This is the first time I've seen the legendary Mr. Van Morrison live in concert and I have to admit his voice is captivating and pierced through every part of me. Walking in I was surprised and delighted to see couples walking in with their teenage children; older couples also in attendance, and yet there were a lot of people in the mid 20s, early 30s – which shows how music is everlasting and plays on for years and how any generation can really fall in love with new and old music. When it’s good – it’s undeniable!
The performance was broken up in two parts, but began promptly at 8:00 p.m. I missed the first five minutes and 15 minutes later once I was settled and enjoying the show tried to purchase an alcoholic beverage but was denied due to the request by Mr. Morrison, to shut down the bar 15 minutes after the show started (which throughout the two hours you heard constant complaints and grunts from the people walking back to their seats). On stage, he was in the middle, surrounded by the entire (pretty large) band; where they could all see him.
But back to the important stuff; Van Morrison sang several songs in the first half. He opened the show with Solid Ground and then Glad Tiding, TB Sheets, Who Drove the Red Sports Car?, And It Stoned Me. He continued with So Quiet in Here which at this point all the late comers were finally all settled and people began to whistle and interact more with the music. Mr. Morrison kept it going with St. James Infirmary and Caravan. The final three songs of the first set were wonderfully done. He performed a classic but not his, which he stated is not his but they had asked him to sing it for a movie, Comfortably Numb and then moved to Mystic Eyes and Gloria; which the crowd really enjoyed singing along, screaming out each letter to spell out Gloria and closed with Summertime In England/A Town Called Paradise, which towards the end of the song; he kept moving to the side of the stage and at one point spoke, it won’t go out further – referencing the microphone – so he literally just dropped it.
After a 10 minute intermission; he returned to sing the classic album beginning with the title song, Astral Weeks and then literally sang in order of the album. He then sang Beside You – which gave me chills; this song is a personal favorite and he was just wonderful, which then he sang the fun Sweet Thing. The whole night had not one technical malfunction that I noticed, until this point, when he began singing Cyprus Avenue – he was playing with one guitar and kept waving his arm telling the technician raise the volume, he couldn't hear himself. When that didn’t work, someone came over and gave him another guitar, but that guitar was out of tune, so he just kept singing without any guitar. He then sang The Way Young Lovers Do, then Madame George which I think it was the most attentive song from the entire night – the crowd was hypnotized by his performance. I don’t believe the crowd was more still than during that song. He then sang the last two songs off the album, Ballerina, which he did a great guitar performance – true talent in this man and finally Slim Slow Slider which he walked towards the side of the stage again to end the show and sang out and then again dropped it. A few minutes later, the entire band was on stage again and for the encore, Van Morrison sang Listen to the Lion – what a great end er.
Throughout the show, constant standing ovations and you could see some fists in the hand as he bolted words out of him. His voice sounds wonderful; it can easily be compared to wine – it gets better with age. However, walking out I was disappointed to hear some people complain they didn’t know any songs or barely knew any of the songs he did perform. Maybe they thought it was going to be a greatest hits tour, but then it wouldn’t have been called Astral Weeks tour, but that’s just me. It was my first live concert of Van Morrison and his voice was unforgettable and got chills several times… so now I’m thinking I might want to get the first album in vinyl just to hear it in that version. It’s definitely a classic…as Mr. Van Morrison is and truly is a rare talent.
