TORONTO - When you go to a concert you ideally hope you get your money's worth and the artist in question makes every second onstage count.

For fans of Irish soul icon Van Morrison, those two criteria become all the more crucial considering the steep cost for his tickets and his occasional erratic, unpredictable short shows.

So when the 62-year-old singer sauntered out with his nine-piece supporting cast at Massey Hall Monday evening, the ensuing 95-minute set was quite worthwhile but still had some strange twists and turns.

Van Morrison, touring behind this year's Keep It Simple album, kicked things off with Wild Night before finally working off any noticeable vocal rust with the light and soulful Tupelo Honey, directing his band with subtle hand gestures when not belting out lyrics or tooting his own horn as he did during a few saxophone solos.

"And now for something completely different," he said prior to the rather roots-y title track off the new record. But he shone on the blues-tinged That's Entrainment, a phrase defined by Van Morrison as basically being lost in the music.

Fortunately for fans which filled most of the venue at the early start time of seven o'clock, the performer was often lost in that music, whether it was the strong effort he gave on In The Afternoon or on the groovier Cleaning Windows.

However it was around this time when the concert started to get interesting, be it for good or bad reasons. With his group eagerly waiting for the next song title to be uttered by the main man, Van Morrison nailed Saint James Infirmary with its morose, New Orleans jazz funeral introduction.

From there, he threw his band and the crowd a true curveball. "Just play something, anything while I talk," he quickly scolded keyboardist/trumpeter Paul Moran before introducing the next song: a cover of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb.

The track, which Van Morrison originally performed back in 1990 when Roger Waters staged the classic Pink Floyd album The Wall live in Berlin, resulted in some hair-raising, spine-tingling moments on this night. While looking down at a lyrics sheet, he managed to make the song into his own with his unique, powerful range and passion.

"I hope you liked that," he said. "I'm not numb and I'm not comfortable."

Yet for all he showcased on that particular track, Van Morrison came back down to earth in a hurry during Raincheck. While the song contains the lyric, "I don't fade away unless I choose," some of the lyrics had faded from his memory on this night. "I can't remember the last words," he quickly ad-libbed before adding "the show must go on."

Meanwhile, his rendition of Moondance seemed a bit flat as he let his two female backing vocalists take lead for a verse.

Following the somewhat spiritual tone to And The Healing Has Begun (during which he mentioned Ronnie Hawkins who was in attendance), Van Morrison exited only to quickly return for Gloria, capping off a night that was far from B-O-R-I-N-G.