Johnny Marr at the Stone Pony

Johnny Marr's latest effort Playland is a disappointment. There's no use in sugarcoating it. Marr, of course, is a legend -- an icon -- and nothing he does can damage his iconic status in the pantheon of musical greatness. His songwriting partnership with Morrissey yielded a bumper crop of timeless material. But his output as a solo artist is far more inconsistent -- many of his guitar licks feel less than innovative and his songwriting and lyrics just don't measure up. And nowhere has that been more evident than Friday night at the -- similarly iconic -- Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

I'll get back to Marr in a minute but first, about the Stone Pony. I had never seen a show there. It's not a large room and the stage is just a platform on one side. It's so unassuming that there are signs warning patrons not to put personal belongings on the stage, and that includes their drinks. There's also no backstage. There's a stage door that leads to the sidewalk outside and that's where the performers come in before going on stage. Also, the roadies and techs are all right there in a penned off area between that stage door and the stage itself.

We staked out a good location on the side along that pen. We had a clear shot of the stage door, and a very good view of the stage. So around 10pm, in came Marr's band followed by Marr himself. They started with the rather forgettable title track from the new record before launching into "Panic", the first of six Smiths songs. Again, I felt that watching Marr do Smiths songs was totally natural. Sure, he didn't sing on the originals or write the lyrics, but it's his music and seeing Marr do them is as close as we'll come to seeing the Smiths reunite. (It just won't happen.)

After "Panic" was "The Right Thing Right" from the last record -- which is one of Marr's better solo tracks, and the catchy albeit uninspired new single "Easy Money". The new stuff just felt soulless in comparison to the Smiths material, which still crackled after 30 years.

There were a couple of nice touches: He paired two songs about schooling "New Town Velocity" and "The Headmaster Ritual" and he again played Electronic's "Getting Away With It" -- calling it a song about his hometown of Manchester. He paid tribute to the Stone Pony itself by talking about how, growing up in England in the mid-'70s he would hear about it as Bruce Springsteen was coming up and said it was an honor to play on the same stage. And -- of course -- he finished his 15-song first set with "How Soon is Now?" which still sounds better than most anything else out there.

After a quick break, Marr and the band came back out for "Still Ill" - a Smiths song I hadn't previously heard him do - as well as "I Fought the Law" and the show closer "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" which he dedicated to Bruce Springsteen (and everyone in the crowd.)

Overall, it was an enjoyable show. But I came away with the distinct feeling that the Smiths were such a good band that nothing Marr does now can come close to his former greatness. And I was left with a tinge of wistfulness for the Smiths reunion that will never happen.