The Waterboys (3 replies)
Friday night was The Waterboys at The Forum in Bath. My wife came with me this time because she likes the band. Most of my other music, she doesn’t really care for!
Not been to the venue before, but it’s a pleasant place inside. We were in the Circle, but pretty central.
The support was a man and woman singing their own songs. Got to be honest, wasn’t my cup of tea. I found her voice irritating, although the bloke had a nice voice. Sadly she didn’t do a great job of a Joni Mitchell song, and they lost me.
The Waterboys set started with Mike Scott walking on stage on his own with an acoustic guitar, and he started singing A Pagan Place. The rest of the band, (bassist, drummer and two keyboard players), joined him one by one, and the song built as the joined. I really liked the way they did it.
Glastonbury song was next followed by How Long Will I Love you. Then it was All Souls Hill, not a track I knew - but I enjoyed it. They went straight into the excellent Medicine bow.
It’s worth mentioning here that the composition of the band was very different. Of cause traditionally, saxophone and fiddle were lead instruments in many of their songs. Neither were played in this setup. Instead the keyboards covered it.
I mentioned there was two. One played as a traditional electric piano, but the other more as an effects keyboard. My wife was a bit disappointed, as she loves the saxophone. Personally I like it when bands mix things up and I enjoyed the change.
Talking of mixing it up, the next track was the wonderful title track of the album This is the Sea. It was played in a laid back way. It’s difficult to explain. It was played in a combination of styles. A ballad, folky, with an element of swing! Sounds odd, but it was brilliant. Probably my favourite version of the song I’ve heard.
Then Mike Scott introduced the next section. They’ve recently released a new album called Life Death and Dennis Hopper. The album is a homage to the late actor, but Mike explained that it was more than that. It was also about his proximity and interaction with popular cultural events.
The band played 13 of the 23 tracks from the album. Although I didn’t know any of them, I really enjoyed it. They were well written and many of them quite rocky. There was a couple of ballads and a couple of folky / country in style. I’ll have to check the album out. The tracks performed were:
Kansas
Live in the Moment, Baby
The Tourist
Andy (A Guy Like You)
Blues for Terry Southern
Hoppers on Top (Genius)
Transcendental Peruvian Blues
Michelle (Always Stay)
Ten Years Gone
I Don’t Know How I Made it
Everybody loves Dennis Hopper
Golf, They Say
The Passing of Dennis Hopper
Mike thanked the audience for their patience and attention while they played the new songs. The applause suggested that most people enjoyed them too.
We then had the familiar sound of the trumpet of the opening track of This is the Sea. This was played on a backing track, I didn’t mind - the band came in at the appropriate moment and we were into Don’t Bang the Drum, my favourite track. I was delighted. The wonderful Whole of the Moon was next followed by Spirit. All off the same album. The set was completed by The Pan Within.
After rapturous applause, the band returned and straight into A Girl Called Johnny. The song was off the self named first album Mike Scott has said that the song was inspired by Patti Smith, who he admired greatly. Unfortunately during the song. he had an issue with his mic while he was also trying to play the piano. In the end he had to stop. He lamented the fact that it’s often a nightmare vocalists on keyboards. They restarted from verse 2.
They then did a song called Wasted Sunset written by Barny Fletcher about his mum who loved The Waterboys. Barny has joined the band for this tour providing extra vocals for some of the Dennis Hopper songs. Mike explained that it was a privilege to play this beautiful song. Barny sang the lead.
The set finally came to an end, with fan favourite Fisherman’s Blues. This had the synth player playing one of those guitar style keyboards for the fiddle part. It really worked well! That was it, we were done.
The Waterboys have always been a band to mix it up, and this was no exception. I really enjoyed the evening. They played a number of my favourite songs and I really enjoyed the Dennis Hopper set. The lack of saxophone and fiddle didn’t detract either.
Not been to the venue before, but it’s a pleasant place inside. We were in the Circle, but pretty central.
The support was a man and woman singing their own songs. Got to be honest, wasn’t my cup of tea. I found her voice irritating, although the bloke had a nice voice. Sadly she didn’t do a great job of a Joni Mitchell song, and they lost me.
The Waterboys set started with Mike Scott walking on stage on his own with an acoustic guitar, and he started singing A Pagan Place. The rest of the band, (bassist, drummer and two keyboard players), joined him one by one, and the song built as the joined. I really liked the way they did it.
Glastonbury song was next followed by How Long Will I Love you. Then it was All Souls Hill, not a track I knew - but I enjoyed it. They went straight into the excellent Medicine bow.
It’s worth mentioning here that the composition of the band was very different. Of cause traditionally, saxophone and fiddle were lead instruments in many of their songs. Neither were played in this setup. Instead the keyboards covered it.
I mentioned there was two. One played as a traditional electric piano, but the other more as an effects keyboard. My wife was a bit disappointed, as she loves the saxophone. Personally I like it when bands mix things up and I enjoyed the change.
Talking of mixing it up, the next track was the wonderful title track of the album This is the Sea. It was played in a laid back way. It’s difficult to explain. It was played in a combination of styles. A ballad, folky, with an element of swing! Sounds odd, but it was brilliant. Probably my favourite version of the song I’ve heard.
Then Mike Scott introduced the next section. They’ve recently released a new album called Life Death and Dennis Hopper. The album is a homage to the late actor, but Mike explained that it was more than that. It was also about his proximity and interaction with popular cultural events.
The band played 13 of the 23 tracks from the album. Although I didn’t know any of them, I really enjoyed it. They were well written and many of them quite rocky. There was a couple of ballads and a couple of folky / country in style. I’ll have to check the album out. The tracks performed were:
Kansas
Live in the Moment, Baby
The Tourist
Andy (A Guy Like You)
Blues for Terry Southern
Hoppers on Top (Genius)
Transcendental Peruvian Blues
Michelle (Always Stay)
Ten Years Gone
I Don’t Know How I Made it
Everybody loves Dennis Hopper
Golf, They Say
The Passing of Dennis Hopper
Mike thanked the audience for their patience and attention while they played the new songs. The applause suggested that most people enjoyed them too.
We then had the familiar sound of the trumpet of the opening track of This is the Sea. This was played on a backing track, I didn’t mind - the band came in at the appropriate moment and we were into Don’t Bang the Drum, my favourite track. I was delighted. The wonderful Whole of the Moon was next followed by Spirit. All off the same album. The set was completed by The Pan Within.
After rapturous applause, the band returned and straight into A Girl Called Johnny. The song was off the self named first album Mike Scott has said that the song was inspired by Patti Smith, who he admired greatly. Unfortunately during the song. he had an issue with his mic while he was also trying to play the piano. In the end he had to stop. He lamented the fact that it’s often a nightmare vocalists on keyboards. They restarted from verse 2.
They then did a song called Wasted Sunset written by Barny Fletcher about his mum who loved The Waterboys. Barny has joined the band for this tour providing extra vocals for some of the Dennis Hopper songs. Mike explained that it was a privilege to play this beautiful song. Barny sang the lead.
The set finally came to an end, with fan favourite Fisherman’s Blues. This had the synth player playing one of those guitar style keyboards for the fiddle part. It really worked well! That was it, we were done.
The Waterboys have always been a band to mix it up, and this was no exception. I really enjoyed the evening. They played a number of my favourite songs and I really enjoyed the Dennis Hopper set. The lack of saxophone and fiddle didn’t detract either.