Morrissey observations.

(I'm a-postin' this in a couple places 'cause I find it so interesting).

So. For my birthday this last weekend, my wife took me to the Morrissey show at the Palladium here in LA. There were a few phenomenons at the show that I found very intriguing.

1. First off, who do you think is the main demographic for Morrissey fans? If you said "30-something ex-losers who, in high school, wore cardigan sweaters and horn rimmed glasses" (aka ME) you would be 100% WRONG. About 80% of Morrissey's audience at the show on Saturday night were under-30 *hispanics*. Specifically, under-30 hispanic ROCKABILLY KIDS with pompadours and vintage tuxedo coats. And I'm not talking about 40, 50 of 'em -- I'm taking HUNDREDS. The place was packed, and it's a pretty large venue -- and it was 80% hispanic, and around 80% *young people*.

2. The place was elbow-to-elbow JAM PACKED despite it being one of TEN shows the man is doing in Los Angeles.

3. Here's the most interesting thing. His set consisted of about 80% material from his last two albums, "Ringleader of the Tormentors" and "You Are The Quarry." He threw in a few key older songs and one or two Smiths songs as well. But oddly? The majority of fans seemed most interested in the NEWER material! They sang along to every song, LOUDLY, even the very newest ones (well -- not the BRAND newest ones that aren't on an album yet, but you know what I mean). Is that true of any other 80s act, where if they showed up and played a completely non-nostalgic show, the people would go the most nuts for his MOST RECENT STUFF?

4. Also: it was an INCREDIBLE show. Clean livin's probably to answer for it, but the man has lost not *one iota* of vocal power. He still sounds exactly like he did when he was in his 20s. *BETTER*, in fact. And apparently he's on Letterman or one of, as he said, "your talk shows" this week playing his new single which is absolutely phenomenal. It was also the only show I've seen in a long long LONG time where the girls literally SCREAMED for him. SCREAMED.

5. Didn't much miss Johnny Marr. Boz Boorer, his guitarist, is remarkable, and plays with wit and verve, which is more than I can say for the Oasis-obsessed Marr these days. Plah!

Anyway -- it was kinda awesome, as a fan, to see him operating at such a high level AND to see that he's somehow found a completely new crowd who loves and adores him!