Set List: Van Morrison, Austin, Texas 2008

The day before Van Morrison was to make his first-ever appearance at SXSW, he delivered a set heavy on tracks from his album due April 1 from Lost Highway, “Keep It Simple.” Some might argue – and I am sure plenty of car discussions on the way home involved this – that a concert with prices of $250 and $150 for orchestra seats deserved a heavy dose of the familiar.
Not so with VanMo. The Belfast Cowboy delivered seven or eight tunes from “Keep It Simple” in his encore-free show March 11 at the Austin Music Hall and beyond “Moondance” and “Bright Side of the Road,” Morrison stuck with tracks from his recent country and jazz discs. He did however, play more alto sax than usual and his voice was spot on.
The set: 

This Love of Mine / Can You Dig It / Playhouse / Magic Time / Moondance / I Can’t Stop Loving You / How Can  Poor Boy / That’s Entrainment / Keep It Simple / School of Hard Knocks / No Thing / Professional Jealousy / Don’t Go to Nightclubs Anymore / End of the Land / Bright Side of the Road / St. James Infirmary / Behind the Ritual