Monday 7 September 2026
There are concerts that feel like performances, and there are concerts that feel like gatherings. The Waterboys and Steve Earle’s show at Oslo Spektrum belonged firmly to the latter category. Built around the Fisherman’s Blues Revue, a special 2026 concert tour and musical ensemble led by The Waterboys to celebrate the rootsy, folk-rock music of their classic late-1980s era, the evening brought together two distinctive musical traditions, Scottish and Irish folk-rock on one side, American roots and country on the other, and allowed them to mingle.
The Waterboys opened the evening. Mike Scott remains an intensely charismatic performer, capable of moving from quiet concentration to full-throated exuberance within a single song. His voice has acquired additional grain with age, but rather than diminishing the songs, that weathering gives them greater emotional weight. The band sounded powerful without being excessively polished. There was space for individual musicians to breathe, and that looseness suited the material. At the centre of it all was Steve Wickham, whose return was one of the evening’s most compelling features. His fiddle was fundamental to the distinctive character of Fisherman’s Blues, and hearing him alongside Scott again gave the performance a genuine sense of reconnection rather than manufactured nostalgia.
The set moved freely through the Waterboys catalogue, though the positioning of the global hit “The Whole of the Moon” as the fifth song felt too early in the set. The response during the first half was generally polite clapping rather than loud cheers and dancing, but this was also due to it being an entirely seated concert. The opener “Don’t Bang the Drum”, “Glastonbury Song”, “A Girl Called Johnny” and “How Long Will I Love You?” showed the breadth of Scott’s songwriting, moving between rock, folk and poetry. “The Pan Within” from their 1985 album “This is the Sea”, “Strange Boat” and “Sweet Thing” were highlights. These songs sounded less like archival pieces being dusted off for an anniversary tour and more like living compositions, still capable of changing shape in the hands of experienced musicians.
Then came Steve Earle. Earle’s presence immediately shifted the musical landscape. His voice, roughened by decades of singing brought a distinctly American flavour to the proceedings. There was a substantial Earle section featuring “Copperhead Road,” “Guitar Town,” “My Old Friend the Blues” and “I Ain’t Ever Satisfied.” Each song brought its own character, from the driving, almost cinematic energy of “Copperhead Road” to the intimacy of “My Old Friend the Blues.” Earle did not need elaborate staging or theatrics. His authority came from the songs themselves and from the unmistakable conviction with which he delivered them. His weathered voice and understated stage presence gave the impression of an artist who had lived with these songs for decades—and knew exactly how much, or how little, each one needed.
For a while, the balance of the evening shifted noticeably. The Waterboys seemed less like the headline act and more like Earle’s backing band, providing a sympathetic musical framework around him. Steve Wickham’s fiddle added colour and movement to Earle’s American roots sound, while Mike Scott and the rest of the band gave the songs a broader, more expansive dimension. Gradually, however, the distinction between Earle’s set and The Waterboys’ concert disappeared. The musicians increasingly became one ensemble, moving between each other’s repertoires and finding common ground in songs that crossed national and musical boundaries. This was where the concept of the Fisherman’s Blues Revue really came alive. The evening was not simply about recreating a particular period in The Waterboys’ history; it was about demonstrating the continuing conversation between folk music, rock, country and Americana. By the time the concert reached its communal encore, “The Galway Girl”, “Fisherman’s Blues” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” any sense of separate performances had almost vanished. 4/6
Text and photography: Anne-Marie Forker