Dallas Steven Patrick Morrissey -- eternally petulant, eternally snide -- simply drifted away, mid-verse, as the band continued pounding out The First of the Gang to Die behind him.
From a few rows back, it wasn't exactly clear Thursday what was vexing him so in the pit, at the foot of the stage in McFarlin Auditorium on the Southern Methodist University campus. Yet, intentionally or not, that distracted drift became symbolic of much of the evening which, even more maddeningly, began with such promise.
Ever the cad, Morrissey (looking quite dapper) walked on stage and intoned, "We are here ... to occupy Dallas!" and lit into the Smiths' I Want the One I Can't Have. The set list was weighted towards Morrissey's solo material, although a handful of Smiths tunes roused considerable cheers from the not-quite-sold-out crowd.
Backed by an ace five-piece band (all sporting "McCruelty" t-shirts, all looking at least two decades younger than the lead singer), the marvelously contemptuous Morrissey took the audience on an erratic, 90-minute journey with more valleys than peaks, although, to be fair, those peaks were incredible: The one-two punch of Meat is Murder and Everyday is Like Sunday (the former playing out over PETA's infamous short film Meet Your Meat); a gorgeously rendered cover of Lou Reed's Satellite of Love and the penultimate track, an aching take on the Smiths' I Know It's Over.
But the famously eccentric, preening singer-songwriter never locked into a groove. The night had a maddening stop-start quality that stifled any mood almost as soon as it was generated. He's in the middle of a short American run, a tune-up before heading south of the border for a series of dates in Mexico. So, perhaps part of the reason for the off-sync night was merely that Morrissey and the band were still fine-tuning the set list (a mix of songs from the tour's first two shows) and feeling out the flow.
Certainly, Morrissey's trademark barbed bon mots will need a little polishing; the most wicked thing he uttered all night was, all things being equal, sorta tame: He equated the current field of Republican presidential candidates to the elderly characters in the '80s sci-fi flick Cocoon.
Still, the 52-year-old Englishman remains in fine voice, ably hitting his upper register and, particularly on I Know It's Over, making the years melt away. The most damning assessment of Thursday's concert remains, however: it was merely adequate. For an artist who not only carries himself in high regard (ironically or not), but expects the audience to likewise consider him peerless, it makes for a most frustrating evening. Morrissey has always made it difficult to love him unconditionally, but it shouldn't be this hard.
Set list
1. I Want the One I Can't Have
2. You Have Killed Me
3. You're the One For Me
4. Black Cloud
5. People Are the Same Everywhere
6. First of the Gang to Die
7. Maladjusted
8. Ouija Board, Ouija Board
9. Action is My Middle Name
10. Meat is Murder
11. Everyday is Like Sunday
12. Speedway
13. Throwing My Arms Around Paris
14. All the Lazy Dykes
15. Satellite of Love
16. Scandinavia
17. I Know It's Over
Encore
18. Still Ill
