The Waterboys review: New tunes and old classics in the mix at 3Arena

Fiddle player Steve Wickham joined The Waterboys onstage in Dublin for a special encore  

The Waterboys at 3Arena, Dublin. 

The Waterboys, 3Arena, Dublin,★★★☆☆

Mike Scott doesn’t faff about, jumping straight into a flailing and urgent Be My Enemy, kicking out encouragement to the other Waterboys around him to keep up. To his left, visual foil and professional rock'n’roller Brother Paul chops at the organ keys like they’ve challenged him to a fight. Without breath or break they charge into Medicine Bow with Scott clanging out the changes on his Perspex guitar and personifying that “typhoon on the rise”.

The Waterboys go at it like a gang of young lads in a battle of the bands rather than a seasoned act. “Nice to be back. Nice to be home,” honorary Dub Scott tells us before they hurtle on.

 This Is The Sea is recast (“Things happen, songs change,” says Scott) as mid-period Dylan with lyrics altered to allude to “1933” and “a thousand ways to complain". It’s fairly plain who he’s aiming his ire at.

The middle section presents their admirably ambitious concept album Life, Death and Dennis Hopper. Despite Scott and co picking the choicest cuts, including a rocking Hopper’s On Top, The Who-like Transcendental Peruvian Blues, and a very groovy Michelle (Always Stay), and converting 3Arena into a psychedelic cinema to present them, audience reaction is more polite than rabid, presumably due to unfamiliarity.

The Waterboys at 3Arena, Dublin.  

But while my mate Kate texts “What’s this?” and a couple of punters start looking at their phones, many more are turned on to some fine music. Job well done, Scott thanks us for listening, and returns to more familiar fare.

The opening trumpets swell of Don’t Bang The Drum reawakens the doubters and when the beat kicks in – rhythm section Eamon Ferris and Aongus Ralston are solid as the Brian Boru Bridge – the place goes bananas. Brother Paul gets his Keytar out for A Girl Called Johnny, throwing shapes like a man wrestling a particularly slippery fish but in a very funky way. Both he and fellow keyboardist James Hallawell lose it altogether for The Pan Within, duelling from across the stage before wrestling the same instrument to close it out.

More cameras flash than for the last papal visit when Scott encores with The Whole Of The Moon, repeating the “Too high, too far, too soon” refrain for maximum effect.

But the best is saved for last as fiddle god Steve Wickham re-joins the band for a truly uplifting Fisherman’s Blues, taking this reviewer all the way back to Shinrone in 1988.

A game of two halves then, but two very good ones.