Manchester Bridgewater Hall – 28/05/19
I have to say, I’m a
little bit of a Waterboys fan, so I jumped at the opportunity to see them at
Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall on Tuesday. I have seen them once before, on
their previous tour, supporting the ‘Out of all this Blue’ double album and I
was blown away. Consequently, I was expecting great things as I entered a
nearly packed out Bridgewater Hall and let me tell you, they did not disappoint.
I was a little bit surprised at the lack of Support Act and
the fact the show was split into two half’s. The band kicked off at 8pm, played
until 9 and then had a half hour break, then returned and played until
10.30pm. It’s always hard for a band to come straight out and play to a cold
audience. It took the audience a little while to warm up and then with the
break, they were then hitting a cold audience yet again. To say that some of
the audience were restless is an understatement. I have no idea why, because
the Waterboys well and truly delivered.
The band kicked off with ‘Where the Action Is’, the title track from their new album. The sound was perfect; you can tell a lot of time has been spent getting the levels just right, some bands have a ‘that’ll do attitude’ and you can’t hear certain parts, but not the Waterboys. You can hear everything that is going on and what a huge sound.
Mike Scott just seems to get better and better with age. His voice is something else. It’s raspy, its rough. His song delivery is a cross between Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler, he is truly sublime. I really liked the new songs; they have a similar feel to the songs of the previous album.
They’re certainly not a band to ignore their past though, no, the second song was a classic song from 1984, ‘All the Things She Gave Me’. It definitely had a more modern feeling, with the introduction of the mighty Steve Wickham’s fiddle and an incredible keyboard solo from Brother Paul, but more about him later.
Steve Wickham is a force to be reckoned with. His fiddle playing is truly magnificent, almost seeming to make his fiddle sing. It was really nice in the second half, Mike and Steve played ‘The Raggle Taggle Gypsy’ a traditional Irish number. The crowd were elated. It is almost impossible to stay sat down with Steve Wickham strutting his stuff, the whole audience were on their feet, clapping and stamping along.
Another highlight of the night was the song ‘Nashville Tennessee’. From their last album, it features a cool keyboard solo by the only American in the group, Brother Paul. Brother Paul has only recently joined the group, after persistently trying to play session keyboards with them a few years back. He has repeatedly said ‘My soul is in Memphis, but my Ass is in Nashville’ and as such, Mike Scott wrote a song about it. And what a song! I didn’t think it could get much better than the recorded version on the album. But, how wrong was I?
They turned it up to eleven, they sang through the song, we had the, frankly amazing keyboard solo, played by Brother Paul and then Mike stops everything and tells him he can do one better. ‘This is Manchester after all, there’s people in here that can remember us playing the Apollo back in the eighties’, that received a cheer from the crowd, so the song started up again, Brother Paul unleashes hell and high fury on the ivories. An absolutely awe inspiring keyboard solo was played and again, Mike stopped proceedings… ‘This is the home of Britpop, Oasis, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses. Brother Paul has no idea what kind of a musical city we’re in…’ And again, Brother Paul steps up, unleashes a mighty solo and again Mike Scott stops him. Mike then tells the crowd that brother Pauls favourite band is Kiss, and ‘tonight, for one night, I want a solo in the style of Kiss’! I didn’t think it was possible to play keys that hard and that fast, but Brother Paul did. Yes, his keys were certainly smoking by the end.
The Waterboys played an excellent selection of songs. They didn’t focus too much on their new album, they only played six or seven new songs out of a twenty song set. I love their energy, their sound is amazing. Mike Scott is a super frontman, Steve Wickham takes the fiddle to the next level, he’s also an accomplished guitarist and we got to witness his axe wielding too, only on one song mind you and Brother Paul, as the comparative new boy, is stunning.
Overall it was a fantastic night. I went in with very high expectations after seeing them on their previous tour and let me tell you, they well and truly exceeded my expectations. As reviewers, we are quite often asked how many stars something would get… Well, 10 stars out of 10 doesn’t come close, even the spinal tap eleven is only just getting within the right ball park. The Waterboys are simply one of the best bands out there and one of the best bands I have ever seen.
