Concert Review: Joan Baez - Tacoma, WA - November 18, 2006

What a wonderful concert! We saw Joan Baez at the ~1100-seat Pantages theater in Tacoma, WA. We had great seats, 4th row just to the left. She was accompanied by a bass player and a fellow who played dobro, guitar, mandolin, lap steel and a few other instruments. This was the first time I have had the pleasure of seeing her in concert and I hope it isn't the last. It is the first time I can remember an audience member yelling out a request and then a singer doing that song -- on the spot (Freedom Now).

She told stories and jokes and even recited a recent poem she wrote: Rumpty Dumpty sat on a fall, Rumpty Dumpty had a great fall. She had several comments on the recent elections but that we now have a lot of work to do. All in all she played for nearly 2 hours, and did two encores - although it seemed only one was planned.

I didn't make a set list as we went a long so these songs are from memory and I may be missing some but among those she sang (and I am listing my favorites first):


Scarlet Tide (very nice rendition, although of course not as wonderful as the Emmylou/Elvis Costello version), very nicely received by the audience most of whom I doubt was familiar with the song
Christmastime in Washington
Jerusalem
Carrickfergus
Joe Hill
Deportee
Long Black Veil
Jesse
Diamonds and Rust (second encore)
There But for Fortune
Freedom Now
Sing Me Back Home (told a story about Merle Haggard and how she was wondering about his politics and upon finding he couldn't stand G Bush Sr, said she thought he was a Reagan man, discoverd he said, "that's because he pardoned me"
Caleb Meyer (very nice version of the Gillian Welch song)
Sweet Sir Galahad (told the story of writing this for her sister)
With God on our Side
Wildwood Flower
Lily of the West
Neighbors - a "ditty" she called it written by the aforementioned dobro, etc player in her band
Coconuts - a rather humorous tune

Van Fans - Seattle Meet-Up - November 4, 2006

And a good time was had by all -- Here are some Van Fans meeting at the Pyramid Ale House before the Van Morrison Concert in Seattle. Most are members of an internet mailing list for Van Morrison fans and had planned the gathering via emails. Some had met each other before but others had not. A great way to start the evening!

Concert Review: Van Morrison, Seattle, November 4, 2006

It Was a Wonderful Night for a Moondance

To say I had been anxiously anticipating this evening was a huge understatement. I had been wanting to see the Celtic poet who sings to my soul for many, many years. He was #1 on my list of singers I had never seen in concert. I didn't think he was ever going to come back to Seattle and was thinking I was going to have to travel to San Francisco or somewhere else to go see him. But patience paid off and finally he came to town. My daughter and I had planned to attend together and we had excellent seats -- 9th row, dead center. At the last minute, my husband was able to get tickets as well.

Well let me back up a minute. The evening began with a meet-up of about 20 members of the Van online group at the nearby Pyramid Ale House. We enjoyed two hours of craic (that's Irish for a good time ) with this very enjoyable group of people which included a gal who came all the way from Pensacola, Florida just for the concert. One fellow had an extra ticket which John bought - I was excited that he was able to attend as well. I think Kristin, John and I were the only Van "Virgins" in the group. A very fun moment came when I met two sweet gals from Vancouver Island in the ladies' room. We discovered we were all going to the concert and they shared the fact that they had met Van the night before at Lola's restaurant -- and shook his hand! I invited them upstairs to tell the rest of the group their story and we all had a good laugh. I also shook the hand of the hand that shook Van's hand .

At 6:30 we walked across the street to the new WaMu Theater at Qwest Field, the new venture by billionaire Paul Allen that had opened up the night before. A portable theater, it sits in the Qwest Events Center and we were all curious to see (and hear) how it was going to be put together.

Van is known to be in a perpetual bad mood. He is not known to be friendly and runs a very tight ship on stage. There is a time clock on stage that starts at 90 minutes and runs to zero. That is when the show ends. And it starts precisely on time. Pity the poor people who aren't in their seats (and those sitting next to them) at the appointed time. We did have problem with a b*tch in the 7th row sitting in front of Kristin who wouldn't sit down, even after being asked multiple times. Finally the guy sitting in front of me tapped her on the shoulder and asked her to sit down. Then this b*tch goes up to the front of the stage and talks to a security person who then directs her to another security person. She then comes back and sits down. A few minutes later, a security person comes over and squats down to talk to the guy sitting in front of me, and the aforementioned b*tch says, "He assaulted me!" Everyone around us was shocked and we said she was lying and that wasn't what happened. He said a few more words to the guy in front of me and left. At least the b*tch sat down for most of the rest of the concert. I had better never meet her in a dark alley anywhere. I was ready to trip her with my umbrella on the way out but decided that I had better things to do.

But I digress. The eejit in the 7th row was soon forgotten as the excitement of seeing Van took over. Our seats were soooo good. I recognized most of the songs on about the third note, and screamed and clapped and cried and sighed and had goosebumps. The disappointment of him not doing my two favorite songs (Into the Mystic and Irish Heartbeat) was quickly overcome by him doing Moondance, Crazy Love, I Can't Stop Loving You, Real Real Gone and a powerful, powerful Saint James Infirmary that had the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. He ended with Brown-Eyed Girl and Gloria, as expected and halfway into Gloria we had our purses and coats on and were ready to dash into the aisle to get out of the doors before the crowd. It was an appropriate end to the evening that when we got outside we looked up and saw that there was a full moon.

Set List:

1. Boogie Woogie Country Girl (opening by the band)
2. Back on Top
3. Fame
4, Stop Drinking
5. Beautiful Vision
6. Cleaning Windows
7. There Stands the Glass
8. I'm Not Feeling It
9. I Can't Stop Loving You
10. Moondance
11. St. James
12. Precious Time
13. Crazy Love
14. Playhouse
15. One Irish Rover
16. Real Real Gone
17. Wild Nights
18. Brown Eyed Girl
19. Gloria

This was my first Van Morrison concert -- but I can assure you that it won't be my last. I can tell that seeing him live is going to be like an addiction, once won't be enough. The high one gets is just too great.