Live music review: Johnny Marr solo at Paper Tiger was brilliant underplay

Johnny Marr took a quick break from his opening duties, supporting The Killers on the US leg of their global trek, for a solo performance at San Antonio’s Paper Tiger on Tuesday night with his band. Why San Antonio one might ask? Maybe Marr’s in-tune enough with his fan base to know if he sets foot on stage in SA there will be folks lining up at the door long before the show to be entertained by the legend. For a venue that caps around 200 people, it was a brilliant underplay by promoter, Resound Presents.

And yes, Johnny Marr is legend. Sure he stamped his presence on the burgeoning alt/indie-rock scene of the ‘80s with his band The Smiths but, he’s one of the hardest working, most sought after part-time guitar players/band members, studio session player, and successful solo artist of the past few decades. At the prime age of 58, Marr has spent his career as a member of numerous bands like The Pretenders, Modest Mouse, The The, The Cribs, and Electronic aside from his [sic] meager little band The Smiths. He has also been summoned by some of the most iconic artists ever to put grooves in vinyl including The Pet Shop Boys, Talking Heads, Bryan Ferry, and Hans Zimmer. So, the opportunity to see Johnny Fucking Marr in a venue like Paper Tiger always seems like the right thing to do…even if you aren’t familiar with his solo work. 

Marr took to the stage as anyone would expect a true working professional artist would and kicked right into opening track “Armatopia” bouncing around the stage as if he was still in the early stages of his career, wild-eyed, confident, and eager. Despite rising through the ranks of the music industry and holding court with dignitaries of the scene, Marr is grounded when performing, even in a small barn-like shed of a venue in the middle of Texas.

Early on, Marr connected with the audience with a recount of his last visit to San Antonio while later jokingly inquiring about the audience smoking “marijuana”. The set list for the evening speaks to Marr and his band’s working knowledge of how to maintain and entertain a crowd, who mostly gravitated towards Marr’s earlier work with The Smiths, with a well timed track list that raised the tempo when needed and stirred everyone’s attention in the direction of their performance.

The band worked an early crowd-pleaser into the performance with “Panic” by The Smiths followed by selections from a couple of Marr’s solo recordings Fever Dreams Pts1-4 and The Messenger. “Sensory Street” and “Power and Soul” feel Marr channeling his time in Electronic with New Order’s Bernard Sumner. That being said, the band knocked out of the park, their version of “Getting Away With It” midway through the set, leaving one to not even consider Sumner not being present. A perfect transition into one of Marr’s more musically diverse, almost ambient exploratory tracks “Walk Into The Sea” from 2018’s Call The Comet followed.

The second half of the set was just as well executed as the first, spending sufficient time with selections from his extensive catalog, sampling from each journey of Marr’s career but balanced enough to maintain a captive audience. A somewhat unexpected and curious cover of Depeche Mode’s “I Feel You” surfaced following one of Marr’s shiniest solo works “Hi Hello”. Marr has all the rock star moves down to perfection yet each movement, fan interaction, and facial expression felt as honest and joyful as rock and roll should feel. Even some of the comments he made surrounding the handful of The Smiths “expected” tracks were calculated to drive audience participation. An energy driven, extended version of “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” complete with the audience taking over vocal duties as a summoned choir of devotees, saw the band thanking the audience after and exiting the stage. 

But, we all know how this ends…

Hint: One of the most iconic guitar sounds to ever be recorded. A song from the ‘80s. That’s the track they finished the set off with when they came back for an encore. You had to know it was coming…everyone else did.

You can see Johnny Marr on the road with The Killers for the next couple of months in the US. The tour ends October 12.

All photos by Michael Maly

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