Member-only story
An Appointment With The Waterboys and Mr Yeats
The stars aligned, there may have been a crescent moon that night. The Waterboys were in town for the first time in Aotearoa New Zealand. You can wait a long time out here in the Southern Pacific to see a favorite overseas act.
This was one chance/one gig only/one night only. Come the date 21 January 2013, we were just down the road a piece to the big city gig, with Auckland a short car trip away. That afternoon we coasted the Kaimai’s, motored on through Matamata, and arrived in Auckland as the sun was setting. Just the one album playing on the car audio, released in 2011, it brought together two beloved artists of depth, poetry, and mysticism: W.B. Yeats, Irish poet (1865–1939) and Mike Scott’s Waterboys (1983-still going).
After checking into the Quadrant Hotel, we dined quickly at the O'Connell Street Bistro (Dublin connection noted), before dashing up the road and across Queen Street to the Civic. A stunning former theatre palace resplendent in ornate Rococo design, decorated with Indian elephants on the walls, gold and green wonderment all about. This was the setting to see a band beyond compare. No support act and the band were on stage playing the first song … as we were ushered to seats high above the stage.
I can recall the first time I became aware of Yeats; it was high school with a set text: and the teacher’s choice of poem, ‘The…