every song has its place..." Before "You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side" he motioned for someone to throw his shirt his way, the fan did, and Morrissey put the gift on the drum rise. Then during the song he motioned for someone else to do the same, and this time he tucked the shirt into the top of his trousers so that it hung in front of his legs like an apron, displaying it's MEXICO image. Over the opening notes of the song Morrissey shouted something that sounded like but wasn't quite "It's the Moz crew!... Moz crew..." Following the song he said "You're gonna need someone on your side, however, it doesn't mean you're gonna find anybody... it just means you need somebody... there's the statement, there's the statement..."
As an introduction to "All You Need Is Me" Morrissey announced "I would like to tell you something that's extremely humorous... all you need is me..." In that song he slightly extended a line to "You bang your head against the wall and say you're sick to death of it all". As an addendum to the song's final line "you're gonna miss me when I'm gone" Morrissey told the audience "On the other hand, you might not..." In live performances of "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" at the time Morrissey usually changed a line to "let me have who I want this time", but on this date he took it to "let me have who I want tonight!". So far on this tour Morrissey had been bridging "Life Is A Pigsty" to "How Soon Is Now?" with a bit of Auld Lang Syne played by Michael on the keyboard. However on this date "Life Is A Pigsty" was dropped from the setlist so instead "I've Changed My Plea To Guilty" segued into the traditional folk song which in turn segued into "How Soon Is Now?".
When he came back to the stage for the encore Morrissey's final words to the audience were "You've been fantastically kind and... I wish I could stay, but I have an appointment at midnight with a mortician... but thank you and travel safely..." In keeping with the beginning of the show Morrissey improvised many changes to his words in encore "The Queen Is Dead" besides the ones he usually did. He sang "So I checked all the registed historical facts and was very amazed to discover how I'm the 18th pale descendant of some old queen, I'm not sure" and "some 9-year old tough peddles drugs I said no thank you my dear boy, thank you..." Near the end of the song Morrissey interrupted his singing on and off to shake hands and help people get on stage, but still found a way to sing "life is very long when you're lonely, trust me, I know..."
The audio was ripped from this video recording and has made it on the internet. An alternate fanmade audio recording is also out there, it is credited to Julian, but it is unlistenable and is not really shared at this point in time. But then, given the existence of the DVD audio mentioned above, this inferior recording is not really essential, except perhaps to completists.
Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.
"That's How People Grow Up" recorded on this date was supposedly offered as official download at the time of release of that song as a single, in early 2008. Otherwise unavailable live versions of "Irish Blood, English Heart" and "First Of The Gang To Die" from this date were given away by registering with the official "It's Morrissey's World webpage during the weeks preceding the release of Morrissey's "Greatest Hits" compilation. 
A rather good video recording of the concert is traded on DVDs and is found in digital format on the internet (recorder: Drifter). This was filmed from the balcony, right of center, and features many good steady close-ups of Morrissey or his musicians. Given the quality of Morrissey's performance on this date this is arguably the most interesting fanmade visual bootleg of this tour.