Scott Hones Music Down to Its Bare Essence

“I’m feeling kind of mythic tonight,” Mike Scott joked as he stood alone on stage at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall on Friday. Not a surprising sentiment from the former leader of the Waterboys, a band that regularly straddled epic inspiration and earnest pretension.

On Friday, the singer-songwriter from Edinburgh, Scotland, stripped his music down to its bare essence: raw, soul-searching messages heavy on the Dylan influences. Focusing mainly on songs from his new solo album, “Bring ‘Em All In,” Scott easily commanded the stage as a solo performer, pulling out an often astonishing range of sounds on his acoustic guitar (including a few brief psychedelic flourishes).

Old Waterboys tunes, including “The Whole of the Moon,” held up well, full of youthful energy and idealism, but it was his newest work that carried the most weight at Schoenberg Hall. His “Wonderful Disguise,” which explored the masks worn by presidents and people on the street, was sung in a dramatic, breathy brogue. Without a band behind him, Scott was free from the occasionally bombastic overkill that marred some Waterboys recordings, leaving only words of spirituality and romance.

Near the end of his 90-minute performance, Scott promised to have a full band with him for his next pass through town. “When I sing this, you can imagine the other instruments,” he said. “I do.” But by the night’s end, Scott had played with such epic force that those other players were hardly missed at all.