The Paddy’s festival fireworks were cancelled – due to bad weather – but sparks still flew by the Liffey for anyone lucky enough to be in The Point on the night. Always at their best onstage, The Waterboys ‘07 incarnation is every bit as powerful as the collective that exploded onto the scene with the Big Music almost 25 years ago. Now a tighter unit, with founder Mike Scott and violinist extraordinaire Steve Wickham leading from the front with a tight rhythm section and tasty keyboards, they kicked off on a high octane note with the superb ‘Everybody Takes A Tumble’, a song rescued from the Fisherman’s Blues sessions for their current Book Of Lightning album.
Scott himself appears to have hardly aged (claiming to be on the side of the Pagans on the night that was in it) and served up a varied set that included newer numbers along with old favourites such as ‘Old England’, ‘The Pan Within’ and ‘Glastonbury Song’. He’s not one for crowd-pleasing gestures. so there was no joy for the bloke who kept shouting up for ‘A Man Is In Love’. “You should know us well enough to realise we never do requests,” Scott told him matter-of-factly. Wickham, an essential part of the Waterboys sound, was in his usual incendiary form, careening across the stage, duelling with Scott and the other band members.
Some might have been disappointed by the absence of their best known number ‘Whole Of The Moon’ but with the set bowing out with the majestic ‘Medicine Bow’ and a rollicking ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ no-one was complaining.
Pic: Naomi McArdle