Johnny Marr at Irving Plaza

It was probably two songs into Johnny Marr's set last night at Irving Plaza that I realized I had died and gone to heaven. I was hearing "Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before" -- a Smiths song being played by a Smith.

"Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before" is one of the strongest songs off the Smiths last studio record Strangeways Here We Come. But I associate it very closely with Morrissey, perhaps because the video features the Moz and a bunch of lookalikes riding bikes around Manchester. Last night -- at least for me -- it became a Johnny Marr song.

The Smiths aren't coming back. There won't be a reunion -- the personalities are too strong, the divisions too deep. So that leaves the 40-something Smiths fan with two choices: Morrissey or Marr. Whose stamp is more important on the Smiths? Obviously, they were equally important. But would you rather hear Morrissey sing with a backing band that can't handle the sublime guitar parts that made the Smiths shine? Or would you rather go straight to the source, and see Johnny Marr?

For me the answer was easy. And my incredibly high expectations were more than met at last night's show. Marr's guitar work, of course, was as fantastic as ever -- even better than the studio albums would lead you to believe. And as a frontman, he's surprisingly good, with a genuine, rock star cool that doesn't come off as affected or cheesy. He kicked off with "The Right Stuff Right" and played a lot of his new solo album The Messenger, culminating in my song of the year so far, "New Town Velocity".

But it was the Smiths tracks -- "Stop Me", "Bigmouth Strikes Again", "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out", "London" and, of course, "How Soon is Now?" -- that really got the crowd going.

Marr handled the Smiths songs very well. His voice doesn't have the character of Morrissey's -- for better or worse -- but he sung them well. And therein lies the inherent conundrum in all of this: What does Marr think when he sings Morrissey's words? He didn't tip his cap to his erstwhile partner the whole night, which, considering how nice a guy he seems to be, was, at least to me, a surprise. But then again, it's Marr's music, so he has every right to take ownership of it. And I'm sure Morrissey's not thinking about Marr when his band plays Marr's music.



Anyway, the set had a few surprises: A cover of the Crickets' "I Fought the Law" (played faithfully to the Clash version) and two Electronic songs -- "Forbidden City" and a terrific guitar version of "Getting Away With It."

The show also surprised me culturally. Sure, the crowd was largely older -- lots of guys in their 40s, many with thinning hair. But there was a good crop of younger kids, too, and it's good to see them turn out for a guy who has influenced so much indie music over the past 20 years. One side note: there was an older Miami Vice looking guy and his equally older girlfriend or wife standing near me and I overheard them talking before the show about how no one in the crowd "listened to [The Smiths] the way we did" and that the "kids" in the crowd can't possibly be true fans like them. And then to prove they were the assholes I suspected them to be, the guy got into a shoving match with someone as the show got underway. Nice.