One of my favorite lyrics of the past 40 or 50 years, a lyric you’ve likely never heard, a lyric I’ve never quite understood myself despite the fact that it goes into deep rotation in my skull every few months or so, is: “I wish I was a brakeman on a hurtlin’ fevered train / crashing headlong into the heartland / like a cannon in the rain.” Mike Scott wrote that, and like a lot of what Mike Scott writes, what it means is way less important than how it makes you feel. He played a sold-out show Tuesday night at Thalia Hall with the Waterboys, his band of 40-odd years. They don’t tour much, and by “they,” I mean Scott, who pretty much is the Waterboys. This is his show. He’s one of those singular music weirdos who, however steeped in influences — there’s plenty of Dylan in that lyric — tran

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