Van Morrison On The Astral Plane

Van Morrison played two sensationsal sets at the Wamu Theater last night in the second of two nights at the 5600 person capacity MSG venue.  Van put together a crowd pleasing song list for the first set that many fans have been waiting his whole career to hear.  It could only be characterized as a ‘greatest hits’ set and which varied from the ones he played in November at the Hollywood Bowl.  He was in great voice and played sax, guitar, and harp on top of  leading a 14 piece band  (2 cellos, 2 violins, gtr, bass, sax, trumpet, pedal steel, 3 backup singers, drums, and keyboards/flute) with hand gestures and occasional verbal commands.  The Astral Weeks set was glorious.  He changed the order of songs slightly by moving Slim Slow Slider towards the beginning and ending with Madame George which was indicative of his attitude toward the material. It’s his so he enhanced and accentuated what he felt like while bringing the seminal album to life.  Here’s the full set:

Northern Muse/Spirit/Moondance/Wild Night/Jackie Wilson Said/Baby Please Don’t Go/Can’t Stop Lovin’ You/And it Stoned Me/Comfortably Numb (Yes - Pink Floyd cover!)/Queen of the Slipstream/And the Healing has Begun/Domino/Brown Eyed Girl/Common One.........Astral Weeks/Beside You/Slim Slow Slider/Sweet Thing/Cyprus Avenue/The Way Young Lovers Do/Ballerina/Madame George......Listen to the Lion/Gloria