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13/07/2004 Van Morrison in Germany last weekend
German reader Dagmar Rost reviews last weekend's Frankfurt and Bonn shows exclusively for Music for Grown-Ups: Two mixed shows, in Frankfurt and Bonn, last weekend. Neither gig approached the level of Antwerp, the best Morrison gig I've seen in the last four years. In Frankfurt, Cheryl Grimes warmed up the crowd - she's from Ireland but has been living in Switzerland for many years. Not bad; I liked her Irish traditional acappella. I know others have been posting positive reviews, but I didn't like Van Morrison's performance in Frankfurt at all. To me it was Van the jukebox again, the greatest hits machine doing his job. All right, we got Into the Mystic (and Van on sax towards the end): it was ok, but not the superior Mystic version with scatting. Georgia was fine too, as was Arklow - the Arklow in Antwerp was much better, but it was nice to hear him do it again. The biggest surprise was at the end - And It Stoned Me - I can't remember how long since Van played that song - great, really enjoyed that one. They also did the Batman theme in Help Me. From there onwards the audience went bananas - got up, started dancing, came to the front of the stage… I was disappointed that Candy Dulfer didn't appear with Van, but I enjoyed the Bonn gig more than Frankfurt. The set list was similar (All Work, Whining Boy, Belly, Here Comes The Night, Baby Please, Lately, Choppin' Wood, Precious, Fame, BEG, Gloria…), but Morrison appeared to be more into it (as far as he could be at a festival gig). He seemed to enjoy it more - you always can tell when he starts shakin' his legs and movin' around. We got a nice Cleaning Windows/Boppin' the blues; a very good Afternoon/Ancient Highway/Raincheck (and the audience was very quiet); an ok Phil Stone (I still love this song, but once again the best part - lillies etc - was missing); another It Stoned Me and a good Baby Blue (which had the audience singing along). I thought the band played better in Bonn than Frankfurt; Martin Winning had some nice solos. All in all: I've seen much better Van shows, and many worse. Rave on to the next one.
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