Mike Scott brought his latest version of The Waterboys to Montreal last night and I thought it was about time that I saw him again. It's been almost forty years (since 1986 in Dublin's Croke Park) but I've kept up to date with his music, having a particular fondness for his album of Yeats' poems set to music.
It was an excellent gig and, in a good way, quite the loudest I've been to for a while. This incarnation of the Waterboys is a powerful and tight band, Mike Scott charismatic and witty as always.
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| Mike Scott. Picture from my phone |
The audience was a real mix, men and women of all ages, most of them familiar with the old songs and ready to listen to the new ones. Fisherman's Blues came up early for a singalong to get everyone going; This is the Sea had some updated and hard-hitting lyrics for the times we live in and was a highlight. Prince's Purple Rain was a surprising and brilliantly performed encore that went down well with the crowd. The last song of the evening, of course, was The Whole of the Moon, and Scott encouraged the crowd as we roared out the lyrics. This song would be in my personal top 10 favourite songs of all time: musically it's joyous, lyrically it's poetry, and I tear up almost every time I hear it. In particular the lyrics in the bridge just get me every time:
I spoke about wings,
You just flew.
I wondered, I guessed, and I tried.
You just knew.
I sighed,
But you swooned.
I saw the crescent,
You saw the whole of the moon.
The whole of the moon
Twas indeed a lovely September evening in Montreal.
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