R&B/Soul
Live Review: Van Morrison's Arc De Triumph
Van Morrison played to 3,000 fans at the new British Airways ARC at Olympia on Wednesday night (23.09.26).
Van Morrison has played in all sorts of venues, from huge stadiums to open-air festivals to small clubs, and his performance at the new British Airways ARC at Olympia on Wednesday night (23.09.26) was one of the more interesting settings of his career.
Yes, it was the right size, with just over 3,000 people watching a blistering performance, but somehow, it was much too clean and proper for a Morrison concert.
Really, his band's music is best suited to smoky, alcohol-laced venues, not somewhere that resembles an airport lounge.
However, wherever he plays, one thing is certain: the performance is truly wondrous. There is no performer in popular music that is as mystical, magical and magnificent as Morrison.
Before the show starts, the audience is treated to a mix of great music, mainly the kind of R'n'B songs that Morrison is most influenced by. But also, there is a nod to another legendary performer with Bob Dylan's I Want You.
One of the most important things about Morrison is the amount of reverence he pays to his backing band. He introduces the musicians backing him twice. Once near the beginning of the concert, and again towards the end. Because Van's musicians are not really a backing band, they are his musical accomplices, which is shown by the fact that in every song, there are solos from a several of them.
The concert begins with a number of covers. Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson's Kidney Stew Blues came first, followed by Junior Wells' Snatch It Back and Hold It, Marie Adams' I'm Gonna Play the Honky Tonks and Madame Butterfly Blues by Dave Lewis.
Down to Joy sees Morrison turn to one of his own compositions. This is a magical song, which featured a magnificent bass solo showcase. Afterwards, immaculate versions of Enlightenment and Tore Down a la Rimbaud pulsate and resonate through the hypnotised audience.
Adding to the eccentricity of the set are the strange noises and grunts that Morrison makes during the songs. His own interpretations of jazz musical improvisations.
Towards the end, Real Real Gone moved into Sam Cooke's glorious You Send Me. The two soul melodies enticingly entwining each other. Then came Into the Mystic, which is one of the standout songs that showcase Morrison's mysterious mysticism.
More than half a century after Morrison recorded it, the lyrics and the tune show off an ethereal quality that no songwriters match.
The show finishes with the three-chord anthem Morrison first recorded with Them, the raw and pugnacious Gloria, which brings the house down.
After Morrison leaves the stage, the band plays on for another 15 minutes, mirroring the way they performed at the beginning of the set.
There was something fitting about Morrison opening the first residency at this new Olympia venue. The building represents London's continuing appetite for the new, while the man on stage has spent a lifetime burrowing ever further into the music that preceded him.
Only weeks after receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Jazz FM Awards, he could easily have presented a victory lap. Instead, he gave us Eddie Vinson, Junior Wells, Louis Jordan, Sam Cooke, French poetry, Belfast mysticism and some of his most enduring songs, all jostling together.
At 81, Morrison appears considerably less interested in celebrating his legacy than in continuing the argument he has been making throughout his career: that the old music is never really old if you go deeper and deeper into it.
And on Wednesday night, he really dug in and we dug him.
Van Morrison returns to the British Airways ARC in London on September 24, 27, 28 and 29.
Click HERE for more information and tickets.
Van Morrison British Airways ARC setlist:
Kidney Stew Blues (Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson cover)
Snatch It Back and Hold It (Junior Wells’ Chicago Blues Band cover)
I'm Gonna Play the Honky Tonks (Marie Adams cover)
Madame Butterfly Blues (Dave Lewis cover)
Down to Joy
Moondance
Ain't Gonna Moan No More
Green Rocky Road
Enlightenment
Tore Down a la Rimbaud
Goin' Down Geneva
Brand New Cadillac (Vince Taylor & The Playboys cover)
Dweller on the Threshold
Early in the Mornin' (Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five cover)
Real Real Gone / You Send Me
Into the Mystic
Gloria
