I only really know Van Morisson from his name and not really
his music. I have an old tape with THEM that I really like but have not heard
it in years. Anyway, my wife, her best friend, Andy has been working for Van on
and off for the last 30 years doing lights. He invited me a long and I hung out
at the lighting desk for the entire show.
It had been sold out for a long time and the mostly over 50 crowd filled
the place just on time as they only opened the doors 30mins before and the show
started right at 20. Van has a clock that runs backwards for 90mins and then
that is it. He is off back to the hotel and the show is over…
Anyway, the sound was really excellent, you could really
hear all the details of the great band he has. It was mostly a set of what I
would call light pop-jazz stuff with all members taking solos at different
times and Van playing a lot of saxophone. He played guitar on Motherless Child
and harmonica on the blues stuff. The Blues medley was my favorite part of the
show with Baby please don’t Go, Parchment farm and a few others thrown in. I did not know his music but I did recognize
a few of his big hits like Moondance, Gloria (THEM), and Brown Eyed Girl. Crowd
was really good. It was a nice 90mins concert and he has an amazing voice
still. At 70 years old, he sounds like a guy in his 50s probably. I enjoyed it..
After the show, Andy and I went to the bar for a few beers
and the keyboard player (Paul Moran) joined us. He was a great guy and a few people came up
and thanked him for a great show. He has been with the band for 10 years
now. Some people came up to Andy and I
as well thinking we were brothers! No.. just friends. Later, the group manager, Pete came and this guys
was just insane. He was so funny. I was laughing so hard… He could have another
career doing stand up for sure. Rude but very funny humor. Crazy, part Kenyan,
Austrian and English.. It was a fun way to end the night..
hey man, did you check out the new tears of aaron reunion record? I would love a review of that!
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