When you hear the music ringing in your soul
And you feel it in your heart and it grows and grows
It comes from the backstreet, rock & roll
And the healing has begun

The whole thing seems so surreal. I still can’t believe it happened. Van Morrison performed all of Astral Weeks at the Hollywood Bowl, two nights only, for an upcoming DVD release. And I saw it!

Van did two sets. The first was various hits, the second was all of his landmark album Astral Weeks. (Can you believe he wrote that when he was 23 or 24?)

1st set:
Wavelength
St. Dominic’s Preview
Caravan
It’s All In The Game/You Know What They’re Writing About
Here Comes The Night
And The Healing Has Begun
Summertime In England
Brown Eyed Girl
Gloria

2nd set: Astral Weeks:
Astral Weeks
Beside You
Slim Slow Slider
Sweet Thing
The Way Young Lovers Do
Cyprus Avenue
Ballerina
Madame George
Encore: Listen To The Lion

Even with him playing for at least 2 solid hours it was over way too soon. I kept thinking of songs I wished he’d do (“And It Stoned Me,” “Wild Night”)—but then I realized if I started listing all the songs I’d want to hear it’d be a four-day show.

But we got “Brown Eyed Girl,” which I have an impression is one he doesn’t do very often. It was so fun when he’d sing, “And we used to sing” and the crowd would do the “sha la la” part. Then he’d say, “Just like that.”

I was really happy to hear “St Dominic’s Preview.”

“Sweet Thing” is my favorite song of all time and he seemed to rush through it a bit. He has a thing where he sometimes doesn’t pronounce words all the way, just makes sounds, and he basically did that through the whole song. I know the words by heart, so I could tell what he was saying, but my friend who didn’t know it couldn’t understand anything.

He didn’t say anything all night, except to ask the sound guy “Is there no strings in that song?” when they (violinist, cellist, etc) weren’t coming through properly. He also once or twice switched mics and the mic he switched to wasn’t on yet. I wonder if someone’s getting fired.

The only other time he spoke was during the second set when he said to the crowd, “Thanks for making a happy man very old.”

I can’t wait for the DVD.

No cameras allowed, but here I am in the tshirt I picked up:

Baggy eyes and all.

We had fun crowding into a standing-room-only shuttle on the way back to where we parked, only to find that the lot we parked in was completely blocked in by protesters for prop 8. The police had all the streets surrounding where we parked blocked off. I’ve never seen so many cops in my life. Cop cars, motorcycles, SUVs, and even cops on horses everywhere. Cops all in riot gear with tear gas cannisters. I had visions of my car being lit on fire in a riot. When we were on the sidewalk and an SUV drove by with cops hanging off the sides of it, someone next to us called out, “Are we in a movie?” It took us an hour to finally get into our car and out of there. My friend was freaking out, her father used to be an LA Sheriff so she’s heard lots of horror stories. I thought it was pretty fun, myself.