If you’re planning on spending Valentine’s Day locked inside your bedroom crying and listening to Morrissey croon, remember — misery loves company.
Get out, and join other mopes to see the Smiths tribute band the Sons and Heirs on Feb. 14 at the Bell House in Gowanus — a four-year-old tradition that regularly sells out.
“Morrissey is kind of the unlovable, singing about never finding anyone,” said Ronnie “Ronnissey” Scott, who imitates Morrissey with uncanny accuracy for classics like “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out,” “Girlfriend in a Coma,” and “How Soon Is Now?”
But when Scott joined the Sons and Heirs seven years ago, he was an unlikely candidate.
“Honestly, I really wasn’t into the Smiths or Morrissey,” the 35-year-old said.
He was, after all, only 9 when the band broke up for good.
“My oldest sister was a Smiths fan, or a Morrissey fan by then — she had a poster of Morrissey hanging up in her room, but I didn’t get it at all.”
But when someone he was dating saw an ad on Craigslist looking for a singer that sounded like Morrissey, he answered the call.
“I went down there looking for a couple of bucks or something,” he said.
Now, he appreciates the Smiths — especially the response they still invoke in fans, even if they’re “reissued, repackaged,” to paraphrase “Paint a Vulgar Picture.”
“They don’t come down to listen to it, they come down to be a part of it,” Scott said.
“I always swore I would never, ever, ever do any kind of cover stuff, but now I can see the effect it has on people. It’s so strange. If it didn’t have that effect, I would never do it.”
The Smiths aren’t likely to reunite — Morrissey once famously said, “I would rather eat my own testicles than reform the Smiths, and that’s saying something for a vegetarian.”
But that’s fine for Scott and the rest of the Sons and Heirs.
“For us to kind of get up there and recreate something that will never happen again is phenomenal,” he said.
“Unlovable: A Smiths and Morrissey Valentine’s Day” at Bell House [149 Seventh St. between Second and Third avenues in Gowanus, (718) 643–6510, www.thebellhouseny.com]. Feb. 14, 9 pm. $12 advance, $15 door.
Reach reporter Jaime Lutz at jlutz@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-8310. Follow her on Twitter @jaime_lutz.
