****
With a gradually building revival over the past few years and excellent new album to promote The Waterboys' star has risen again to the point that they can sell out the Royal Albert Hall.  A rapturous celebration of their music ensued at an excellent gig though this time I found myself appreciating the quieter, more subtle parts of the performance rather than the bluster elsewhere.

One less subtle moment which I did enjoy though was the stunning, inspiring opener Glastonbury Song with its chorus of ”I’ve just found God”.  Indeed!  This was followed by two of the more ordinary songs from the new LP Book Of Lightning (It’s Gonna Rain and Love Will Shoot You Down) which preceded a brilliant version of Old England with Waterboys mainman Mike Scott playing the piano in his own unconventional though highly effective way.

Next up came the beguiling Strange Arrangement, a highlight from the new album.  The other highpoint of the new songs performed was another piano ballad Sustain though it was disappointing that The Waterboys didn’t play either the brilliant You In The Sky or Everybody Takes A Tumble from the new LP.  Both songs were performed at the Cambridge Corn Exchange gig a couple of weeks ago but not tonight for some reason.

Maybe they didn’t have time for these songs, as there were extended versions a-plenty elsewhere.  Live improvisation is good but did we really need long versions of Medicine Bow and Be My Enemy as well as the expected extension of The Pan Within?

Although The Waterboys were promoting Book Of Lightning, the serious fan will have noticed that the gig could easily been promoting another album – their landmark This Is The Sea LP from 1985.  In addition to the four tracks already mentioned, a celebratory Whole Of The Moon was of course also performed, this time with guest Waterboys alumni Roddy Lorimer on trumpet.  Great to see him with the band again though surprising that he didn’t reappear to replicate his brilliant solo on the LP version of Sustain.

As well as This Is The Sea, The Waterboys also played a copious amount of tracks from their other most famous LP, 1988’s Fisherman’s Blues.  Among the highlights from this era were a haunting Stolen Child with madcap keyboardist Richard Naiff on flute and rollicking When Will We Be Married.  The concentration of songs was so great that the band only played four-and-a-half songs not on Lightning, Sea or Fisherman’s – the half being a superb cowpunk-y Killing My Heart, contained on the Fisherman’s LP in its country cousin form as When Ye Go Away.

One of the other tracks performed was a stunning Red Army Blues with superb fiddler Steve Wickham performing Anthony Thistllethwaite’s saxophone part on his violin as he had also done so brilliantly earlier on Old England.  The ever-thin Mike Scott was also on good, high-kicking form with a recent unexpected gift for humour nicely counteracting the intensity elsewhere.  The 2007 live Waterboys model is completed by newcomers Mark Smith on bass and Damn Wilson on drums.  Smith and Wilson may not be such gifted musicians as their immediate predecessors Steve Walters and Carlos Hercules though they are probably better at providing sympathetic backing to the quieter, more subtle moments in the Waterboys oeuvre.

Maybe there was a little too little subtlety and too much bluster in The Waterboys performance for this fan who may have also felt a sense of slight diminishing returns having seen the band play two similar sets in little over a year.  However, there were still new and old highlights a-plenty in yet another excellent gig.  The rapturous revival continues.

18.5.07   

Set List (with notes on any interesting Mike Scott quips) 

Glastonbury Song
It's Gonna Rain
Love Will Shoot You Down (dedicated to Tony - in audience)
Old England
Strange Arrangement
Dumbing Down The World (preceded by comment on Heat magazine)
Peace Of Iona
Killing My Heart
Whole Of The Moon (comment on Alan Klein)
Sustain
She Tried To Hold Me (sung seriously despite the corny lyrics)
When Will We Be Married
Dunford's Fancy
Stolen Child
Red Army Blues
Medicine Bow (with the band wearing masks)
The Pan Within

Encores
Be My Enemy
Fisherman's Blues