06-Oct-10 Civic Theatre San Diego Concert Review
Here's Sean's review:
Vegas was a very good show featuring a revamped setlist and two new band members. LA Greek was perhaps a notch below although a great Game made the show feel substantial. The crowd in LA was late arriving and extremely chatty. It was also a cool and wet evening which didn't help matters. It all came together last night in San Diego. Van was on fire from the beginning. The setlist speaks for itself. It was the equal and perhaps even a slight notch above the wonderful Calgary show I saw in August. San Diego was one of those special shows. A long time Van follower, Nosey, declared it to be in his Top Ten and that it was "better than the Albert Hall." While another long time Van gig veteran, Dan Murray, noted how Van "made sounds tonight that I've never heard him make before." That ability to make his art new again, to keep us guessing, to drive the band onward and upward, to create that special kind of magic that only he can...All those gifts were on full display last night. I sat beside a woman who had never seen Van perform before. Afterwards she looked at me and said "I feel like I've been taken some place tonight that I didn't know existed." She was seriously considering a flight to SF for the Friday night show when we said our goodbyes. San Diego was the type of show that gets you hooked. Van took us on another one of those ventures into the slipstream last night. Such a rare and wondrous treat. Off to SF...
-Sean
Setlist
Vegas was a very good show featuring a revamped setlist and two new band members. LA Greek was perhaps a notch below although a great Game made the show feel substantial. The crowd in LA was late arriving and extremely chatty. It was also a cool and wet evening which didn't help matters. It all came together last night in San Diego. Van was on fire from the beginning. The setlist speaks for itself. It was the equal and perhaps even a slight notch above the wonderful Calgary show I saw in August. San Diego was one of those special shows. A long time Van follower, Nosey, declared it to be in his Top Ten and that it was "better than the Albert Hall." While another long time Van gig veteran, Dan Murray, noted how Van "made sounds tonight that I've never heard him make before." That ability to make his art new again, to keep us guessing, to drive the band onward and upward, to create that special kind of magic that only he can...All those gifts were on full display last night. I sat beside a woman who had never seen Van perform before. Afterwards she looked at me and said "I feel like I've been taken some place tonight that I didn't know existed." She was seriously considering a flight to SF for the Friday night show when we said our goodbyes. San Diego was the type of show that gets you hooked. Van took us on another one of those ventures into the slipstream last night. Such a rare and wondrous treat. Off to SF...
-Sean
Setlist
Baby, Please Don't Go
Here Comes the Night
Brown Eyed Girl
Fair Play
Keep Mediocrity At Bay
Little Village
Foreign Window
Keep it Simple
End of the Land
Precious Time
Philosopher's Stone->Didn't He Ramble
That's Entrainment
Moondance->My Funny Valentine
Celtic Excavation->Into the Mystic
And It Stoned Me
Playhouse
It's All in the Game
Help Me
Gloria
Big Hand for The Band!
David Hayes
Paul Moran
Jay Berliner
Andy Jones
Richie Buckley
Bobby Ruggiero
Becky Ramsey
1 comment:
Well I attended the concert in San Diego at the Civic and again in Santa Barbara at the bowl. I've seen him in concert only 5 times. But I have to say it felt as if he was in a mood. Only did a few favorites (Not Mine) but the rest was or must have been only for us die hard fans because they weren't the norm. I wanted to hear his soul go crazy as I have seen it do. But it didn't happen. It was if he was merely fulfilling a commitment, in which he did, and off he went into the night as quickly as he came, leaving me wondering why he didn't get into it as I have heard him do.
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