I finally got to see a full-band Waterboys set last night. Maybe it's just the fanboy in me (because I know as many people loathe Mike Scott and co. as love them), but I thought it was great. It was heavy on the band's new record
Modern Blues, but they played "A Girl Called Johnny" and "The Three Day Man" from the first album, as well as, of course, "The Whole of the Moon" and "Fisherman's Blues." I don't remember the last time I saw a crowd go as crazy as this one did when they started "Moon" - and this was a middle-aged, seated crowd in a theater usually used for plays and classic films.
They also played "Don't Bang the Drum," slowed down to a sparse dirge with just Mike Scott on piano and Steve Wickham on electric fiddle.
Oddly, they did not play the new record's "Beautiful Now," which seems to me to be the obvious instant classic. Otherwise the new record's songs really came alive onstage, including "Long Strange Golden Road," which I found self-indulgent on record but really made sense live.
Besides the stalwart Wickham (who is not only an amazing fiddler, but a good showman, the perfect foil for Scott - I can see why they've worked together all these years), the band also included David Hood from the Muscle Shoals rhythm section ("He's played on more great records than the rest of us have had hot dinners," said Scott by way of introducing him) and Zach Ernst, an Austin homeboy who used to lead Black Joe Lewis' band the Honeybears and has lately been a producer for folks like Bobby Patterson and the Relatives. He was not only the only guy in the band under 30, I think he was the only guy under 50.
They also had a Memphis-based keyboardist named Paul Brown who was like Paul Shaffer trapped in Tiny Tim's body. His enthusiasm was almost comical, but man, he could play.
Anyway, you can find the setlist
here and a review by
No Depression editor/co-creator Peter Blackstock
here.
This was the first date of their North American tour, so my bet is that they're only going to get more potent from here. I highly recommend seeing them this trek if you're a fan.
