Concert Review Vancouver 26-Feb-07

The Belfast Cowboy delivers a knock-out show

The night started with palpable tension as Van Morrison took the stage at GM Place Monday without a hello or even a smile.

The 13,000 fans filling the stadium applauded politely and let out some brief cheers, but the majority of the sold-out crowd remained seated and sedate as the Belfast Cowboy sauntered on stage and immediately launched into Bright Side of the Road.

Despite his legendary status and his unfaltering fan base, most people in the audience Monday night were likely wondering the same thing as the middle-aged woman lining up to get to her seat promptly by 7:30 p.m. -- as strictly instructed on the tickets: “Which persona do you think we’ll see tonight?” she asked her companion.

Initially, it looked like we were in for a night of reluctant performing from one of music’s most notoriously grumpy artists. Wearing mirrored glasses that masked his mood and a fedora to further hide any emotion, the 61-year-old superstar sounded almost bored and actually looked a tad bitter as he sang the upbeat hit from his 1979 album, Into the Music.

But as much as he’s known for his moods, Morrison is also known to be a consummate professional on the stage.

So while he may have appeared disinterested for the opener, it turned out that he was merely warming up for a knock-out show that moved with unstoppable momentum once it got rolling.

Morrison is perpetually producing new music and has said in past interviews that he doesn’t want to become a nostalgia act that only performs his old hits. So when the second song he and his eight-piece band played was the popular Days Like This, it simply appeared that he was getting the nostalgia tunes out of the way.

And indeed, he moved into the surprisingly comfortable -- but less familiar -- country twang of There Stands the Glass, from his most recent album of new material, Pay the Devil. The female pedal steel guitar player in Morrison’s outstanding band showed off her remarkable skills before the tune moved seamlessly to a gorgeous melancholy fiddle solo.

Morrison showed off the breadth of his repertoire, playing a tune (which I admittedly cannot identify -- he’s released more than 40 albums) that had his two blonde back-up singers be-bopping, giving the scene at GM Place a Prairie Home Companion feel to it. He got bluesy and his vocals loosened with Cleaning Windows, a hit single about one of his first jobs from his 1982 album Beautiful Vision. And further into the show -- a few songs after the crowd showed its appreciation for Moondance, another hit -- he even delved into a bit of funk.

Camera phones were strictly forbidden, which is a rare restriction from concerts today, but lighters could be seen flickering throughout the audience. A white-haired man who looked to be in his 60s lit a joint after Moondance and passed it to the young gay couple behind him and then to a female stranger several seats away.

And by the time Van the Man got to Wild Night -- another of the sing-along hits featured on the recently released compilation, called Van Morrison at the Movies -- the stadium felt a bit like a massive campfire sing-along.

He pulled out his sax and harmonica for some memorable instrumental moments, but it was his strong and distinctive voice that had people uttering comments like, “He’s really givin’ her, eh?”

After Wild Night, he played a string of hits that had the crowd exponentially more excited with each familiar phrase. The saxophone came back out for Have I Told You Lately? while couples reached arms around each other’s shoulders. The clapping became frenzied and the sing-along brought thousands more into the fold with Jackie Wilson Said.

Everyone was one their feet when he launched next into Brown Eyed Girl and the audience’s good luck became almost unbelievable when he began Gloria. But as soon as the audience reached the second or third spelling of G-L-O-R-I-A, Van said a brief “thank you” and exited stage left while everyone kept singing along with the band.

There was no encore and the show lasted just 90 minutes, but if I’m not mistaken, there was a glimmer of a smile from the superstar as he closed out the show with 13,000-strong singing along with him.

Who wouldn’t be pleased to leave a crowd like that only wanting more?
-Amy O'Brian, Vancouver Sun