Morrissey in the 3Arena on 1st December 2014

The larger-than-life personality that is Morrissey performed at the 3Arena last night in support of his latest album ‘World Peace Is None Of Your Business’. The former Smiths frontman has recently announced that he has received treatment for cancer, and has been plagued with various health issues in recent years. His current tour has run into difficulty  elsewhere, with a concert in Poland ending early after Morrissey was insulted by a fan. We were keen to see if Morrissey could stir up any controversy this evening.

The Queen Is Dead marks an aggressive start, with an image of the Queen raising the middle finger hovering over the band as Morrissey croons over the clamouring guitars. His vocals are in fine fettle tonight and his cynical sneers are very much to the fore throughout the evening. Suedehead follows the brash opening number, and the distortion is cleaned up for this sleeker number. Again Morrissey pours great emotion into the performance with the vocals bristling with a provocotive arrogance.

Tracks from the new album dominate the main part of the set, a slightly surprising move considering the volume of classics he has to fall back on. Fortunately tracks like World Peace Is None Of Your Business, Istanbul and The Bullfighter Dies are up there with the very best of his work. The biting chorus of the latter is a particularly vicious put-down of those who partake in the sport and Morrissey thrives when attacking someone or something. Still, a few older tracks interspersed with the new material may have helped in providing some variety in the set, and with ‘World Peace Is None Of Your Business’ accounting for ten tracks, the show began to lose some momentum.

Any questions that the show was faltering were quickly put to rest in typical Morrissey fashion. With a powerful performance of Meat Is Murder accompanying some highly graphic footage of animal abuse, Morrissey shocked and unsettled the crowd with this intense track. Feeding off this stunned atmosphere, the singer rips into a powerful version of Mountjoy, before delivering a chilling rendition of the peaceful Asleep, the perfect culmination to the emotionally charged mood initiated by the brutally frank Meat Is Murder. The catchy Everyday Is Like Sunday ensures that the show goes out on a triumphant note. The new record is shoved down our throats a bit too much tonight, especially since the record is still too fresh in our minds to be fully digested yet, but through some shocking gimmicks Morrissey created a very unique atmosphere and that is perhaps the key thing to achieve for any show