11 July 2009
Vienna (Austria), Gasometer

This Charming Man
I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
Black Cloud
How Soon Is Now?
Irish Blood, English Heart
Ask
I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris
Girlfriend In A Coma
When Last I Spoke To Carol
Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
Let Me Kiss You
One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell
Life Is A Pigsty
The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores
Sorry Doesn't Help
Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want
The Loop
I'm OK By Myself
/First Of The Gang To Die
Morrissey looked somewhat weary and exhausted and now and then he struggled with his voice, but he was still overall in a good mood and this show was generally well appreciated by attendees. The struggle with his voice got worse as the show progressed. This may be the reason why he was slightly less talkative than usual, and also why the following two dates scheduled in Rimini, Italy were cancelled. The crowd was appreciative but not demonstrative.

The setlist was slightly resequenced, and in the process "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself", "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" and "Sorry Doesn't Help" returned, at the expense of "Billy Budd", "That's How People Grow Up" and "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby".

Morrissey's greeting line as he picked up the microphone and right before the band launched into set opener "This Charming Man" was the question "Will anything happen?". Halfway into "Irish Blood, English Heart", as he sang the "standing by the flag" line, he pulled a St. George flag out of his pocket, waved it around for a few seconds, then threw it into the audience. After the song he responded to the crowd's loud cheers by saying "You are very welcome..." Besides the usual lyric changes in "Ask", he also extended a line to "If it's not love, then it's the bomb that will bring us together, apparently". In "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris" he sang "In the absence of your smiling face, I zoom all over the place". He followed that song's final line "yes you've made yourself very plain" with the comment "as plain as day..."

Following "Girlfriend In A Coma" Morrissey proceeded with the introduction of the band: "Would like to say hello to the five and only, Boz Boorer... the bass player is quite good, Solomon Walker... the drummer is not bad, Matt Walker... always, always on the fiddle, Jesse Tobias... on the piano, ever watchful, Kristopher Pooley... and I am a dark shadow, and I just sail (points left and right) from that country to that country, to that country, to that country... and where does it gets me?" Besides the usual lyric changes in "When Last I Spoke To Carol" he also sang "I've hammered a smile across this pathetic face of mine". After the song he accepted someone's gift and said "From Warsaw with love..."

Morrissey pulled out an old discarded lyric change in "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself" as he sang "Some men here, they have a special interest in that thing, your career". Over the ending of that song a fan in the front row gave Morrissey a 7" single of "Pomme Pomme Pomme" from Monique Melsen, a song he was known to love. The singer looked really impressed and was heard saying "wow" a few times. After the end of the song he headed towards the drum rise where he usually puts the fans' gifts, but then changed his mind and went to the microphone instead, and said: "I've just been given this beautiful gift (holds the record up) of 'Pomme Pomme Pomme' by Monique Melsen and I'm thrilled to death (pretends to sob) I might cry... However (looks at the back of the record)... wow... wow... Wow! Is this really for me? (takes the record out of its sleeve and jokes) Is it scratched?"

After the line "and once again I turn to you" in "Life Is A Pigsty", Morrissey pointed at someone and said "you!" He creatively bridged the gap from "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores" to "Sorry Doesn't Help" by saying "The world is full of crashing bores and sorry doesn't help..." He made gagging sounds after the latter number's opening line "sorries pour out of you", probably because he was not happy about how his voice had just failed. The crowd loudly sang along with him to the beautiful "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want". His parting words before encore "First Of The Gang To Die" were "We have been in 58 countries in the last 2 weeks so thanks for your patience and I'm just relieved that I made it through the night without any reference to that horrible song by Ultravox..." The song he was actually making a reference to was the early 1980s Ultravox hit titled "Vienna".

 


There are two different audience recordings of this concert out there. Both features the full set. The best of the two was recorded by wzbw88 and sounds almost as good as a soundboard recording. The other one, recorded by the Louder Than Bootlegs team, sounds good but not above average. It is generally circulated with artwork under the simple title "Vienna".

 

Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.