"Kunst, Kunst, Kunst" Morrissey @ Palladium, Cologne
How do you review a gig of a person that has been reviewed a thousand times over the course of 30 years? How do you describe the indescribable experience to other people? Here goes me attempting to do exactly that.
On Thursday, 1st October, the time was finally there. Despite only arriving about an hour before doors opened, I catched a rather good spot at the front. For there were 50-year-old die-hard fans from England, who have queued since 5 in the morning, there wouldn't have been a point for me to arrive earlier anyways. It all had a One Direction reunion concert in 30 years time vibe to it.
As expected, there wasn't a support act for the living legend, but I was fine with that. Instead, at 8pm, we got shown a thirty minute long video of different performances of various acts, mostly from the 70s or earlier. I for my part would've been okay with them only showing Ramones, but an old lady reading some kind of poetry out loud was interesting too.
At 8.30 pm Morrissey quietly and almost unnoticeably walked on stage, just as you'd expect him to. I couldn't stop grinning once I saw his famous pained expression, it's not a faux, he actually does always look like he's suffering. He opened the show with the words "Kunst, Kunst, Kunst" which means "art" in German. From that moment on I knew, this was where I was supposed to be.
What I and many more have noticed was that he was in a surprisingly good mood. He smiled a lot at no one in particular, cracked a few jokes every now and again and embraced everyone who tried to jump on stage with open arms.
Yet, one thing was clear: Morrissey tried to get his political message across, and he succeeded. We all know his infamous Meat Is Murder video so I was able to prepare myself emotionally for that one, but I didn't expect a video showing police brutality or memes of the British monarchy. Everything fit somehow, and I already declared a few years ago that I'm not questioning his kind of activism anymore, so I blankly accepted how he used Hebrew letters while mentioning the Holocaust in his video of dying animals.
He didn't play many crowd pleasers, I think he wanted to make the gig more about him, but that's what we know and love him for.
My favourite song of the evening must have been You Have Killed Me, for it felt like the air got lighter, the people got nicer and Morrissey got more lighthearted, it was incredible to watch.
After finishing The Queen Is Dead, with a picture of the Lizard woman showing her middle fingers appearing on the big screen behind, various 50-year-olds took the chance and jumped over the barrier in hopes to reach Mozza. While both me and the security were seemingly scared of the health of those aged rebels, I must admit it gave the whole room a carefree feeling.
Morrissey was on top of it and I'm more than thankful he gave me the opportunity to witness him live. Now, all my wounds are healed. I'm glad he brought band-aids.
