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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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The
Waterboys Live
The Waterfront Hall, Belfast, Northern Stocki finds The Waterboys proving beyond doubt that music can be a spiritual conduit as he describes another thin place where all that is good about God's creation could be mystically experienced... Mike Scott has got out from beneath the London smog and rediscovered the purity of his vision; The Waterboys are riding on the crest of their muse. Since A Rock in the Weary Land, none of which was performed in this concert, Scott has uprooted himself again and moved back to the north east of Scotland to be near his beloved Findhorn Community. Add to this his reunion with fiddle king of Ireland Steve Wickham, so influential in his Irish folk diversion in the late ‘eighties, and you get a live extravaganza that bristles and yearns in mystical elevation. The concert was one of two halves. First up, Scott and Wickham along with Richard Naiff, who has certainly grafted himself onto the fiber of the collective and become as important as Anto Thistlethwaite was in days of yore, did an acoustic set that was charged with a purpose and dramatic effect and totally gripping. It was here that the new songs from Universal Hall found their place and the title track itself was the revelation with its nod to Morrison’s Astral Weeks in its born-again refrain; a he-who-loses-his-life-will-find-it kind of philosophy. “Everything is Yours” is a perfect illustration of Scotts strengths. Seemingly so simplistic in lyric and melody, it is sublime in its perfect form. “The Christ in You” has a mere three lines that you would think would become tiresome in repetition. However, its spiritual impact added to Scott’s ability with tunes makes it a powerful meditation on loving your neighbor as yourself. The night’s surprise was the number of songs performed from 1990’s Room to Roam, the album that just tipped the scales too far towards Irish folk and ended up as the swansong for that Spiddal-based community of players and Wickham’s last studio contribution until Universal Hall. With Wickham’s return to the fray we should not have been surprised but the deconstruction of the songs from their fiddle-dee-dee state and set in the current acoustic soul format breathed new life into “Further Up, Further In” and “A Life of Sundays” in particular. “The Man is in Love” was less of a surprise but no less of a revelation. It was the best showcase of this trio’s sense of unity and Naiff was flowing as freely as his flailing hair. The second half started much as the first with the only discernable difference being a new rhythm section whose bass player, Steve Walters, added to the look and, along with Carlos Hercules, gave a tight, trademark Waterboys’ dexterity to the groove. “Peace of Iona” exploited that swing and sat perfectly alongside “Strange Boat” in feel and pilgrimage. It was when Scott picked up his electric guitar that the clearest view of heaven opened up. “The Pan Within” took listeners on that journey under the skin, yes, but far beyond the material world in an extended guitar solo that proved to all the begrudgers that rock music could be one of the most exhilarating spiritual conduits. There were other fabulous moments like “Glastonbury Song,” “Whole of the Moon” and the wondrous “Fisherman’s Blues” but it was here that Scott took us to another of those thin places where heaven is literally within touching distance if we didn’t actually just dabble our souls on the refreshing waters the other side of its border. The devil had nothing to do with this music. There were no hints of lies, deception, or destruction. This was uplifting, positive and blessed, none of which can be conjured in the pits of hell. Ending his encores with “Go Lassie Go/ Wild Mountain Thyme,” even with his nod to Northern Irish folkster Francis McPeake as its source of origin (took a Scot to tell me it wasn’t Scottish!), was a little bit of a let down musically as by that stage the usually well behaved Waterfront Hall audience had left their seats to create a forty-something disco type vibe! I am sure they were dreaming of “Savage Earth Heart.” In some ways, this was another indication that nothing tonight was without careful artistic intent. This was not a retread of old hits for the sake of it but a crafted night of music. Another aside is to look at the vast difference in the set list to his 2000 Ulster Hall gig; a sign of how strong The Waterboys’ catalogue is. At concerts-end I stood up with a satisfied smile on my face but there was the deepest feeling of a smile in my soul. For me, who brought my belief in God to the show, I had without doubt experienced a spiritual time. It was like a refreshing unadulterated glimpse of the beyond and the sense of something very clean and untarnished happening within. At the top of their form as they were tonight, The Waterboys’ inspire and ignite the soul and mind and heart like few others can. Scott once said that the old Waterboys’ sound wasn’t coming back, yet here it was alive and well with resurrection power. Steve Stockman 11/5/2003
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