You could’ve tagged The Waterboys’ two sets in the church-like atmosphere of Universal Hall as homecoming shows, except Mike Scott can now play the prodigal returned in a good half dozen territories across the world. And if he skips between town and country, the music also veers from cinematic rock to fireside folk.

Perhaps this is why the band have had more drummers than Spinal Tap, requiring either roundhousers like Jay Dee Daugherty, Jim Keltner and current hireling Geoff Dugmore, or light-fingered master thieves like Noel Bridgeman. Thus far, only Fran Breen and perhaps Peter McKinney have reconciled the poles, rhyming subtle with muscle.

But the current Waterboys set-list seems to have helped solve the dichotomy. The first half of each show sees the frontline of Scott, fiddler Steve Wickham and classically trained keyboardist Richard Naiff exploring the relationships between balladry, folk song and chamber music on the sparser tunes, gradually building in intensity until they are joined by bassist Brad Waissman for the still effervescent ‘Sweet Thing’/‘Blackbird’ segue, which fuses Van’s early free jazz to his later rustic works, and the rarely aired Yeats adaptation ‘Love And Death’.

But, as reported elsewhere, the true acoustic-to-electric epiphany occurs mid-way through ‘Strange Boat’, with its transformation from stoic anthem to full blown Crazy Horse fireworks, ignited by Scott’s fierce rhythm guitar.

Of the two shows, the first was characterised by a more formal atmosphere, and under scrutiny the band concentrated harder. The second was looser and more given to mischief. And while one must applaud the public service aspect of playing ‘The Whole Of The Moon’ straight, there is the lingering feeling it’s more for the fans than the band.

But Scott remains as wilful a bandleader as ever, finishing not with rock opera posturing, but downhome renderings of ‘Dunford’s Fancy’/‘The Kings Of Kerry’, and in the second set, ‘Further Up, Further In’ from the much maligned George MacDonald-inspired magical mystery tour Room To Roam.

The Waterboys are one of a handful of bands out there whose concert schedules are lifeblood rather than the sweaty end of a promo itinerary. Each successive album may contradict the last, but live in 2003 they’ve managed to master the paradoxes.