Van Morrison in New York CIty 4/29/07

Great Van show at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden. I was there with my pal DJ Wilbur who has this to say about the show. I pretty much concur

DJ Wilbur's Van Morrison review

I saw a killer Van Morrison show last night at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden. Whenever you see Van and the tickets say 7:30 sharp….be there on time. His “orchestra” came on stage at 7:30 and vamped to “Train Kept a Rolling” and then at 7:35 out came the man in the hat in mighty fine voice hitting us with “Talk Is Cheap” and I’m thinking, strange choice for an opener, he must be in a grumpy mood and its not gonna be a phenomenal show…so he turns his back to the stage and he starts pointing to musicians to take solos during this and he’s liking what he hears cause as I’m a bit on the side, I see him with a big ole grin on his face and I know this is gonna now be a great show…

Set list

Talk Is Cheap

Not Feeling It Anymore

Stranded (with Van on the Sax)

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You (completely re-arranged, it was no longer a ballad, not sure it worked really)

There Stands The Glass

Playhouse

Next Van spoke to the audience and said the next song was a special request from Vincent Pastore, (who plays Sal “Big Pusy” Bonpensiero on the Soprano’s) who I spotted in the audience near me prior to the show starting. He Requested:

The Philosphers Stone (quite the highlight this one)

Don’t You make Me High

I Cant Stop Loving You

Moondance (Van on sax)

Wild Night (this was a big let down, didn’t work in its arrangement, still a noble attempt)

Segued into Real Real Gone

Next was some boogie woogie kinda thing, I didn’t know it

Precious Time

Encore

And The Healing Has Begun

Gloria

Brown Eyed Girl

A really great show. The only thing was he was barking at some of the musicians and publicly humiliating them for “not keeping time”. He was like a really strict school teacher, waving his arms and pointing at them and speaking to them on mike during I believe it was And The Healing Has Begun. I’d heard he’s done this in the past, but I’ve never seen this behaviour before and it was most un-satisfying. Lets face it, he doesn’t rehearse and he does nothing but throw the band curveballs with set list changes every night. They did an outstanding job the whole show and I’m sure that drummer will not soon forget his public humiliation any time soon.

Houston does Austin

Rita Houston reports back from SXSW in Austin

Peter Buck’s body language was screaming ‘don’t approach me’ as he sat in a first class aisle seat on the flight to Austin. Such is SXSW. U get Peter Buck on your plane. I did not say hi. Funny thing is I had my big headphones on sending out my own message I guess.

SXSW is spring break for the music business. At a time when the entertainment industry is in total flux and the music ‘business’ is shrinking fast, SXSW continues to grow. This is the place where the indie is the mainstream. Bands you, and I, have never heard of and may never hear again, get their shot. With thousands of bands playing from all over the world.

I’m listening to The Supremes on my way down wondering If I’ll catch a band that's all that---with that ‘star potential’. The next Supremes? Yeah, where are they? That’s what I’m going to look for. Baby Love, Come See About Me---you only need to hear those songs once to remember them. And the vocals, wow, those girls could sing. I caught Diana Ross on American Idol just 2 nights ago. It’s a sign. This is my mission---I must find the next Supremes.

I’m only half joking as SXSW features SO MANY bands with buzz both real and imagined it can make a girl cynical about what really matters. We’re all running around checking out these random bands but it’s all so indie and so niche based it won’t really have an impact. Or will it? Isn’t this where Norah Jones first attracted national attention or Franz Ferdnand or??? So, is that BIG STAR here—the one with old fashioned star power who can save the business??? I’ll let you know….