If you’re an old-school fan of The Waterboys then you might have been waiting nearly 30 years for Saturday’s gig.
The legendary Scottish folk-rock outfit finally hit Aussie shores, playing their first show at The Tivoli in Brisbane—and they did not disappoint, putting on a masterful display of folk-rock theatrics.
Eerie Morricone-esque horns drifted across the darkened theatre as the band came on stage. The lights rose and a wizened Mike Scott stood centre stage, a feathered fedora capping his disheveled hair and brandishing a mahogany Gibson Firebrand.
As the pre-recorded horn intro faded from the speakers (the band was sadly without a horn section) they launched into the driving fan-favourite “Don’t Bang The Drum”, from 1985’s This Is The Sea.
For just a moment it seemed as though Scott was lip-syncing, so clear, crisp, and powerful was his voice. There are some musicians whose vocal gifts get somehow lessened or muted by the recording process, only reaching full, passionate intensity during a live performance: Scott is one of those vocalists.
The band quickly moved on to another early classic, “All The Things She Gave Me”, with Scott trading soloing duties with master rock fiddler Steve Wickham.
Wickham’s eccentricity and stage presence (wild grey hair, purple blazer like a violin-wielding Joker) at times saw him drifting into the lead-man role as Scott stepped aside for the fiddling virtuoso.
Scott soon traded his Gibson for the acoustic guitar of “Killing My Heart”. The track grew from a country-folk ballad to a driving rock crescendo, highlighting the great Professor Ralph Salmins’ power drumming and Scott’s punky snarl.
From there, Scott put aside all guitars in favour of the keys and began to pound out “A Girl Called Johnny”, with Wickham’s violin offering a brilliant imitation of the track’s original 80s sax riff.
“The Girl In The Swing” saw Wickham again taking the spotlight for an impassioned violin solo climaxing with him down on his knees, head thrown back, sawing away like a folk-rock Hendrix.
Scott and Wickham, left alone on stage, combined for their version of the old folk standard “The Raggle Taggle Gypsy”, before being rejoined by the rest of the band for a truly epic version of “The Pan Within”; which rose to a soaring climax with a reverb-drenched garage guitar workout worthy of the best of Crazy Horse.
And then there was intermission… 25 minutes of dead time breaking up the vibe of an epic gig.
The second set saw the band delving into a range of new tracks, largely from their most recent album An Appointment With Mr Yeats, including “Song Of Wandering Aengus”, “Whitebirds”, and “September 1913”.
These tracks ranged in style from the Brecht and Weill trashcan balladry of “News For The Delphic Oracle”, to the terrifying cacophony of “Mad As The Mist And Snow”, which saw Wickham and Hallawell donning black masks and bringing the noise with a chaotic call and response battle royale on fiddle and keys.
The theatrics peaked as Scott emerged from the back of the stage wearing a trifaccia mask, like some nightmarish Mephistopheles, and holding an oversized book from which he proceeded to bark out Yeats’ classic poem “The Second Coming”.
The first encore saw the band return to their folk-rock roots playing their bouncing hit, “The Whole Of The Moon” and the long awaited “Fisherman’s Blues”. The audience, energetic and spry – despite their collective decrepitude – sang along, danced and spun around the floor of The Tivoli.
The second encore was slightly more mystifying, with Scott reappearing to play one of the heaviest (and lesser known) tracks in The Waterboys’ catalogue, the wild “Be My Enemy”, before finally settling into a generic folksy closer. This was a curious choice, particularly since classic tracks like “A Bang On The Ear” and “The Big Music” didn’t get played.
Despite the intermission and the strange second encore choices, The Waterboys put together a truly excellent gig. It may have taken nearly 30 years to get here, but it was well worth the wait.
