Leo Moran and Anthony Thistlethwaite are co-founders of two of the more beloved, manifestly Irish pop-rock bands of the past couple of decades: Guitarist-vocalist Moran was a charter member of The Saw Doctors, while the multi-instrumentalist (sax, mandolin, bass, etc.) Thistlethwaite helped establish The Waterboys. Both groups went on to achieve considerable critical and popular success, in Ireland and elsewhere, including the US.

Over the years, Moran and Thistlethwaite’s paths have crossed every so often – and in fact, Thistlethwaite eventually wound up joining the Saw Doctors, although the band is now on sabbatical. But Moran and Thistlethwaite have elected not to rest on their laurels (or whatever it is rock musicians rest on these days), and have struck out on their own as a mainly acoustic duo. They are currently on tour in the US and will be making a stop locally at The Burren in Somerville, where they’ll play two shows on October 17.

The “Leo & Anto Show” will include takes on both the well-known and more obscure parts of the Saw Doctors’ repertoire, selections from Thistlethwaite’s solo albums, and other songs written recently with Padraig Stevens. As they state on their blog, “It’s all new and fresh and challenging and scary and exciting at the same time so let’s see what happens.”

Moran and Thistlethwaite recently shared their thoughts with Sean Smith of the Boston Irish Reporter about this new phase of their musical partnership.

Q. How easy or difficult was it for you to put together the repertoire for this tour? Did you start out with a very clear idea of what you wanted to do or did it just coalesce over time?
Thistlethwaite: We started off by figuring out what songs we would put on the “Leo & Anto” CD. They formed a kernel around which our current repertoire is formed. But it’s growing by the day! And I’m sure it will continue to do so. I’d be very surprised if we ever played the same set twice.
Moran: We hadn’t a clue what we were going to do, really. I had some songs that we never played with The Saw Doctors that I was interested in trying, and there were a good few songs in the band’s repertoire that I felt would be good to get played a bit more often. Then there are songs that I always loved by our old friends, the late Paul Cunniffe and Padraig Stevens. Our first focus was to get an album recorded – “a bit of an oul’ tape” to have at the gigs; you have to have that. So we met in Anto’s loft bedroom with his recording gear and chose a few songs to start on. I’m sure our list will evolve when we do a few gigs and find out what’s working and isn’t working. We’ll be altering the set list for all kinds of reasons, I suspect: where we are, who’s at the gig, what event has occurred, what day of the week it is and God knows what other reasons.

Q. Seems like it would have been simpler to just do your tour in Ireland, the UK, maybe a little of Europe. What made you decide to include the US?
Moran: There’s a wonderful culture in the US for this type of trip – the house concert/small venue circuit. Padraig Stevens and I, under the name “The Folk Footballers,” came here and played at our friends Tommy Shea and Suzanne Strempek Shea’s house in Palmer, Mass., over 10 years ago and it was lovely. The American people are possibly the most hospitable people on earth and they love to have folks around to their homes, and to feed and water them. It lends itself to this type of musical gathering perfectly and one of the reasons we’re starting here to see how we get on is that we feel it’s probably the easiest place we could start. Our American audience has always been enthusiastic and attentive and generously appreciative.
Thistlethwaite: You can’t beat an American audience! And besides we were both anxious to make our first transatlantic flight in our tiny plane.

Q. Do you see the Saw Doctors and Waterboys as having a similar “fan base”? In what ways do the bands intersect, musically, philosophically, etc.— or do they?
Moran: That’s an interesting question and I’d find it hard to answer. I was at the Westport Festival in Mayo last year and went out around the town afterwards with an old friend of mine, Joe Wall, who plays with The Stunning and The Walls. He’s been doing the same gigs in the same places as I have been for the last 20 years and we both met loads of people around the pubs in Westport that we knew, but interestingly, few people that we both knew. I thought that was strange and I suspect it may be similar for The Saw Doctors and The Waterboys. Ostensibly, you’d think the music had many similarities, which it does: I would say The Waterboys were a big influence on me when we were starting out, but I don’t know how our fan base would mix. I’d imagine a Saw Doctors’ fan would be more likely to be a fan of The Waterboys than a Waterboys fan would be to also like The Saw Doctors.
Thistlethwaite: I’d say what the Saw Doctors and the Waterboys have in common is a brilliant sax player! [Laughs] But what I love about both bands is the heart in the music. And the true-music, live-performance-in-the-studio approach to recording. A sure way to catch magic.

Q. It’s stating the obvious that the music business has changed a lot since The Saw Doctors and The Waterboys started out, and not necessarily for the better. As a professional musician, do you feel optimistic about the future?
Thistlethwaite: People will always want to see a great band live. There’s nothing like it to lift the spirits. And people will always enjoy a good song. Whatever technological developments there are in the ways we listen to and share music, there will always be a need for musicians.
Moran: You have to be optimistic – people will always want to go out and hear a bit of live music. I love being out playing gigs and that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 24 years, so I’d hope to keep it up – if this Leo and Anto Show works there’ll be no stoppin’ us.

Q. What kind of place does Boston hold in your scrapbook of musical memories?
Thistlethwaite: One of my favorite memories of Boston is of a brilliant second-hand record shop that was in, I think, Harvard Square. This was when I used to be over with the Waterboys in the 1980s, before mobile phones. I was in there one day hunting through the vinyl when the phone rang and it was for me. Obviously someone knew me too well!
I’d say some of the most exhilarating shows I’ve played in Boston were recent ones with the Saw Doctors in the new House of Blues down by Fenway Park. It’s the perfect venue!
Moran: The Saw Doctors’ first-ever gig in the USA was in Tommy McGann’s bar in Easton; as he was for so many others, the legendary Tommy was our initial connection in America. He also promoted our show in the soon-to-be-closed-down Channel on that same tour; I remember there was a wild matinee metal show for teenagers on the same day – a young lad was playing guitar hanging upside down by his knees from a lighting bar. We played in The Embassy and around the block in McGann’s for Tommy on a good few trips after that. One particularly memorable one was when we did a gig in McGann’s in the middle of a run of Christy Moore shows in there – it was special to be performing in the same small venue as such an iconic artist and very few people other than Tommy would’ve been able to make that happen.
One time we played outdoors at The Waterworks in Quincy, and it must’ve been August and there had been a drought. Lo and behold, during our set the place lived up to its name and the heavens opened. I’ve never seen people so happy to get rained on in my life.

For more information on the October 17 “Leo & Anto” concerts, see burren.com.