Morrissey delivers a strong night of songs old and new at the first of two sold-out Hollywood Bowl shows

As Morrissey walked on stage for an encore, the English singer, whose mouth and motives at times overshadow his music, he offered a wryly self-deprecating gesture of appreciation to the 17,000 or so who packed the Hollywood Bowl on Friday for the first of two sold-out shows there.

“California Republic, I hope I have lived up to my appalling reputation,” he said, hands in pockets of the shiny gold jacket into which he’d changed while off stage for a moment.

The crowd cheered loudly, many laughing, because with Morrissey, well, you never know. He canceled his previous show – an unfortunately uncommon practice for him – in Paso Robles on Sunday because it was too cold, the slaughterhouse videos he insists on showing during the song “Meat Is Murder” remain as gruesomely difficult to watch as ever, and he’s never, ever shy about sharing his views on politics and society.

But this was Morrissey Day — he’d received a proclamation from the Los Angeles City Council before the show stating it so – the 58-year-old singer arrived on stage in fine form and good humor, delivering a strong show of 22 songs over an hour and 40 minutes on a chilly night in L.A., a city where he’s long been adored.

The show opened with an Elvis cover, “You’ll Be Gone,” and “I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish,” the first of four songs in his set from the Smiths, the influential group in which Morrissey first found fame.

As a songwriter, his lyrics mine the personal and political, love and loathing, the artist as a world-weary chronicler of modern life. At the Hollywood Bowl on Friday he introduced new takes on those timeless themes, playing seven of the 12 tracks from his 11th studio album, “Low In High School.”

“I Wish You Lonely” and “Jacky’s Only Happy When She’s Up On The Stage” showed up early in the set off the album that arrives on Friday, his first in three years. While the new songs are strong, and were warmly received by the crowd, it’s only natural that the biggest responses came to the best-known and loved songs from his catalog.

“How Soon Is Now,” one of the Smiths’ biggest numbers, was a standout of the first half of the show, red lights pulsing on the rings of the band shell, white strobes blasting from behind the band as the throbbing guitars roared behind Morrissey’s vocal.

By comparison, the new single, “Spent The Day In Bed,” which followed felt lighter, an almost charming ode to turning off the news – “Because the news contrives to frighten you,” he sang – and hiding in a cocoon of sheets and pillow and safety.

Highlights of the back half of the show included the new tune “My Love, I’d Do Anything For You,” a cover of the Pretenders’ “Back On The Chain Gang,” and the slightly sinister feel of “Speedway.”

“Meat Is Murder” is an admirable sentiment – Morrissey’s dedication to animal rights is unquestioned, and the Bowl food vendors agreed to go vegetarian for both his shows there – but the slaughterhouse clips he insists on showing are truly hard to take. (That said, the guy who shouted a few obscenities at Morrissey at the close of that bit must not have known a thing about the artist he was seeing.)

The main set wrapped up with the always lovely “Everyday Is Like Sunday,” the crowd singing loudly on the choruses, while the encore offered up a pair of classics, “Suedehead” and the Smiths’ “Shoplifters Of The World Unite,” at the end which Morrissey took of his jacket, threw it into the crowd and walked off stage bare-chested under the 55-degree night skies.

Which is also, coincidentally enough, how Billy Idol wrapped up his opening set -– shirtless – after a fun 50 minutes of his music. “Dancing With Myself” took things back to Idol’s start in Generation X but most of the set was drawn from his commercial peak in the early ’80s: the big ballads of “Flesh For Fantasy” and “Eyes Without A Face,” and, of course, the huge sing-along classics such as “Rebel Yell” and “White Wedding.

Morrissey

When: Friday, Nov. 10, with a second show on Saturday, Nov. 11

Where: Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles