28-Dec-07 San Francisco Concert Review

It was a different show from Thursday from the start. The energy on
stage, especially from the band, was palpable. I had some
trepidation as the setllist started out like the night before,
but even HITYL sounded fresh (I can still do without it,
thanks). The crowd got into the show early to, with lots of
applause at songs, good solos, all at the right time to feed a
little energy back onstage. The concert was staying at a pretty
high level, and LIttle Village launched it ever higher. Fabulous
solos, including a knockout solo by Sarah Jory, who has been just
great at every show. She is a consummate ensemble player. Every
time she enters with a solo it's a little surprise and exactly what
the song needs. Despite her virtuosity on steel guitar, dobro,
bottleneck guitar, banjo, etc, her work is all about the song and
not about her. John Platania had his best night of the three I saw,
fitting in to his role without standing out too far. Anyway, this
song was where the band reached the "Good Body Music" stage,
thinking back to Kingdom Hall. Then Van capped it off with a long,
fascinating sax solo, evoking all sorts of Celtic pipes over the
band's groove. This was a top rendition of one of his greatest
songs. The next highlight was Shana's entry for a duet. As others
have said, she really stood her own on this and pushed the whole
song higher each time she sang. Their harmony was so good it got a
separate cheer.

Surprisingly, Playhouse was another highlight. This song gets
played a lot, but not often with the energy and spirit of last
night. In the Afternoon also went really well, with Van turning
his back to audience and closing the song with a big, arms-up signal
to the band. There was actually a pretty bad screwup on Geneva, as
the band missed the quick cut to "Brand New Cadillac" , and had to
play a bunch of meaningless bars to bring the song around again and
do it over. Fortunately, that didn't seem to bring down the high
spirits on stage. Celtic New Year/Healing Game.. drinkin' wine in
the alley closed down the show.

As some pointed out, a lot of Thursday's crowd went home
happy. They just didn't know how much more there was to see and hear.

Setlist:
This Love of Mine
Magic Time
Have I Told You Lately
Stranded
Bright Side of the Road
St. James Infirmary
Moondance
Little Village (van on acoustic/electric guitar)
Whinin' Boy Moan
Beautiful Vision (duet with Shana Morrison)
Playhouse
In the Afternoon/Ancient HighwayRaincheck
Stop Drinkin'
Goin Down Geneva/Brand New Cadillac
Celtic New Year/Healing Game

Once again, thanks to Art for great photos & setlist.

Big Hand For The Band!
Crawford Bell, Janeen Daly, Karen Hamill, Tony Fitzgibbon, Sara Jory, John Platania, Neil Wilkinson, Paul Moore, Bobby Ruggerio, John Allair