Johnny Marr at The Phoenix Concert Theatre - Concert Photos

I saw Johnny Marr perform for the first time earlier this year at a powerful yet intimate performance at The Velvet Underground. Click through to take a peek at those photos here.

This time the legendary guitarist, singer and songwriter, perhaps best known as the pioneering and innovative guitarist and co-songwriter of The Smiths, played The Phoenix Concert Theatre on tour for his latest album, Call the Comet.

We got a fantastic set that covered a ton of Marr's solo material, tunes from Electronic and, of course, more than a handful of amazing tunes from The Smiths. "Bigmouth Strikes Again" is an all-time favourite song and I would never tire of hearing it played live. We heard the newest single from Call the Comet, "Hi Hello" along with the political "Bug", which was played along with the comment that Johnny is surprised that we haven’t built a wall of our own by now. Indeed. The set continued with a fucking badass rendition of "Easy Money" and the encore featured Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew singing The Smiths' "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want". Marr had some very kind words for Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It In People as he brought Drew on stage.

The Belle Game opened this show with some magnetic tunes. Check out my photos of their set here.

Listen to some of the great tunes that were part of the band's Toronto setlist:

"The Tracers"

The Smiths' "Bigmouth Strikes Again"

"Hi Hello"

The Smiths' "The Headmaster Ritual"

"Walk Into The Sea"

Electronic's "Getting Away With It"

"Bug"

"Easy Money"

"Boys Get Straight"

The Smiths' "How Soon Is Now?"

The Smiths' "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want"

The Smiths' "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out"

Johnny Marr at Velvet Underground - Concert Photos

Johnny Marr is an alternative music legend. Perhaps best known as the guitarist for The Smiths, he's also been a member of The Pretenders, The The, Electronic, Modest Mouse and The Cribs not to mention the body of his own solo work.

It was the latter that we were (mostly) there to witness on a hot early summer night at The Velvet Underground on Queen Street West. The Velvet is a relatively small venue; much smaller than The Phoenix Concert Theatre that Johnny's playing when he returns to Toronto on October 19. It was, as you could well imagine, completely sold out. We were all gathered to witness a modern guitar legend and his band play some incredible songs, both new and old.

Johnny and the band were celebrating the release of his newest solo album, Call The Comet. They played us a bunch of great songs from this latest release. We also got previous solo album highlights like "Easy Money" and five, count 'em, five, Smiths songs; "Bigmouth Strikes Again", "The Headmaster Ritual", "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me", "How Soon Is Now?" and "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out". We also got Electronic's disco tune from Manchester, "Getting Away With It". It was hot and humid in the venue, and no one was complaining because the music was sooo good.

Overall it was an amazing experience to see and hear such a legend up-close and personal in such an intimate venue. I know this was a feeling shared with the very lucky fans who got tickets.

Check out the new tunes and catch him on the Call The Comet tour. Here are some of my favourites from the setlist.

"The Tracers"

The Smiths' "Bigmouth Strikes Again"

"Hi Hello"

The Smiths' "The Headmaster Ritual"

"Walk Into the Sea"

Electronic's "Getting Away With It"

"Bug"

The Smiths' "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me"

"Easy Money"

"Boys Get Straight"

The Smiths' "How Soon Is Now?"

"New Town Velocity"

The Smiths' "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out"

Johnny Marr does The Smiths on Jools

I posted before about Johnny Marr's very solid album The Messenger. Here he is on Later with Jools Holland doing a great job with a couple of Smiths classics.

"Big Mouth Strikes Again"

"How Soon Is Now"