The Waterboys were transcendent!!
by watermuse on 2015-05-13Winter Garden Theatre - TorontoThe Waterboys concert, in short, was magnificent! It was masterfully performed and consistently inspirational. And, I must say, the Winter Garden Theatre was the perfect venue for it, and my wife and I had fabulous seats! Mike Scott was in top form. He looked every inch the star that he is, very cool, but he also was very personable -- often making witty and illuminating comments to the audience that were always warm and communicative. His band was very hot. The second biggest cheer from the audience, as the musicians first appeared on the stage, was, of course, for Steve Wickham. He also looked magnificently cool, and his playing was just simply phenomenal. They did nearly all of Modern Blues, and that was the focus of the concert, but, of course, they did some of Mike's most solid hits towards the end -- like The Whole of the Moon, Don't Bang the Drum and Fisherman's Blues. Anyway, the whole concert was transcendent, because, as you likely know, the whole of Modern Blues is a sublime masterpiece. Just a couple of more tidbits: the keyboardist, Paul Brown (or "Brother Paul," as Mike called him) was mesmerizing to watch. He was so physically expressive while playing. Every single note he played was accompanied with some wild ecstatic display of self-abandonment. And his huge perpetual smile was totally genuine. At first I thought he just had to be very stoned on some major drug, but soon it became clear: it was the music itself making him so explosively happy, even when he was just doing some simple clippy chordal accompaniment. David Hood, the bass player, by the way, was from Muscle Shoals. He had a big smile on the whole time, as well. All and all, it was a unforgettable night of musical and lyrical rapture.