On paper, The Waterboys' 'An Appointment with Mr Yeats' looked like an interesting flight of fancy that might make for a good-but-odd night out. On stage it sounded like an amazing album that you couldn't wait to have in your collection. I was lucky enough to see the first and last shows of Mike Scott and company's five-night stand at the Abbey Theatre, and everything from the intro music to the epic encore of 'Don't Bang the Drum' and 'The Whole of the Moon' was magic.
In 1988, having already performed WB Yeats' 'The Four Ages of Man' live, Scott put the poet's 'The Stolen Child' to a beautiful melody on The Waterboys' 'Fisherman's Blues' album. The idea of doing a whole concert of Yeats' poems in the Abbey has been a dream for him over the decades; in 2010 everything aligned and what the words have brought to Scott's music and vice versa is stunning.
The Abbey shows took in rock ('September 1913'), blues ('The Lake Isle of Innisfree'), pop ('Sweet Dancer') and ballads ('Song of Wandering Aengus', 'Down by the Sally Gardens') and no sooner was one song over than the ache to hear it again began. To have an audience of all ages and different nationalities hanging on every line and chord of almost entirely new material is some achievement - Scott and his band could've played the whole set twice and still had people wanting more.
They're doing it at all again in November at the Grand Canal Theatre. If you want the memory of a lifetime, buy a ticket.
Harry Guerin
