28-Oct-09 MGM Grand Theatre, Mashantucket Concert Review
Mass Live Van Morrison Maintains the Mystery in Concert at MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods

If you’re a high-roller shelling out $350 for a fine ticket, hoping to hear one of your favorite stars sing nothing but his hits, then Van Morrison might not be your guy.

If you like seeing performers who talk to the crowd, tell tales between songs and make plenty of eye contact during a show, again, “Van the Man” might not be quite right for you.

And based on his show before a full house at the MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods Wednesday evening, the 64-year-old Irish troubadour isn’t about to change now.

Nevertheless, if you want to hear a guy who still has one of the most soulful voices on the planet, play solid, meticulously arranged versions of relatively obscure material, the MGM Grand was exactly the right place to be Wednesday.

Yes, the tickets were expensive, topping out at $350 for the best seats. But as long as you did your homework, you knew that Morrison for a year now has been focusing on his highly-influential 1968 breakthrough album “Astral Weeks.” It served as the focal point of this concert as well, which found Morrison sporting a fedora and sunglasses, backed by an exceptional nine-member troupe.

Given all the stars who take the stage extremely late at their concerts, kudos to Morrison who actually kicked into “Northern Muse (Solid Ground),” three minutes before the 8 p.m. time printed on the ticket. Of course, maybe he just wanted to get things moving so he could watch the World Series because he finished the show exactly 90 minutes later, with a somewhat perfunctory but no doubt crowd-pleasing finale of his early hit “Gloria.”

Morrison also did one of his other huge smashes from early in his career, “Brown Eyed Girl,” as the second song of the night, while seated behind the piano. But those were the only two songs in the entire concert that could actually be classified as hits, though the singer has had plenty through the years.

Early on, he focused on tracks such as “The Mystery,” before one of the night’s highlights “In the Garden,” which found the band and the frontman picking up the spiritual intensity considerably at the end, as he sang into his golden microphone the repeated refrain “no guru, no method, no teacher.”

From there it was on to “Astral Weeks” for the next 40 minutes or so. It was sparked early on by the hypnotic “Beside You;” the beautiful “Sweet Thing,” which was illuminated visually by streams of forest green light bathing the stage; and a sturdy combination of the harpsichord-traced textures of “Cyprus Avenue,” with the fluid jazz flavors of “The Way Young Lovers Do.”

Morrison’s voice, which was marvelous most of the night, did get a bit weary toward the end and he was noticeably raspier on a lackluster “Ballerina,” closing the “Astral Weeks” portion of the night with a stronger “Madame George.”

His band was in full bloom on one of the concert’s major highlights, a full electric version of “And the Healing Has Begun,” before the aforementioned “Gloria” paved the way for a swift departure.
Morrison remains a mystery man, ethereal, oblivious, aloof, enchanting, impenetrable, mystical and moody. And that just partly explains why he’s remained such a fascinating figure for all these decades.
-Kevin O'Hare

Setlist
Northern Muse (Solid Ground)
Brown Eyed Girl
Fair Play
The Mystery
In the Garden
Astral Weeks
Beside You
Slim Slow Slider
Sweet Thing
Cyprus Avenue
Young Lovers Do
Ballerina
Madame George
Help Me
And the Healing Has Begun
Gloria