Van Morrison draws thousands
“Damn! Van the man and band can jam in Man., Can., man!” - — Dan, barman and Van fan from Van., Can.
EVAN JOHNSON STAFF
On Thursday March 1, legendary Celtic-soul-rock-jazz-blues-folk singer-songwriter Van Morrison graced Winnipeg’s MTS Centre with his Irish presence, delighting the crowd of 11,000, which was composed almost entirely of my friends’ parents. Though notoriously curmudgeonly and aloof as a performer, Morrison was a veritable Teletubby (without the fluorescent cephalic protrusions): smiling, thanking, even joking. With his appropriately titled and extraordinarily proficient 10-piece “Van Morrison Band” in tow, he worked his way through a 100-minute set of 19 songs culled from nearly four decades of material.
In the days running up to the show, there was much talk of Morrison’s grouchy punctuality: the tickets said 7:30 sharp, and rumours flew that latecomers would be shunned, or even arrested. So when Morrison didn’t take the stage promptly at exactly 7:30, I was understandably outraged, and expressed my displeasure to Uptown’s John Kendle. That hardened concert-goer was totally unphased by the slight delay, used as he no doubt is to seeing selfish bands stumble on stage 11 hours late, coked-up and wearing only Vaseline-begrimed tube socks. But I’m both inexperienced and a stickler for exactitude — nothing excites me more than an accurate bus schedule or a rectal exam briskly and efficiently administered — and no amount of legendary genius is going to obscure the fact that tardiness is a most contemptible vice.
By 7:43 I was ready to leave and was putting on my coat — off to demand a refund! — when Morrison’s band took the stage to play a couple of pleasant country-rock numbers. And when Van finally arrived on stage 10 minutes later, sax in hand and a hat on head, and began singing “Wavelength” with his still-powerful and inimitably soulful voice, I began to calm down and enjoy myself.
The weakest of the night’s material, as is often the case with performers who peaked creatively over 30 years ago, was the more recent stuff, “All Work and No Play” from 2002’s Down the Road and “In the Midnight” from 1999’s Back On Top being particularly forgettable, though the band’s lively and professional solos and Morrison’s vocal performance kept me from nodding off in my cramped plastic chair.
Thus it’s also no surprise that the evening’s most compelling numbers came from Morrison’s late-’60s early-’70s work. Though Astral Weeks, his most emphatic masterpiece, went entirely unrepresented, as did 1974’s Veedon Fleece, the audience was treated to a jaunty “Domino,” a jazzy (as usual) “Moondance,” and an almost raucous “Baby Please Don’t Go” on which Morrison broke out the harmonica. Another highlight came in the form of oft-covered and nearly-impossible-to-ruin “St. James Infirmary,” which Morrison and company treated as a hot and atmospheric saunter.
Despite these highs and lows, the music was generally very consistent. Too consistent? For my part, though I know it isn’t quite safe to say this publicly, I felt the second half of the set fell into a bit of a rut and was for the most part merely pleasant, so that by the time Van and his harmonica harshly squawked out several identical notes in succession, during “Help Me,” the act seemed genuinely avant-garde. Finally a rupture in the bourgeois complacency of the audience; people were vomiting in the aisles, cutting up credit cards, not flossing, committing adultery. And standing! The audience was finally standing up, after 88 minutes of polite prairie placidity. Dancing even! There’s gonna be a lot of hip replacement surgery in Winnipeg’s near future!
Finally, with the evening winding down, came the classic “Brown-Eyed Girl,” easily the most rapturously received song of the evening, and easily my least favourite. I just can’t stomach a roomful of “Sha-la-la-las”; that’s more sappy happiness than this grouchy writer can handle. Luckily, that nauseating garbage was followed by closer “Gloria,” which perfectly cleansed my palate and sent me happily on my way, to be home and in bed by 9:30, just like I like it.
