New York Dolls pay tribute to Morrissey

Trash-punk pioneers New York Dolls returned to their eponymous hometown last night (November 22) to play an uproarious Thanksgiving-eve show at the city’s Irving Plaza venue.

The six-piece played a set of both old and new numbers tracks before rounding off the night with a cover of the Janis Joplin classic ‘Piece Of My Heart’, much to the delight of the capacity crowd.

Speaking exclusively to NME.COM, reclusive guitarist and founder member Sylvain Sylvain took the time to give props to former Smiths frontman Morrissey for reuniting the band for the 2004 Meltdown festival in London.

He said: “I think David Johansen (singer) thought that those shows would just be a one-off but deep down, I knew that once we got back together the fans wouldn’t let us go.”

As a youngster, Morrissey bombarded the offices of NME with letters declaring his love for the New York Dolls and at one point was even the head of the UK fan club.

Sylvian added: “If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have got back together and thankfully we managed to do it before Arthur Kane (original bassist) died. We’ll always be grateful to Morrissey for that and he’s a great guy too… and so are his cousins!”

The band’s tour continues until the final date in St Louis on December 1.

The setlist was:

‘Looking For A Kiss’
‘Puss ‘n’ Boots’
‘We’re All In Love’
‘Fishnets And Cigarettes’
‘Pills’
‘Dancing On The Lip Of A Volcano’
‘You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory/’Lonely Planet Boy’
‘Gimme Luv And Turn On The Light’
‘Dance Like A Monkey’
‘Trash’
‘Jet Boy’
‘Personality Crisis’
‘Tommy’
‘Take Another Little Piece Of My Heart’

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