FRONT OF HOUSE
VAN MORRISON, JAMES TAYLOR, AND WORSHIP | Kent Morris
Photo by Vishnu R Nair on Unsplash
I don’ t attend live music concerts as a general rule for several reasons. First, I usually get paid to be there working, so the thought of paying to watch my job being done by someone else isn’ t appealing. Second, the hassle of driving, parking, security, noise and sightlines is just too much. Third, the cost is unbelievable when tickets, passes, food, and merch are tallied together. Lastly, it just isn’ t enjoyable. Staying out late, being herded into a tight space with thousands of others and being accosted by generally mediocre AVL media lacks charm. However, when an opportunity arises to see James Taylor and Van Morrison together in an air conditioned and properly designed concert hall, bristling with the best gear in the world, then that is a different story.
Adorned with every arm band and lanyard color in the spectrum, I had front row, front section access to the night and relished the thought of what was to come. However, I was unprepared for the unfolding that followed. Van Morrison’ s band appeared late and eventually took their places as he unhurriedly scooted himself to the front and then hid behind mic stands and instruments for the next ninety minutes. There was no introduction, no acknowledgement of the crowd, nothing for several minutes as he adjusted things and finally began to play. Apparently, the free form motif is his norm as he merged one moment to the next, switching between harmonica, sax, and guitar. However, after three songs, several things became clear: everything was in the same key; there was serious disagreement as to the proper tempos, no one in the band wanted to be there, and the AVL crew had never seen any of this before. The I-Mag was unwatchable, the sound was dreadful, and the lighting only switched one color per song.
Toward the end, Van Morrison, obviously distraught with the set, slammed his mic until someone turned it on with a bang and then he walked off, never to return. Meanwhile, his band, which had been chastised throughout the evening by the man himself, decided this was their moment and proceeded to play an uninvited ten minute instrumental that went nowhere while the stage crew worked to get James Taylor’ s rig in place around them. What followed made it ever more obvious this was not the best use of my time.
James Taylor came out after his band’ s delayed entry, and was personable, engaging, and honest about overcoming his addictions. Lighting improved, the sound was tolerable and I-Mag at least knew where to point the camera, but the two critical ingredients in a James Taylor concert, his voice and guitar, were nowhere to be heard. The BGVs, though excellent, were far in front of his voice, and his amazing Olson SJ guitar, which should have been the centerpiece of the instrumentation, simply fed back whenever it was brought up. Overall, it was a waste of a fine evening for everyone.
Had this been a church worship service, or a night of worship, there would be a slew of postevent debriefs, long threads of emails going back and forth, and a reckoning to be had. As it was, none of that happened, and people walked out of the concert uninspired, which
leads to this conclusion: church worship holds a higher standard of excellence than $ 1,000 a seat concerts. Any church running 300 or more would have been devastated to deliver the level of execution I witnessed. Even though most of the church band and techs would be volunteers, their drive to excel would deliver where these highly paid professionals failed. I am struck by the dedication church musicians and techs bring to the service of worship. It is heartening to witness young video techs nail the I-Mag every time, to hear guitarists play in the pocket to support the song, and to listen to a well balanced mix with the worship leader’ s voice and guitar tightly sitting at the front, as God intended.
It has been said the Church is the musical incubator of our times, and I now know for a fact it is. The Church is birthing the best in music and tech which will carry the Gospel forward. James Taylor and Van Morrison need to hire a worship team.
Kent Morris Kent Morris is a 47-year veteran of the AVL arena driven by passion for excellence tempered by the knowledge all technology is in a temporal state.
88 August 2026 Subscribe for Free...