I finally lost my Morrissey virginity last night in Greenville, SC after having missed him countless times over the years, and it was so well worth the wait. I was expecting a far less energetic performance for some reason (maybe since Ringleader of the Tormentors lacked the punch of You Are the Quarry). But his backing band, decked out in vests and bow ties, was shit-hot, and they absolutely tore it up live. I was honestly taken aback by how tight and aggressive the music was. Morrissey was in great form vocally, too. At first, I thought he was deliberately singing through his falsetto parts because he avoided them in “The Last of the Famous International Playboys” and “Interesting Drug”, but as the night wore on he became more experimental with his voice. The set mixed a fair amount of newer stuff with obvious Smiths classics and his own early hits (though both “Suedehead” and “Everyday is Like Sunday” were conspicuously missing). The highlight of the show was the dramatic segue between “Life Is a Pigsty” and “How Soon I Now?”, complete with an upside down Morrissey sprawled against some monitors. The guitar surge at the abrupt start of the latter ripped through the modern opera house like a pack of My Bloody Valentine guitars. This version is from his show in New York last week. Grown men still fight security to try to hug the man. It was a spectacle to behold, especially when the whole front row charged en mass during the encore, “The Last of the Gang to Die.” Unsurprisingly, Morrissey did not return to the stage.