18-Jul-10 Peer, Belgium, Rhythm & Blues Festival Concert Review

Here's Ivo's review:
Yesterday I went to see Van Morrison at the Rhythm & Blues Festival in Peer, Belgium, where he had performed once before – I believe in 1997. Van was one of the closing acts, having been allotted 75 minutes between 8PM and 9.15PM, bracketed by Booker T.’s and Canned Heat’s set. It was the second time I saw this band (although this time, without Tony Fitzgibbon) in a little over a year (Cardiff being the first time in June 2009), and it was the second time that sounds problems affected the proceedings – and yesterday, this was really a huge problem.

I’m still trying to figure out what I saw. It definitely was a show with two halves: a good (but not great) second half, and a first half that was filled with problems, which had me thinking that Van could leave the stage at any time. The playing, as a consequence, suffered during the first five to six songs.

As usual, the bar was closed at the start of the concert, which did not go down very well with the already rowdy blues crowd. On top of this, the video screens did not function either, so that only the first ten rows could see what was happening on stage. The other 70 rows or so (I guess the crowd was about 6,000 people) could not. This led to a lot of booing, yelling and whistling during Northern Muse, which the first rows tried to overcome by clapping along, which caused the band and Van to play and sing more loudly. The same problems marred Brown-Eyed Girl. Then, the video screens were turned on and the bar was re-opened, but Van was very unhappy with the band at that point, which he thought was overpowering him. He continuously asked them to keep the volume low. There were also sound problems on stage, in particular with Van’s and Jay Berliner’s guitar and the bass. Several times, Van ordered David Hayes and Jay Berliner to switch from electric to acoustic (or the other way around) mid-song, and kept on giving cues to Bobby Ruggiero, the drumming apparently not being what he wanted either. After and extremely lackluster Keep It Simple, I thought the gig would be over given Van’s unhappiness during and after the song, certainly when Fair Play was played at a much faster speed without the by now familiar extended coda thereafter (but then again, all ballads were rushed yesterday, perhaps because of the noisy crowd, apart from Have I Told You Lately). To my great surprise and happiness, nobody left the stage and things turned around completely thereafter, when The Mystery was played with great gusto, and went down very well with the crowd. From then onwards, the entire (and also Van’s) mood changed considerably and what I saw was a good gig – not exceptional, but good, including one real gem: a long version of Into The Mystic. Surprisingly, given the 75 minutes he had been allotted, Van played (the usual) 90 minutes, ending with Gloria which had the crowd cheering along big time. He was then escorted by two police cars off the premise and flew away in an already waiting helicopter – destination unknown.

So, I left the festival with mixed feelings, thinking that the next time I'll see this band, I'll choose an smaller indoor venue where Van is the only performing artist.
-Ivo

Setlist
Northern Muse (Solid Ground)
Brown Eyed Girl
St. James Infirmary
Talk Is Cheap
Keep It Simple
Fair Play
Playhouse
The Mystery
Moondance
Have I Told You Lately
Celtic Excavation -> Into The Mystic
Baby Please Don't Go
And The Healing Has Begun
Help Me
Ballerina
In The Garden
Gloria

Big Hand For The Band!
Jay Berliner-electric guitar
David Hayes-double bass
Bobby Ruggiero-drums
Richie Buckley-flute, saxophone
Paul Moran-grand piano, trumpet & organ