Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, February 17, 18, 19, 2026

What a treat. Van Morrison for three nights in a row. One of the things you can count on with Van is he changes his taste in setlists all the time, so out in the audience, you’re always in for a different show every time. Heaven forbid you go in hoping to hear one of your favorites, because the odds are stacked against you.

But if “Gloria” is one of those favorites, lucky you, you got to hear it all three nights, closing the show each time. As Van is wont to do, after he’s finished singing the song, he wanders offstage and leaves the band to jam for five or ten minutes. The jam is always different, which is a plus in the song’s favor. On the final night, we were treated to an elongated dueling guitars riff, featuring Elvin Bishop and Anthony Paule. Not a blistering blues guitar duel — which would have been spectacular — but more of a gentle-on-my-mind riff, which was quite entertaining. Then again, I am a sucker for blues guitar.

The first six songs each night were set in stone, all from Van’s latest album, “Someone Tried To Sell Me A Bridge.” The first two, in jump blues fashion, “Kidney Stew Blues” and “Snatch It Back And Hold It,” were soon forgotten with Van’s introduction of John Allair on organ and keyboard, the author of the next song, “(Go To The) High Place In Your Mind.” In days gone by, Allair opened many a Van show with this song, so many of his fans are familiar with it. To those of you who fit that bill, you’ll appreciate just how much better it is with Van singing along. Van will do that on duets — as soon as his voice comes in, the song moves into a league of its own. A nod of the hat to the first night’s version, with Van playing with words and bits to see what worked, so naturally this was a delight to my ears, and the first highlight of the night, followed quickly by the second, “Ain’t That A Shame,” with Van pulling at our heart strings, building up the song, then grinding, grinding, grinding “stop breaking down” to bring it to a close. It left me wanting more.

By the tenth, ninth or eighth song, depending on the night, Elvin Bishop joined the band for the remainder of the show and Van’s harmonica got heavy in the mix. He played sax frequently throughout the shows, but the more harmonica, the deeper south the blues. Mmm mmm. “Deep Blue Sea” and “Madame Butterfly Blues” leaped bounds over the studio versions, and I hope Van chooses to keep the latter in the set for a while. This song could go places.

On the second night, Van sang “Little Village” for us — a popular favorite, much loved by us all, and very much appreciated when he performs it. It was not the blues, so it was a curious addition, but no curiosity on night three, when he added “Early In The Morning,” “Ain’t Gonna Moan No More,” “Baby, Please Don’t Go” with a “Parchman Farm” medley coda, which fit like a glove in his blues set. “Ain’t Gonna Moan No More” particularly stood out for the contributions of the band. Other than those songs, there wasn’t a huge variety in the setlist over the three nights, Van told us he was going to do the new album all three nights, and that’s what he did. The only songs from the album he didn’t perform were “Betty and Dupree,” “Delia’s Gone” and “I’m Ready.” One might expect him to perform these missing songs over the course of the two nights he has left to play in San Francisco and the two nights coming up in March in Boston.

Regardless of the strengths of the songs from the album, it was the inclusion of the old standard “Help Me,” especially on the first night, when Van gave it everything he had, striding across the stage, “Go out when I go out, come back when I come back, SING when I sing, DANCE when I dance, over over to match his stride. The following two nights didn’t meet the same intensity, so Van’s adage that you have to go to more than one show to get any sort of idea of what he’s up to held true last week. I wouldn’t have missed the shows for the world.

Shout out to Mitch Woods on piano, David Hayes on bass, Bobby Ruggiero on drums, Anthony Paule on guitar, and Omega Rae Brooks and Larry Batiste on backup vocals. And Van’s daughter Shana Morrison, for her opening set each night.

Who else but Van for today’s song …