Johnny Marr brought his career-spanning Playland tour to Montreal (review, photos & setlist)

All photos courtesy of Vitor Munhoz (http://www.vitormunhoz.com/).

For years, Johnny Marr set out to distance himself from his groundbreaking work with The Smiths. As the influential guitarist and co-songwriter behind some of the most beloved songs of the last thirty years, it would have been easy for Marr to coast along on that legacy. However, Marr is a restless sort, more concerned with looking forwards than backwards. After spending time in a diverse set of bands over the years, including a recent long stint with Modest Mouse, Marr emerged as a solo artist with 2013’s The Messenger, a sharp burst of anthemic buzz pop, replete with his signature swirling guitar sound. Just over a year later, Marr has returned with Playland, a follow-up album even more urgent and energetic than its predecessor.

Marr’s Playland tour brought him to Montreal for his first time as a solo artist, and the predominantly middle-aged crowd seemed overjoyed at his mere appearance. Marr has been incorporating a number of Smiths songs into his set on this tour, and his Montreal stop was no exception. He would cycle through his new solo material and then suddenly drop in a deep Smiths cut like “Still Ill,” all of which were greeted with arena-worthy crowd sing-alongs. Given that The Smiths were last here in 1986, and Morrissey about a decade later, this was likely the first time many in the crowd were able to hear these songs live. Thankfully, Marr is still producing exciting work, so while the new songs couldn’t deliver the impact of a song many in the crowd had grown up with, they still provided an exciting through-line for the night.

“There Is a Light That Never Goes Out,” closed out the show with one of the loudest crowd sing-alongs in recent memory. Marr wisely stepped away from the mic for the chorus each time, seemingly acknowledging that the song now belongs to the fans as much as, if not more so, than him. The entire show was a perfect example of rock showmanship, offering up a potent blend of nostalgia, while demonstrating that this new era of Marr’s career shows no signs of slowing down.

Check out photos from the show courtesy of Vitor Munhoz, along with the setlist, below. If you missed it, you can also check out our recent podcast with Marr here.

Setlist

Playland
Panic  (The Smiths song)
The Right Thing Right
Easy Money
25 Hours
New Town Velocity
The Headmaster Ritual (The Smiths song)
Back in the Box
Speak Out Reach Out
Generate! Generate!
The Messenger
Bigmouth Strikes Again (The Smiths song)
Boys Get Straight
Candidate
Getting Away with It (Electronic song)
How Soon Is Now?  (The Smiths song)

Encore:

Still Ill  (The Smiths song)
Dynamo
I Fought the Law  (The Crickets cover)
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out (The Smiths song)