New York City Concert Review 24-April-06

NEW YORK -- With all due respect to artists like Bob Dylan and Neil Young -- names that are normally invoked as examples of 1960s rock stars who have stayed productive and boldly reinvented themselves in middle age -- it's possible to make the argument that no one of that generation has aged better than Van Morrison.
Morrison, 60, still releases albums once every year or two, and there are some revelatory moments on all of them. He has branched out into Celtic folk (1988's "Irish Heartbeat"), jazz (1996's "How Long Has This Been Going On"), skiffle (2000's "The Skiffle Sessions") and country (2000's "You Win Again" and this year's "Pay the Devil").
Live, he's more uneven: If you catch him on a bad night, it's possible to come away with the impression that he's just going through the motions. But judging by his Monday night show at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, he's still capable of putting on a great show.
His burnished baritone voice was in top shape, and his solos on harmonica and saxophone were brief but explosive. His 10-piece band was sharp, and the sound mix could not have been clearer. The setlist offered a good balance of hits ("Moondance," "Brown Eyed Girl," "Jackie Wilson Said"), semi-hits ("Crazy Love," "Bright Side of the Road") and more obscure material.
The show had plenty of meditative, mid-tempo numbers like "Wonderful Remark" and "They Sold Me Out," but there was a jaunty, swinging feel to "Back On Top" and "Bright Side of the Road" and a '50s pop flavor to "Stranded" and "Magic Time." "Call it nostalgia, I don't mind," he sang on the last.
With a fiddle and a pedal-steel guitar weeping behind him, Morrison sang several songs from "Pay the Devil," as well as "I Can't Stop Loving You," one of the signature country-crossover hits by one of his idols, Ray Charles.
At different points in the show, he scatted like a jazz singer, or grunted like a bluesman. Despite the variety in the musical trappings, he stayed true to Charles' spirit throughout the night, attacking each song like a soul singer, playing with the phrasing for dramatic effect, adding improvised runs, and frequently building to an emotional release.
He stretched out "Real Real Gone" with a bit of Sam Cooke's "You Send Me." He also added an obscene line, for comic effect, to "It's All In the Game"; playfully stammered a line like a drunk in the "Pay the Devil" number, "There Stands the Glass," and goofily yelled out "All right everybody, let's do-si-do," during another "Pay the Devil" song, "Playhouse."
Moments like these were rare, though. For the most part, he conducted himself in a businesslike manner, standing still at center stage and curtly nodding at band members to trigger solos. During "Moondance," his rapturous tribute to "the night's magic," the back curtain was illuminated with star-like lights, but that was it for visual enhancements.
The only disturbing thing about the show had nothing to do with the music. The tickets read "7:30 p.m. sharp!" and that's when the music began. There was no opening act, though Morrison's band played a number by itself, before he came on. The show was over at 9:12, which might be a record for an evening rock concert at a large New York theater.
It's no sin to be punctual -- better right on time than an hour late. But since 99 percent of rock shows do not begin at their stated times, many fans were not ready to go at 7:30, and throughout the band's introductory number and Morrison's first few songs, they stumbled around in the darkness, looking for their seats.
You could debate if this was fair to them. But it certainly wasn't fair to the people they were stumbling over.

Roger Catlin: Van Morrison in New York
Albums come more regularly from Van Morrison than tours do. In fact, he’s never toured as extensively as his colleagues, choosing instead to go out with a band across Europe and playing a handful of select dates in the U.S.
Boston and San Francisco were longtime stops for him in this pattern, since he spent time living near both places. But Monday, he played a teriffic show in New York as well, a sellout that was barely noticed at the Theater at Madison Square Garden especially when overshadowed by the behemoth Billy Joel Tour that Swallowed the East Coast in the bigger arena, marking another date of a record 11 next door.
As predictable as a Billy Joel show must be by now, Morrison’s shows are rare enough to be packed with surprises every time.
This time, to coincide with his new album focusing on American country-western, “Pay the Devil,” he assembled an accomplished band with a fiddle and Cindy Cashdollar on pedal steel guitar, lending authentic flourishes. But with his keyboardists, guitarists and backup singers also managed to put together sparkling versions from way back in his impressive 40 year catalog, including such favorites as “Moondance,” Wild Night,” “A Wonderful Remark” “Jackie Wilson Said” and yes, even “Brown Eyed Girl.” At this rate, he could have thrown in “Gloria” or “Here Comes the Night” for a kind of lifelong retrospective dating back to his days in the Belfast rock band Them.
Like Bob Dylan, with whom he toured in recent years, he’s not particularly chatty with the audience, remaining an enigmatic figure on stage, in a suit, large brimmed black hat he might have purchased from the Hasidic section, and glasses. His voice was in top shape, and he enjoyed his signature style of repeating a phrase into near scat stratospheres.
When he sang the Ray Charles standard “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” it tied it all together by echoing so authoritatively the artistic giant who had first melded soul and country so well. But he did more than echo Brother Ray’s version; he echoed his approach by holding to the lyrics and emoting them to a degree that made you hear them anew.
-JAY LUSTIG

www.setlist.com
Theater at Madison Square Garden - New York, NY
Back On Top, Real Real Gone > You Send Me, Stranded, My Bucket's Got A Hole In It, Sold Me Out, Magic Time, Bright Side Of The Road, In The Midnight, Wonderful Remark, Moondance, There Stands The Glass, Precious Time, Streets Of Arklow > Pull Punches Push River, Crazy Love, Playhouse, I Can't Stop Loving You, Jackie Wilson Said, Brown-eyed Girl, All In The Game > You Know What They're Writing About, And The Healing Has Begun