Van Morrison: In Concert Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Van Morrison: In Concert Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 14, 2018

Van Morrison may seem a little reserved at times during this 2016 concert, at least in terms of stage persona, though if you listen to his voice, while it may not have quite the liquidity it did in younger days, it still resonates with same kind of poetic and dare I say mystic authority it always has. There are a couple of things that make this concert perhaps even more enjoyable than “just” seeing Morrison live in concert would have been anyway, and that includes the setting, which is the relatively intimate BBC Radio Theater, a space that’s rather narrow and may even remind stateside viewers of the pretty enclosed spaces they see bands perform in on Saturday Night Live. The second is the kind of insouciance Morrison displays at times in slightly tweaking arrangements of some of his best known material, as in “Brown Eyed Girl”, which here assumes a slightly swingy feel. Backed by an energetic but respectful sounding band, Morrison segues effortlessly from vocals to sax at various points and delivers an enjoyable if perhaps just slightly inevitably nostalgic feeling show.

The nicely nuanced band includes Paul Moran on piano, Hammond, keyboards and trumpet; Dave Keary on electric guitar, acoustic guitar and lap steel guitar; Paul Moore on electric bass and double bass; Mez Clough on drums; and Dana Masters on backing vocals and percussion.

Van and the band perform the following songs:

• 1. Too Late
• 2. Magic Time
• 3. Wild Night
• 4. Medley: Baby Please Don't Go / Don't Start Crying Now
• 5. Here Comes The Night
• 6. Every Time I See A River
• 7. Cleaning Windows / Be-Bop A Lula
• 8. Let It Rhyme
• 9. Whenever God Shines His Light
• 10. Sometimes We Cry
• 11. Going Down To Bangor
• 12. The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword
• 13. Keep Me Singing
• 14. Enlightenment
• 15. Carrying A Torch
• 16. Brown Eyed Girl
• 17. Jackie Wilson Said
• 18. In The Garden

Van Morrison: In Concert Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Van Morrison In Concert is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision, an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment, Universal Music Group and BBC Music with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. While this is a perfectly competent looking presentation, it can't quite overcome a ubiquity of blue lighting, something that tends to shroud the outer extremeties of the admittedly pretty narrow stage, making detail levels a little iffy at times. There are a number of fairly "arty" setups, such as seeing band members through the vantage point of close-ups of a drumstick completing a rimshot, something else that can tend to at least slightly tamp down detail levels, since the ostensible items of interest are typically in the background. With simpler setups and when close-ups are employed, detail levels are quite good most of the time, but again seemingly dependent at moments on lighting conditions and exactly which cameras are used. For example, a lot of the straight ahead shots of Morrison boast typically very excellent detail levels, while sometimes shots of backup players off to the side and captured at angles don't have quite the same clarity or general detail levels.

Van Morrison: In Concert Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Van Morrison In Concert features both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 mixes (as sometimes seems to be the case with Eagle Rock releases, the disc is authored to default to the stereo track rather than the surround track). Because this is a smaller, more intimate show, with a relatively small band and no real "arena" presentational aspects, there may not be as much of a difference between the stereo and surround tracks as some might initially think. That said, the surround track significantly opens up the midrange and (especially) the low end, giving a nice full sound to some of the massed rhythm instruments (especially some of the nice organ work). Van's vocals are mixed very well, though he doesn't really "belt" in any meaningful way (as has always been his tendency), and so at times he tends to become just very slightly buried in the mix. Fidelity is great across the board, and there are no problems whatsoever with anything like distortion.

Van Morrison: In Concert Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Up on Cyprus Avenue (1080i; 59:05) is a whole second concert from August 2015 for the East Side Arts Festival on Cyprus Avenue, which the insert booklet describes as "the tree lined Belfast street imortalized on the classic Astral Weeks album in 1968." This concert features the following songs:

  1. Cyprus Avenue

  2. Celtic Swing

  3. Cleaning Windows / Be-Bop a Lula

  4. Days Like This

  5. Precious Time

  6. Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child

  7. Baby Please Dont Go / Parchman Farm / Don't Start Crying Now

  8. It's All in the Game

  9. Burning Ground

  10. Whenever God Shines His Light

  11. And the Healing Has Begun

  12. On Hyndford Street

Van Morrison: In Concert Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Van Morrison In Concert offers a nice if hardly sweeping array of Morrison material, and of course there are going to be longtime fans who will wonder why this or that tune wasn't included. But this is a very sweet selection of tunes performed with grace and even wit by Morrison and this band (some of whom look pretty dang young and are probably a little gobsmacked to be playing with a legend like this). The show is staged simply, letting Morrison's music and redolent lyrics take center stage, as is probably best. While not "unplugged" in the traditional sense, there is that feeling running through this relatively brief concert, and as such Morrison fans may enjoy seeing him stripped of studio artifice or even any major trappings of being a major rock icon. Technical merits are generally strong, and Van Morrison In Concert comes Recommended.