Collosseum, Essen, Germany24th November 2014
Morrissey & Anna Calvi
As probably there won’t be many chances to see the exceptional musician MORRISSEY anymore because of his severe health problems and one of his shows happened to take place in my city, I decided that I had to be willing to pay a fortune for a ticket as the tickets at the usual ticket stores were sold out quickly. This concert took place at the Collosseum Essen. The venue with a capacity of 1,500 guests was comfortably seated.
Anna Calvi
In her early childhood, the British musician ANNA CALVI learned violin and a bit later guitar. She finished her music studies with the focus on violin and guitar in 2003 and graduated with honours with a Bachelor of Arts in Music. After that she worked as a guitar teacher, giving private lessons in order to finance her music career. Since 2006 she performed with several bands as well as solo artist. Later she met multi-instrumentalist Mally Harpaz and drummer Daniel Maiden-Wood who are now part of her band, as well as Alex Reeves on keyboards and bass guitar for the live shows. Funnily enough although she started so young with playing instruments, she didn’t dare to sing earlier than in her twenties. But then she started to train her voice intensively. In 2010 she was supporting act for several bands like INTERPOL, THE ARCTIC MONKEYS and GRINDERMAN. She released her debut self- titled album in 2011 which was critically acclaimed. In 2013 her second album followed and the perception was similar positive. Her music cannot really be pigeonholed but you will find a fine blend of Alternative/ Indie Rock with some Blues elements in it. It’s dark, romantic and atmospheric. http://annacalvi.com / https://www.facebook.com/annacalvi
Music & Performance
I have to admit that, while feverishly purchasing the ticket, I didn’t care a lot who the supporting act is. But when I got sight of ANNA CALVI, I was really delighted as I have seen her just in March of this year for the first time. When she started to perform the venue was not filled but there were continuously people entering which was quite disturbing. Anyway people were missing a stunning performance of Anna who charmed us with her vocal quality and let her guitar speak. Multi – instrumentalist Mally Harpaz impressed with her wide variety as well. With her fantastic performance ANNA CALVI could convince the attendant audience for sure. For me she was the perfect choice of a supporting act for MORRISSEY.
Setlist
01. Suzanne & I
02. Eliza
03. Cry
04. Rider to the sea
05. Blackout
06. Suddenly
07. Surrender (ELVIS PRESLEY cover)
08. I’ll be your man
09. Desire
10. Love won’t be leaving
11. Jezebel (FRANKIE LAINE cover)
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 9
Light: 8
Total: 8.9 / 10
Morrissey
Charismatic, cynical, unpredictable, charming, brilliantly witty, blessed musician with a distinctive voice are the attributes that spring to my mind when thinking of MORRISSEY. He is surely a person who strongly polarises. A diplomatic attitude is not his thing. You love or hate him- there is no in between. It seems that he is a living contradiction. But one has to acknowledge that he with THE SMITHS as well as solo artist he influenced a lot of other musicians. In the early 80’s he was the flagship of the style forming and very successful Indie Rock band THE SMITHS. After the disbanding he started his changeable solo career and moved later to the USA. The main topics of his lyrics were about being an outsider, animal rights, unrequited love and polysemous sexuality. Self- deprecation and linguistic jokes are characteristic for his lyrics. https://www.facebook.com/Morrissey
Music & Performance
During the stage rebuilding music videos from the 60's to the 80's were displayed. Finally the curtain was opened and with a classical intro MORRISSEY entered together with his band the stage. A thunderous applause followed and now everyone was up ones seat. While his band appeared in elegant white suits, he wore a quite casual outfit: dark jeans trousers and a brown shirt. He started the show with 'Suedehead' and from this moment on he had the audience in his hands. We were all happily moving or dancing to the songs that were following. Though his latest album 'World peace is none of your business' was just launched a while ago, he didn't perform many songs of it but at least the title track. Though not really smiling, he took a bow after each song and shed an atmosphere of charm and nonchalance. And once more he proved to have some humour and irony as one fan shouted at him that it is great that he is here. At this point MORRISSEY laughed and answered that we never know what he'll be doing in the next 10 minutes.
When the intro of 'Trouble loves me' was played on the piano keyboard the crowd was cheering and clapping their hands and at 'How soon is now' the people were freaking out and of course everybody was singing along. Every now and then he shook hands with some fans standing in front of the stage. Naturally he introduced his band: Jesse Tobias (lead guitar, rhythm guitar), Boz Boorer (lead guitar, rhythm guitar), Mando Lopez (bass), Matt Walker (drums) and Gustavo Manzur (keyboard, percussion). Before he started with the next song he often said some words of introduction, making his (political) attitude clear like his despise for the Royal family, politicians like Margaret Thatcher and of course he attacks verbally fast food companies. And so he did before THE SMITHS's song 'Meat is murder' saying that he's not American and this week is “Thankskilling” which they call Thanksgiving. Of course he did not only used clear words with the lyrics but there was shown a heart-breaking video of suffering livestock in factory farming as well as the cruel killing there and in the slaughterhouses. Well, as being vegan myself I have seen such pictures and videos umpteen times. Nevertheless the suffering, fear and pain of the animals make me cry every time I see it. And thus it was no wonder that I was crying now, too.
After the next song MORRISSEY left the stage with his band except the drummer who finished with the last beats, before he left as well. Needless to say that the fans shouted for an encore and actually we would have got one as MORRISSEY and his band returned on stage and before he started with 'Every day is like Sunday', he thanked the audience, saying that he really enjoyed to perform here, when suddenly a group of people stormed the stage in a kind of flash mob. Apparently the security wasn't prepared though it's not unusual that fans enter the stage at MORRISSEY's concerts. Thus the song stopped dead after a few seconds and MORRISSEY and his band immediately rushed from the stage. You can imagine how furious we all were that such a wonderful concert ends this way only because some selfish idiots think it is great fun to act this way, even if we had so much 'luck' to enjoy almost a complete show. Anyway I'm very happy that I have seen MORRISSEY live at least one time. And now I hope that he instead of being grumpy and resigned, he gives his cancer a big kick in the butt!
Setlist
01. Classical intro
02. Suedehead
03. Staircase at the University
04. The Queen is dead (THE SMITHS song)
05. Kiss me a lot
06. I’m throwing my arms around Paris
07. World peace is none of your business
08. Skandinavia
09. Earth is the loneliest planet
10. Istanbul
11. One of your own
12. Trouble loves me
13. How soon is now? (THE SMITHS song)
14. Yes, I’m blind
15. Neal Cassidy drops dead
16. Kick the bride down the Aisle
17. Meat is murder (THE SMITHS song)
18. Speedway
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19. Every day is like Sunday (only a few seconds as the encore was ended abruptly by stage invaders)
Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 10
Sound: 9
Light: 8
Total: 9 / 10
All Pictures by morTICIA
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