03-May-2012 Millennium Forum, Derry, Northern Ireland

Petra sent in her review
Van is back on top. If any more evidence was needed – the two gigs in Northern Ireland’s City of Derry made it very clear. The good thing – his voice and performance are not only superb these days, but it was very obvious he is still enjoying to be on stage, after all these years. While the first concert on Wednesday was a well received tribute to the Derry Jazz Festival with many jazzy tunes, Van took us way way back into his 40+ years of musical career on Thursday. For sure, Martin McGinley’s review in the Derry Journal did justice to the first gig – albeit a jazz dominated set list might not be everybody’s cup of tea. But it is fair enough to say that Van was the headliner of a Jazz Festival and it was a stunning high precision gig leaving us in awe and wonder. 

On Thursday, Van played again a lot of saxophone right from the start, with us trying to figure out what was the title of the instrumental. ‘Brown Eyed Girl’, like the night before, fitted seamlessly into the Jazz Festival, as it was a lovely swinging version and not the pop standard anymore. ‘Higher Than The World’ and ‘Fair Play’ were beautiful and gentle -dreamlike songs with Van lingering on the word ‘Geronimo’ for a while as if he liked to taste the name on his tongue. ‘That’s Life’ saw Van laughing at himself when he sang ‘ .. and I roll myself up in a big ball’.

‘Not Feeling It Anymore’ is a title I more or less ignored on the 1991 album ‘Hymns To The Silence’ considering it a bit trivial. But lately it has come to sparkle and shine in concerts – maybe because Van makes it sound so personal ? Actually, there’s a lot of feeling in Van’s singing here – so we better don’t believe him …

A major tour de force these days is his ‘All In The Game’ medley. The words ‘… meet me down by the pylons’ have become ‘ … meet me down by the river – river of no return’. With the song fading out, he repeated the words ‘No Plan B’ for hours and hours and hours – at least it seemed so. After some time I got worried he would not get out of this line anymore – the musicians had to play the same notes over and over again and also looked a bit concerned at some point. A good piece of torture for singer, band and audience – brilliant and a bit freaked out. 

One surprise for me was Van asking for requests. Just to make it clear: It was Van. Asking the audience if they liked to hear a special song ... Did that ever happen before ? Out of the song titles hailing from all directions of the audience he chose to play ‘Little Village’ – a beautiful laid-back version. 

‘Precious Time’ was a bit negligible for me, but it reminded us indeed of elapsing time for the show – how many songs would there be left for us tonight ? ‘St. James Infirmary’ was a sublime New Orleans Jazz standard and made clear one more time that Van’s current band is very tight and brilliant these days. Interaction between Van and his horn section was breathtaking -  it certainly takes a lot of rehearsals before such precision is achieved. 

My personal highlight of the night was a beautiful, subtle ‘Ballerina’ making Van laugh aloud when he jokingly slapped his own face while singing ‘and the light is on the left side of your head’. When - ever - did we see Van so relaxed and in good spirits ?

‘Help Me’ with the nightshirt scenario is always a sure indicator that the show will be over soon. And so it was. Not before the band members were given one more opportunity to show their superb skills in laying down stunning solos, including Van himself playing his harp while leaving the stage. Only to come back to do one last song.

‘Gloria’ was the compulsive encore, a high energy version with Van quitting the scene long before the song was over. And actually, the band got started for good once The Man was gone. They turned it up - a little bit higher - and got going as if there was no tomorrow, making clear that not only Van was enjoying himself, but his great band members were, too. 

Two flawless and superb high precision gigs in Derry – although some of us may have wished to hear more of their favorite songs …
-Petra Söllner

Setlist 
Instrumental 
Brown Eyed Girl
Higher Than The World 
Fair Play
That's Life 
Not Feeling It Anymore 
All In The Game/Burning Ground/No Plan B 
Moondance
Days Like This 
Little Village 
Precious Time
St.James Infirmary 
Ballerina
Help Me
Gloria