02-May-09 Berkeley Concert Review

Mercury News
It looked like it would be a miserable night for a “Moondance.”

The wet weather, however, managed to dry up in time for the opening night of the UC Greek Theatre’s 2009 concert series, and all the fans who carted rain ponchos and umbrellas to the Berkeley venue on Saturday never had to use them.

Perhaps the threat of rain was one of the reasons why so many stayed away from the event – only a half-full house turned out to the 8,500-capacity open-air theater to see the first of two nights with rock legend Van Morrison.

Or, maybe, it was the exorbitant ticket prices, which topped out at $350 per stub.

The third plausible reason is that the occasion – the chance to see a live performance of Morrison’s most highly cherished record, 1968’s “Astral Weeks” – wasn’t quite the draw that promoters had hoped. The album is generally regarded by critics as one of rock’s all-time finest, but its sales numbers aren’t nearly as elite. It did, after all, take some 33 years before “Astral Weeks” would move enough copies to achieve gold certification (500,000-plus in sales).

Sales numbers don’t tell the story of how much this glorious song cycle, Morrison’s second solo record, means to die-hard fans. It’s not the album that produced his best-known hits – indeed, only one “Astral Weeks” track, “Sweet Thing,” would make it onto “The Best of Van Morrison” – but it is the one that most fully captures the singer’s highly individual mix of Celtic, rock, folk and jazz sounds. It’s a work that, even today, most people have difficulty in trying to classify – it’s just pure Van, at the height of his powers.

The Belfast Cowboy certainly did this material justice in concert, but he’d make fans wait until the second set before opening the book on “Astral Weeks.”

Backed by a 14-piece band, which included two percussionists, backing vocalists and a string section, the 63-year-old former Bay Area resident spent the first hour of the show reeling through the years. He performed the first number, “Northern Muse,” while seated at the Steinway piano, then moved to the microphone at center stage and began slurring out the words to some of his greatest hits, including “And It Stoned Me,” “Baby Please Don’t Go,” “Wild Night” and “Moondance.”

Morrison’s typically eclectic mix of musical flavors tilted in the first set to the country side, something the star explored at length on 2006’s “Pay the Devil,” with plenty of fiddle and some slide guitar rising to the top.

It took Morrison a while to warm up on this cold night, and the songs that came later in the set were much stronger – more alive, if you will – then what was heard early on.

Fortunately, he was good and ready by the time it came to delve into “Astral Weeks,” which the band did after coming back from a 20-minute break.

Those looking for a note-for-note, or even lyric-by-lyric, re-creation of the milestone would’ve have better served to stay home and listen to the record. Morrison went the other direction and grabbed onto what, at essence, made “Astral Weeks” such an amazing work – the sense that the star was leading the listener on a very personal musical exploration, one built on pure feeling more so than licks, riffs and melodies.

It was impossible to say how much of the mix was pure lyrical stream of consciousness, as opposed to premeditated, or to what degree improvisation factored in, although Morrison was visibly active in leading the band through changes that the players apparently weren’t expecting. One way or the other, the balancing act worked wondrously as Morrison made all eight of these tracks –and especially “Cypress Avenue” and “Ballerina” – feel exciting in fashions both familiar and new.

For those who missed Saturday’s concert, or the repeat on Sunday, think about picking up “Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl.” That newly released set, recorded late last year at one of Los Angeles’ most fabled venues, provides a good picture of what some local fans had the good fortune to experience in person.
-Jim Harrington

The SF Chronicle
Van Morrison's transcendent 'Astral' at Greek

"Astral Weeks," one of rock's most revered masterpieces, never made the Billboard Hot 100. Regardless of an epic, five-star Rolling Stone review by Greil Marcus, the record took eight years before it passed 100,000 in sales.

But Van Morrison's luminous second album has hung over his shoulder ever since. The idea that he would perform the entire album, sealing its stature as a set piece within his body of work and galvanizing the album's lofty reputation, seemed entirely improbable.

Yet there he was, under the cool, gray skies at UC Berkeley's Greek Theatre on Saturday, in the first of two weekend shows, belting "step right up, step right up, step right up," recreating the lithe, elusive sound of the original album and investing it with the power of the immediacy of live performance.

Based around light, airy arrangements for flute and two acoustic guitars that left plenty of room for the musicians to stretch out underneath Morrison's rambling narratives, "Astral Weeks" would be an especially difficult album to recreate in a concert environment. But Morrison and his 14-piece ensemble made the songs sound fresh and spontaneous, as the unwieldy orchestra proved light on its feet, taking cues from hand signals and quick nods by Morrison, who was calling plays from the line of scrimmage all evening.

He jiggered the running order of the album - shifting "Madame George" to close the set makes perfect emotional and musical sense - and let the songs run like streams of music, playing them practically end-to-end. With guitarist Jay Berliner from the original sessions winding lyrical lines into the mix, the songs rose and fell on simmering grooves, sweetened by a four-piece string section. Morrison, playing the third acoustic guitar in the band, could pump the engine of the band by stroking his guitar.

He opened with a 50-minute set that drew from throughout his catalog - from the Mississippi Delta blues of "Baby Please Don't Go" of his Them days to the big band R&B of "Magic Time," Morrison topping the swinging sound with a piercing alto sax solo. His voice warmed up and he attacked the '50s ballad "It's All In the Game," long a part of his repertoire, like a bebop horn soloist, carving jazzy little figures out of phrases such as "caress your fingertips" or "once in a while he won't call." By the time he returned for the 45-minute "Astral Weeks" performance, his voice was full of bluster and blare - rich, resonant.


The "Astral Weeks" songs explode with passion and intensity, with Morrison not feeling the need to spell everything out. The juxtaposition of his brawny bluesman's vocal style with the heart of a mystic poet has been his signature since these songs. They provided him with a basic template he has been improvising from for the past 40 years and they pushed the rock music movement further into the literary realm than it had previously been. These are not easy, simple songs, but pieces that gave the whole idea of pop music greater meaning.
-Joel Selvin

Setlist:
Northern Muse (Solid Ground)
Troubadours
And It Stoned Me
Baby Please Don't Go
Magic Time
Have I Told You Lately
Wild Night
It's All In The Game
Queen of the Slipstream
Moondance
And the Healing Has Begun
Common One
Astral Weeks
Beside You
Slim Slow Slider
Sweet Thing
The Way Young Lovers Do
Cypus Avenue
Ballerina
Madame George
Listen To The Lion
Mystic Eyes/Gloria