BY TIM HINELY

On the video screen before Mozzer's start time the venue played some vintage - and appropriate - video clips: New York Dolls, Lou Reed, Alain Delon. Then the singer and his crew burst onstage at exactly 9 PM.

Morrissey made quite a splash for his first Portland concert in 7 years. He and the band arrived in matching outfits and immediately ripped into the Smiths' first album classic "This Charming Man." It definitely lacked the nuance of the original, a bit more rawk, but still a pleasant surprise nonetheless. (As for other Smiths songs they played "Cemetery Gates,"  "Ask" and "How Soon is Now," the latter of which found the singer ripping his shirt off at the end and running offstage.) The solo material sounded just as good as Morrissey launched into razor-sharp versions of "Ganglord," "If You Don't Like Me, Don't Look at Me," "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris" and the classic "The World is Full of Crashing Bores."  The band was especially tight (although the bass player really didn't need to grimace after every note), with guitarists Jesse Tobias, who has played with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Boz Boorer, Morrissey's longtime sideman, engaging the crowd with tasty licks. Mozzer himself interacted with the sold-out crowd quite a bit, responding to one girl's plea of I love you! with "Oh...it'll pass - trust me," and taking a small gift bag from another female, smiling and appearing to listen to it before looking inside. (Is there a bomb in there?)

The adulation for Morrissey hasn't waned a bit over the years, and in fact has gotten much stronger. This was proven over and over again tonight with the fans' over-the-top reactions to nearly every move he made. The band ended the set with a ripping version of "First of the Gang to Die" (from 2004's You Are the Quarry) and then left the stage a mere 75 minutes after they came on. The entire crowd was hoping, stomping for an encore, but there would be none. Morrissey & Co. came, saw and conquered, leaving us all wanting more.