I'm a long time fan and I have seen him play many times over the years. I consider myself lucky in that he really does not play many shows here in the US. He was here in Boston last Friday to do a show and when tickets went on sale I missed it. In the past this always meant the only way to get tickets was through an agency and that you would have to pay a lot more for them. I did not discover he was playing here in Boston until about a week or so after the tickets went on sale. I figured I was out of luck but I went online to check and much to my surprise there were still plenty of tickets available. I was shocked because he was playing Boston on the Friday before St. Patrick's Day...that pretty much made it about as hot a ticket as they get. This was the funny part, I figured there may be a few seats way in the back but it was just the opposite, plenty of seats right in the first 12 rows. In fact I had my choice of front row seats. All of the seats in the back were sold out but there was a reason for this, the good seats to the show were $300 each...that was face value not an agency price. I did not really want to pay $600 for two tickets to Van Morrison so I hunted around for some seats further away from the stage (probably not something people are used to doing when buying tickets to a show) but the best I could do was some seats at the front of the balcony for $250 each...I ended up skipping the show. Not that I don't think Van should be able to charge whatever the market will pay to see him but I just found that to be pretty poor value.

Van these days only plays about 70 to 80 minutes. It seems he wants to be on his way to the next gig about 90 minutes after the show starts and really he moves things right along. The last two or three times I saw him play he really flew through his sets. If the ticket says the show starts at 7:30, it starts at 7:30 on the dot and he is gone no more than 90 minutes later...I mean just as the clock strikes 9 he is gone if not before. Here's the review from his show last Friday:

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Van Morrison keeps it simple, by choice By Geoff Edgers, Globe Staff | March 17, 2008

You can depend on Van Morrison. He shows up exactly when your ticket says he will, and there's no need to worry about keeping the baby sitter late. Morrison punches through his 90-minute set as if he has a train to catch. Made famous for his mystical musical journeys, in concert he tends to, as the title of his upcoming record is named, "Keep It Simple." He cares certainly, gripping the microphone and belting out his white-man soul with conviction. But he's become more about consistency than conducting a spiritual self-exam onstage. At 62, hidden by his trademark fedora and sunglasses, Morrison embraces midtempo blues and jazzy shuffles. He's far more Mose Allison than "Into the Mystic."

The fans don't seem to mind. Like Dylan diehards, they accept and embrace their hero's path. Morrison doesn't chat between songs and he doesn't take requests. Even if you're paying several hundred dollars to see him, he's not about to play most of his best known records. Friday night, at the Citi Wang Theatre, Morrison's set included more than half of the adult-oriented R & B on "Keep It Simple," a mediocre album that won't be out for two weeks.

Should we praise such fan loyalty? Should Morrison be lauded for refusing to rest on his catalog? That depends. Fact is, the singer's best moments during Friday night's concert came during the less familiar. "Behind the Ritual" is a mantra of a song that happens to be the best recording on his upcoming album. It built slowly and steadily until his 11-person band hit a groove, and Morrison, inspired into a series of scats, slowly marched off the stage. Morrison's cover of "Stop Drinking" was made gritty by the band's dueling guitarists. Older nuggets such as "Vanlose Stairway" and "Magic Time" were strong as well, and Morrison seemed to dig into his newer, midtempo songs, giving "School of Hard Knocks" and "Soul" tougher readings than on the record.

But he sleep-sang through "Bright Side of the Road" and turned "Moondance," easily the best known song of the set, into a loungey band jam. The hard breaks on record were turned softer than baked brie. Morrison didn't bother singing the second verse, letting his band members take a vocal turn.

That would have been easier to take if Morrison showed he couldn't hit the high notes. But he can. This was a choice, as were the sometimes cheesy arrangements that held back his band, which periodically showed it could pull off country, jazz, and even something approximating garage rock on a few encore verses of "Gloria."

Listening to Morrison sing, watching the smiles as they spread throughout the house, you almost felt guilty to be secretly wishing the singer would put down his sax, grip that microphone, and trot out "Brown Eyed Girl."

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You'll note he pretty much backs up what I said and that 90 minute thing is from the time his toe hits the edge of the stage when he first walks out to when his ass hits the seat of the car taking him back to the hotel, or airport or whatever. So, in general you are only going to see about 70 to 80 minutes of music before he is gone. I'm not complaining...in fact I think that's fine but I would not pay $600 to see it. I'm just thinking about the past.