Review: Morrissey Brings The Drama Showing up For Miami Fans

The audience that filled the lower levels of Hard Rock Live held their collective breaths on Thursday night to see whether the featured attraction would show up. Morrissey, the beloved singer and former frontman of the Smiths, has picked up a bad reputation for cancelling gigs on seemingly whimsical grounds. Five of his seven 2026 concerts thus far have been called off. Even this South Florida show was a makeup date for a cancelled May 2025 show.

Raising the tension over whether he would or would not show was the fact that, instead of having an opening band, Moz started off the evening’s festivities with a screening of vintage concert footage by artists who inspire him, from David Bowie to the New York Dolls to Gene Pitney. The videos seemed to go on forever until finally, a few minutes after 9 p.m., the lights dimmed. A five-piece backing band of two guitarists, a bassist, a drummer, and a keyboardist took the stage, followed by the man himself.

Morrissey’s hair was as impressively coiffed as ever, but of more interest to the subdued crowd was his voice. It sounded as terrific as you would have hoped. Even at 66, his voice hits that distinctive Morrissey timbre, fluctuating between a yodel and a croon, while emoting each syllable of his sensitive lyrics.  

After starting the show with “Billy Budd” and “Alma Matters”, Morrissey kind of addressed the plague of cancellations over the last week following an Oklahoma City show. “As I was saying in Oklahoma before I was rudely interrupted, you can’t always control your body.” He then got the night’s first true cheers as he sang “Suedehead”.

He introduced us to a new song, “Make-Up Is a Lie,” that he seemed especially hyped to perform.

He introduced “First of the Gang to Die” by stating, “I dedicate this song to the Dominican Republic with what’s left of my heart”. He was just as poetic in his between-song patter throughout the concert, saying, “The words of this song were just as true then as they are today,” before leading the band in a rousing rendition of the Smiths’ “How Soon Is Now?” Is it lazy criticism to say his best-known song was probably the highlight of the show? Regardless, it captured all the sonic majesty and drama you could have hoped for, with images of Bruce Lee performing a martial arts move projected in a constant loop on the giant screen.

“I Know It’s Over”, “Paint a Vulgar Picture”, and “Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me” were the only other Smiths songs he performed. But I suppose the five years the band existed were only a blip compared to Morrissey’s now-nearly 40-year solo career. He introduced us to a new song, “Make-Up Is a Lie,” that he seemed especially hyped to perform. It had a more futuristic dance-music feel, suggesting the new album out in March might be trying something a little different musically. 

Unlike most shows at Hard Rock Live, there was no camera crew providing close-up views of the performers for the back seats. Instead, the images on the screen showed twentieth-century pop culture figures repeating the same movements. It could be hypnotic or distracting trying to figure out what connection each limited image had to its corresponding song. As I write this, I’m poring over the lyrics of “How Soon Is Now?” still trying to figure out what Bruce Lee had to do with  “the son and the heir of a shyness that is criminally vulgar”.

Perhaps it’s best not to look too deeply into it. We had ninety minutes of Morrissey’s voice in fine form, which is more than most get these days.