Morrissey returns to Washington, DC, on Thursday, Oct. 15, bringing his Make-Up Is a Lie Tour to The Anthem at The Wharf.
The show arrives during an unusually active year for the former Smiths frontman. Morrissey released Make-Up Is a Lie in March, his 14th solo studio album, his first collection of new material in more than five years, and his first album for Sire/Warner Records in 30 years.
Produced by Joe Chiccarelli, whose credits include The Strokes, The White Stripes, Weezer, and My Morning Jacket, Make-Up Is a Lie was recorded at Studio La Fabrique in the Saint-Rémy-de-Provence region of southern France. The 12-song album features Morrissey alongside musicians including Jesse Tobias, Camila Grey, Carmen Vandenberg, Juan Galeano, Alain Whyte, Gustavo Manzur, and Brendan Buckley.
The record includes the title track, “Notre-Dame,” “The Monsters of Pig Alley,” “Kerching Kerching,” and “Zoom Zoom the Little Boy,” as well as Morrissey’s rendition of Roxy Music’s 1973 song “Amazona.”
Watch the official visualizer for “Make-Up Is a Lie” by Morrissey on YouTube:
Those new songs have already found their way onto the stage. At recent shows in Buffalo and Lowell, Morrissey mixed Make-Up Is a Lie material with highlights from throughout his solo career and his years with The Smiths. Recent sets have featured “First of the Gang to Die,” “Suedehead,” “Everyday Is Like Sunday,” and “Billy Budd,” alongside Smiths songs including “How Soon Is Now?,” “Shoplifters of the World Unite,” “I Know It’s Over,” and “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out.”
That makes the current tour more than simply a showcase for the new record. More than four decades after The Smiths released their debut single, “Hand in Glove,” Morrissey continues to pull from a catalog encompassing both the band’s brief but enormously influential run and a solo career that began with Viva Hate in 1988.
Make-Up Is a Lie adds another chapter to that catalog while putting Morrissey firmly back on the road — and Thursday’s Anthem appearance gives Washington fans their chance to hear where the new songs fit alongside some of his most enduring work.
Morrissey
The Anthem
Thursday, Oct. 15
Doors @ 6:30pm
$69.30
All ages
