The Waterboys transformed the Roig Arena in Valencia into their ideal pub this Thursday, playing to over 4,000 people. The British band delivered a nearly three-hour set, blending Irish folk, Celtic epic, country, and classic rock. This was the group's only concert in Spain this year, turning into a large, danceable collective party with a significant dose of nostalgia.
Led by the indefatigable Mike Scott, 67, the group returned to one of their regular stops. Valencia has become a frequent destination on their tours across Spain, and the audience knew it, anticipating a journey through their most emblematic repertoire, which the band reciprocated with an intense and highly celebrated performance.
The concert focused on revisiting their iconic 1988 album, ‘Fisherman’s blues’. This work, critically and publicly acclaimed, has become an inexhaustible source of tapes containing hundreds of songs, covers, and alternative takes recorded during four years of residence by Scott and the band in Ireland. That stay fused the group into a creative explosion, and the Valencia concert sought to reconnect with that spirit, marked by nature, Celtic traditions, and a mix of popular devotion and unbridled celebration.
Part of the unreleased material from that era has been gradually released in recent years, the most recent condensed into the triple album ‘Atlantic rain’. From this work, ‘Come back to Galway’ was played, featuring all possible Celtic epic and the violin of Steve Wickham. Wickham, a key collaborator of Mike Scott, was instrumental in this folk celebration where traditions, landscapes, legends, and shared revelry converged.
The setlist revisited tracks from the ‘Fisherman’s blues’ and ‘Room to roam’ era, such as ‘We will not be lovers’, ‘Strange boat’, Van Morrison's ‘Sweet thing’, ‘When will we be married?’, ‘How long will I love you’, ‘The Raggle Taggle Gypsy’, or ‘The stolen child’. They also included early hits like ‘A girl called Johnny’, their epic phase with ‘The whole of the Moon’, ‘Don’t bang the drum’, or the anthem ‘The Pan Within’, as well as ‘Glastonbury song’ from the nineties.
The moments of peak collective catharsis arrived with ‘And a band on the ear’ and, notably, ‘Fisherman’s blues’. The Roig Arena transformed into a festive communion, recreating the Celtic universe and the maritime and rural imagery of an ancestral Ireland.
The special guest of the night was American singer-songwriter Steve Earle, who joined the band to contribute a layer of North American country and folk. Earle also championed his own legacy with half a dozen solo songs.
Mike Scott combined his perennial cowboy hat with glam rock star poses, alternating moments of intimate piano performance with guitar virtuosity. His stage presence confirmed his continued vitality despite his long career. A passionate admirer of Yeats' poetry and an tireless music lover, Scott continues to delve into his 'endless suitcase of tapes' from the Irish era, keeping alive the spirit of the 'fisherman's blues'.
