Night+Day

tuesday
october 7
Viva Hate If there's one song that sums up Morrissey's musical career, it's "Girlfriend in a Coma." Actually, "The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get" might be an even better way to describe the surprisingly long-lived appeal of a yodeling, self-absorbed celibate. That isn't to say Morrissey's pre- and post-Smiths work has lacked sexual reference, particularly same-sex reference, in songs like "I Am Hated for Loving." But his real appeal lies in the legions of the mopey, the terminally misunderstood, and the chronically unloved who believe the Moz feels their pain, and who enjoy nothing more than wallowing in the result. He's the original shoegazer, after all, and for every listener who gets the joke Morrissey pokes at himself in songs like "Late Night, Maudlin Street," there are an equal number who don't think it's funny. Morrissey fans can expect titles like "He Cried" and more lyrics about self-loathing on his latest release, Maladjusted. (Of course it's called Maladjusted. If it were called Happy as a Clam, for example, it just wouldn't be the Morrissey we've come to love.) Elcka open for Morrissey at 8 p.m. at the Warfield, 982 Market (at Seventh Street), S.F. Admission is $20-22.50; call 775-7722.