re: Most disappointed you have ever been after a concert?

11-1-2008. Widespread Panic, UNO Lakefront. Everyone was waiting for the Fishwater as the last song of the encore. Dummer is too fricked up to finish the encore after the first song and the band ends the show with Pilgrims, not playing The Last Straw or Fishwater. Place was fricking up in arms about it... Otherwise, great run that weekend.

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Van Morrison.

I love the guy--he's one of my all-time favorites. However, when you see him in concert (and I have many times) you never know what you're gonna get. He could sing half the songs with his back to the crowd. If he's in a blues or jazzy mood, all songs are blues or jazzy. Even if he plays something you've heard before it might be a verse before you recognize it. And it's not like all I want to hear are his hits, but good luck if you came looking for them.

In my experience I like his sets better lately than in the 80's/90's. I've had good and bad concert experiences with Van but as Forrest Gump said, "It's like a box of chocolates".

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So much truth in this post that I don't know where to begin.

Like yourself, I'm a major fan of his from way back. Also like yourself, I've seen him numerous times. (Twice in San Francisco, once here in Vegas and once at a Jazzfest evening concert at UNO.) SF must bring out something good in Van because both shows there were awesome. The Vegas show was a mixed bag. He did some of the "hits" but it was obvious that he wasn't wild about doing them and he just sped / growled right through them. However, his version of The Healing Game that night brought down the house.

UNO was the "bad" show (1996 or 1997, if memory serves.) He was scheduled to be the headliner with Buddy Guy opening and The Radiators playing second. Problem was, he was also scheduled to perform at the Fair Grounds for his Jazzfest set the next day and (according to folks I knew working backstage) made it VERY clear that he wasn't going to do a late show at the Arena, then do a full set at the FG the next day. So, The Radiators come out first, do about half an hour then give way to Van. Van comes out before most of the crowd has started to show up, plays barely an hour, no encore, little if any interaction with the crowd and completely mails in his performance. Towards the end of the show, the majority of the crowd is arriving, thinking that he's performing last. They quickly realize that they've effectively missed him, at which point they become agitated and many start booing him, likely explaining why he left quickly with no encore. In the end, poor Buddy Guy has to come out to lots of pissed off fans, many of whom are either still booing or streaming out of the venue. He did a damn good show, especially under the circumstances but I felt awful for him.