16-March-2015
Europa Hotel
 Belfast, Northern Ireland

Here's Brendan's thoughts on night two in Belfast
The opening instrumental piece was quickly followed by a straight forward Close Enough For Jazz before the first real highlight was delivered in Higher Than The World. In The Midnight saw guitarist Dave Keary once again put through his paces on impossibly high vocals before Precious Time provided an early reality check. Playhouse moved along at breakneck speed before a really nice Centrepiece featuring a lovely extended instrumental opening was performed and the song later merged with Corrina Corrina. Back On Top was the rather jazzy version and was quickly followed by Baby Please Don’t Go/Parchman Farm/Don’t Start Crying Now which were more or less as played the previous night and again went down a treat. More and More may have been appreciated by country fans in the audience (if there were any) but I am not among them (precious time is ticking away being an apt description of what I was feeling at this point).I Can’t Stop Loving You was then strongly delivered by Van to get things back on course.

I’m Carrying A Torch got another welcome airing and was a real tour de force before Van strapped on the guitar and started to play the opening notes of And The Healing Has Begun. No sooner had he done so than the guitar came off again with Van clearly unhappy with what he was hearing. A stage crew member took it away and returned after a while with what appeared to be a different guitar before retreating slowly and nervously backwards off the stage all the time looking straight at Van for a reaction. Luckily all was well and Van continued on to perform an extended and quite wonderful version bringing us all down the back streets and doing that singing over his guitar playing that so many of us love so much and which is somewhat of a trademark for Van. The song was also notable for some lovely bass playing by Paul Moore.

Things I Used To Do featured Paul Moran prominently on organ and was followed by a rare but well received thumping version of Wild Night. Wild Honey got another rare airing and featured a wonderful organ solo from Paul Moran. However Dana Masters’ backing vocals were for some reason almost totally inaudible and this was a recurring problem on the night which detracted somewhat from the overall performance. After strong renditions of Whenever God Shines His Light and Early In The Morning Van brought the concert to it’s conclusion exactly as on the previous night with Help Me, Think Twice Before You Go and finally Gloria which was quite a funked up version once Van had departed and saw Dave Keary give us a few bars of Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll before finally Paul Moran indulged himself on his new favourite toy in the form of a synthesizer.

I felt this was the stronger of the two shows without ever reaching the heights(with a few notable exceptions) that one always hopes for when attending a Van Morrison concert.
-Brendan Hynes

Setlist (Thanks to John Z.)
Yo
Close Enough for Jazz
Higher Than the World
In the Midnight
Precious Time
Playhouse
Centerpiece/Corinna Corrina/Centerpiece
Back on Top
Baby Please Don't Go/Parchment Farm/Cry Cry Baby
More and More
I Can't Stop Loving You
Carrying a Torch
And the Healing Has Begun
Things I Used To Do
Wild Night
Wild Honey
Whenever God Shines His Light
Early in the Morning
Help Me
Think Twice Before You Go
Gloria

Big Hand for The Band!
Dave Keary (Guitar)
Paul Moore (Bass)
Paul Moran (Keyboards)
Bobby Ruggiero (Drums)
Dana Masters (Vocals)