Van Morrison Gig Review

One of the most legendary natives of Belfast, Ireland, Van Morrison has lived one of the most-storied careers in all of rock history. From the magical days in the ’60s when he fronted the blues-pop ensemble, Them, Morrison’s pipes are one of the most instantly recognizable ever.

Morrison recently performed to a near sold-out audience at the Leader Bank Pavillion in Boston, Massachusetts. While his voice is always in top form, Morrison sounded spectacular on the opening cuts of newer material such as “Dangerous” (from 2022’s “What’s It Gonna Take?” album), and “Thank God For The Blues” (lifted from 2021’s “Latest Record Project, Volume 1”).Never shy about going deep into his catalog, Morrison did a beautiful rendition of “Precious Time” (from his criminally underrated 1999 disc, “Back On Top”). He also created some amazing blues moments at the Pavillion, during both an interpretation of Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Tell Me” and a medley of “Baby, Please Don’t GoGot My Mojo Working”, when Morrison played his most impressive harmonica work of the night. Sandwiched in between the blues numbers, Morrison gave a nod to the Motown sound, with a rollicking take of Barrett Strong’s “Money (That’s What I Want)”.

Morrison threw out a tasteful cover of John Lee Hooker’s “Think Twice Before You Go”, followed by a most surprising song choice in honor of recently-deceased jazz multi-instrumentalist, Joey DeFrancesco, whom Morrison had played with. He performed “You’re Driving Me Crazy” (written in the ’30s, the song was made popular by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians).

Except for moments as when he dedicated the song to DeFrancesco, Morrison kept the between-song chatter to a minimum.

While he did not join him onstage, Peter Wolf (lead singer of The J. Geils Band) was spotted in the Pavillion during the evening. Not surprising, as the two have had a decades-long friendship going back to when Morrison resided in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts during the late ’60s.

After the spiritually-inspired “In the Garden” and “Down to Joy”, which was most recently featured in the 2021 film, “Belfast”, Morrison’s set really caught fire. Beginning with a raucous “Wild Night” and an outstanding interpretation of Sonny Boy Williamson’s blues classic, “Help Me”, Morrison concluded the show with his iconic “Brown Eyed Girl”, followed by an epic version of “Gloria”.

While “Gloria” was penned by Morrison during his time in Them, it was The Shadows of Knight who recorded the most popular version of the song, which cracked the Top-10 in 1966. Sadly, The Shadows of Knight’s lead vocalist, Jimy Sohms, passed away last month. Although Morrison never said a word about his death (being a man of few words), it very well may have been his unspoken tribute to Sohms.

Morrison left the stage during “Gloria” and his phenomenal nine-piece-backing band continued to jam on “Gloria” for nearly another 10 minutes, each taking brief solos on their respective instruments. And while the crowd seemingly expected Morrison to return at some point, he never did. So, when the jam ended, the concert did as well.