WaterboysFans - Review

THE WATERBOYS
CAFE MONO, OSLO - 19TH MAY 2003
REVIEW BY ANDY WALKER

Our tale begins last Tuesday when I got home to find a mail waiting
for me from Ragnar Andersen. So the Waterboys are playing a gig at
Mono on Monday 19th, and a very few tickets are available from Big
Dipper records in Oslo. Come Wednesday lunchtime of course I threw
myself in the car, and headed into town. The shop was shut. No sign
telling me when they might open. I wandered up the road, and back
again. Tried the door again. Still not open. There are two guys
moving around inside and I swear they're ignoring me. So I went for
a longer walk. My 30 minute lunchbreak is looking more like 90 minutes.
Back again and this time they're open, but they have no tickets,
and they don't know if they'll get any. Somewhat disgruntled I drove
back to work.

But then Thursday arrived, and with it the message on Delphi about
free tickets to the first ten e-mail replies. I sent off a mail as
soon as I could. I usually have the Delphi Forum active in my browser
at work, and refresh it between coding runs and when compiling -
so I knew the message was pretty fresh. I had to be in with a chance.
I had to laugh on Sunday when Cat told me she'd heard from Chris
Madden that I was the first one to reply. For anyone who doesn't know
Chris, he's the Waterboys soundman and is a lovely bloke. On this
particular day though his duties included handling all those
e-mails.

Early Friday afternoon I got the confirmation I was hoping and praying
for - my name would be on the guestlist at the door. Kristin had said
that yes, she would like to go with me, and baby sitting was swiftly
sorted. Hooray for mother in laws 

Roll on Monday afternoon. Kristin picked me up from work around four
thirty in the afternoon and we headed on into town. I had the bright
idea of parking in a multi-storey car park we hadn't ever used before
because I had a vague feeling it was close to the venue. As it turned
out it was reasonably close, but it took us at least 10 minutes, in
torrential rain, to even work out which direction we should be walking.
As we crossed Akersgata (Norway's answer to Fleet St.) we finally
knew that we were on the right track.

No problems getting into Cafe Mono. I don't think the man on the door
even registered my name. We got there just after five o'clock, and as
it turned out had almost exactly an hour to wait. We found some seats,
got a drink and started observing the other people there. Mono is a
dark, well worn place. The style is deliberately tatty, the walls
plastered with layers of concert posters and the ceiling painted all
black. The stage is  a raised dais in the form of a quarter circle
immediately to the left of the entrance door. As the clock ticked on
more people started arriving, some quite obviously fans, others just
as obviously journalists. One group of people decided to move their
chairs to form an arc a yard out from the edge of the stage. Not to
be outdone, we grabbed our bar stools and formed a second raised row
behind the first. Perfect positioning.

Glancing down at the row in front of us, I suddenly realised that
Christian Fog was sitting there. How I hadn't noticed him before I do
not know - I guess I just wasn't expecting to see him there after he'd
told of his struggle to get a ticket. We said a brief hello, before
settling down to wait again.

There wasn't much on the stage. A couple of stomp boxes, the monitor
wedges, and Rich's RD700 keyboard. A guitar tech sat on the far side
of the stage tuning one of Mike's guitars. Only one? But then the
aforementioned Mr. Madden arrived carrying another guitar case,
depositing it with the tech before taking up position behind his desk.
I'm assuming that the guitar Chris brought in had been used for
the radio session that afternoon, most likely the Martin HD28 (am I
boring you 

Enter The Waterboys, in the guise of Scott, Wickham and Naiff. For
the record Mike was wearing a diamond patterned black shirt and
familiar looking stripy trousers. Steve wore a loose suit with a
guitar motif belt buckle, a white shirt, and was sporting a little
wedge of beard below his lower lip. Rich was in a striped shirt, and
I believe he was wearing trousers, erm pants... whatever  Steve
carried in his fiddle, and Rich his flute which I hoped he was
going to play at some point though that turned out not to be the
case.

First track out was "This Light Is For The World", familiar to those
of us who've checked it out on the official website. What struck me
almost immediately was the way it just worked, perfectly and brilliantly
in the live setting. This was a feeling that repeated itself with
each of the new songs played. No matter what discussions and doubts
had gone beforehand with regard to the arrangements and lyrics and
themes of the Universal Hall album, the instant this magic trio let
the songs loose from the stage they became part of the thing that
is the Waterboys' music. What's more, I found this was history repeating
itself. Bring 'Em All In made so much more sense to me after seeing
Mike solo in 1995. Though I complain about the production on Still
Burning, the songs became a true part of the rich fabric when I heard
them live in 1997. Mike never takes the easy path, and sometimes it
seems hard to trust him, to follow him, but witness the Waterboys live
and all doubts evaporate. That's my experience.

Back to 'This Light...'. Steve's fiddle playing was exquisite. Mike
seemed animated, already throwing his leg out and launching himself into
the song. Rich was, well himself really. Throwing himself into his
playing, hands flashing on the keyboards - and I thought the new songs
really gave him a chance to shine. The end of the song was greeted with
much enthusiatic clapping and not a few shouts and whistles.

As Christian has noted, Mike joked about having done 27 interviews that
day, with something like most of the crowd present. Obviously the
interviews hadn't left a bitter taste. Mike seemed happy and talkative.

'The Christ In You' was next. On the Celtic Connections recording from
earlier this year, this song had left me with very little impression
at all. Tonight things were different, the song was beautiful and
powerful, with Mike enunciating the words carefully and deliberately.
After that I was expecting another new song, but after a brief huddle
the strumming pattern of 'Bring 'Em All In' began to take shape, picking
up a positive reaction from the crowd as they started to realise what
was coming. As usual a glance in Rich's direction revealed him singing
along. I had to point this out to Kristin, with the comment 'apparently
he sings as badly as me'. Then I realised that in this tiny venue,
with a relatively low volume level, I had absolutely no idea how loudly
or quietly I was talking. Best to shut up in case I incur one of those
deadly MS stares, or worse.

The only song of the evening I hadn't heard at all was 'Aint No Words
For The Things I'm Feeling' which came next. It left a very, very
positive impression. My appetite is well and truly whetted for the new
album now. Another great performance, similar in arrangement to the
version linked from the NRK website.

Introducing the next song, Mike said that they had played it many times
in Norway, but never quite like this. What we got was 'When Ye Go Away'
in a version very much in the vein of recent acoustic performances in
the UK. Again I was struck by Mike's determined vocal style, and for
what was billed as a "spiritual" adventure I felt ths was also very much
a rock affair. The now familiar piano/fiddle reel was once more quite
breathtaking. There was a certain sense of competition between Rich and
Steve which was more evident in their earliest shows together. More
recently I feel it has  been displaced by a musical cameraderie which is
absolutely no less satisfying.

On a roll, they played 'Sweet Thing' and if ever Van was thinking of
reclaiming his song he should seriously reconsider. Unsurprisingly the
song ended with 'Blackbird' and all too soon Mike was introducing
'Universal Hall' as the last song. Like 'The Christ In You', this
song made much more of an impression now than previously. Knowing the
words is always a big advantage of course - didn't see too many others
in the crowd mouthing along with me.

That was that then. Rapturous applause, a lot of bowing and thank yous,
and they were off out the front door, the same way they had come in.
Just as the clapping died away though they came back in. 'The car wasn't
ready,' claimed Mike, before adding with tongue in cheek, 'I kind of
hoped you'd still be clapping." Another onstage huddle ensued before
they launched into 'Fisherman's Blues'. It felt strange not to be
letting loose the joyous woo-hoo-hoos, but this wasn't the crowd for
it and Mike more than compensated in the delivery. The song ended with
Rich, Mike and Steve lined up like three stooges playing off each other
and turning up the tempo. Then it really was all over.

Several people seemed to trail Mike and Co. out of the door, but I was
determined to have a chat with Chris M. before doing anything else.
'What's next?' says I? 'Dinner!' says he. Busy guy, acting as tour
manager as well and soundman for this particular outing, and with new
interview days lined up in Gothenburg, Stockholm and Copenhagen. No
other live showcases though  Living in Norway has its advantages.

Well dinner was mine and Kristin's plan too, so after talking for a
little longer we headed off through the pouring rain again in search
of a curry. Little did we know that the band were holding court down
the side alley outside Mono, or that Christian was there with them.
But that's cool. I thought the show was fabulous, if short. Kristin
enjoyed it too, and admitted to me this morning that 'the fiddle player
must have been really good looking when he was a bit younger'. Go
Kristin!