Venue:
Masonic Temple, Detroit, Michigan
Date: 19/04/2025
The Wild God tour – and WILD and GOD were for sure the themes. I had seen him a couple of years ago – Mr. Cave, a piano and a Radiohead bassist. A quiet, subtle, almost delicate performance. This, of course, was very different.
Swaggering onto stage skinny and in his usual business suit attire and then starting the gig with a shout of “Fucking Detroit” – pretty much set the tone. A 67 years-old man roaming the stage, owning the stage for nearly two and a half hours. It’s a wonderful thing. Religion, sex, humor it is all there – and the audience lapping up every moment – “yeah, yeah, yeah” and “Look at me now” chants, the crowd surfing, the sheer energy.
Wild God was pretty much covered _ 8 of the songs. Old favorites – Her to Eternity sand Jubilee Street – were also covered plus a couple of songs from the unnerving “Carnage”.
The Bad Seeds are a magnificent band, backed with 4 singers this time- but Warren Ellis is the start of his own damn show. Based on an office chair, standing on it, kneeling, sitting – keyboard on his knees, fiddle from every angle. Yeah, he’s “into” the music. Quite wonderfully bonkers.
The gig finished with Nick and a piano turning the volume down with Into My Arms. Ms. Drewtoo and I may have held hands and had a “moment” – impressive for a Saturday night at our age.
The audience:
This is where ALL the 60 years-old goths and old punks in American Midwest were on Saturday night. Actually, the breadth of audience was great – from kids to oldies – great to see.
It made me think..
This is how you should age, angry yet thoughtful, full of energy, optimistic yet cynical.
Yep, I saw him in Leeds back in November. I concur…it was transcendental.
It’s lovely when a group of musicians can inspire such joy in their audience. I’ve heard this said of Nick Cave and co. many times over the years, and I’ve been seduced into buying a few CDs of theirs as a result.
And yet. It just doesn’t chime with me, I’m afraid, they always seem too much like hard work. I know they have some fine qualities – chops and wit, some great lyrics – aspects that others evidently recognise and to which they respond emotionally, but I can’t find any comfort or engagement in their music.
What is it about their music that hooks some folk in, but leaves me struggling to last for more than five minutes?
Completely agree with this Vulpes. For all the same reasons as you, I really want to like their stuff more than I do but there’s just something getting in the way that I can’t quite put my finger on. “Hard work” utterly nails it. I’d love to be convinced otherwise but it may just have to my loss I’m afraid.
For me it’s that I can’t take him as seriously as he does himself. I’m the same with Springsteen. I can’t hear that it’s good, I just don’t buy the persona.
I don’t expect I can convince a non-believer, but as a Cave fan I think it’s the combination of varied music and interesting lyrics that won me over.
I’m not a big fan of his early stuff, when he was still a bit like his old, Birthday Party days (too noisy and shouty for me), but after a while he found his groove, and I’ve been with him ever since.
I like the fact the tunes can go from, say, the goth horror of The Carny to a ballad like Into My Arms, yet over the top is Nick’s generally powerful voice and lyrics that conjure up his own world: a place with mermaids, serial killers, Jangling Jack, Christina the Astonishing, etc. Not every song is a classic, but they’re rarely dull.
Here are two of my favourites: As I Sat Sadly By Her Side with its lovely piano part, and a simply stunning live version of the beautiful Push the Sky Away. Maybe these will convince you.
Thanks for trying! Some nice little tune fragments in there – a good grand sounds lovely playing anything vaguely mellifluous – but I’m not enamoured of the overall effect. I get what you said about his Birthday Party shoutathons – ghastly noise – but I still can’t get past his shaky baritone and clumsy, troweled on, lyrically melodramatic delivery. Sorry!
Captain – your comments about conjuring up his own world is perfect. And as you say they don’t always work – but rarely dull.
I saw them late 80s(?) in Zürich in a venue not much bigger than a pub (Rote Fabrik). It was great, but I never really investigated further. I have one best of CD that was free with a newspaper some time ago.
All artists of longevity rely on a relationship with their fans in which the artists life is absorbed into their work: it’s not ‘just’ the music; it’s the story. I can’t think of an artist whose current cultural standing is more a case in point than Nick.
For me, my timing has been ‘just right’ to be into his work. His Berlin/Southern Gothic inflected stuff dovetailed with my university days, and his eventual rejection of the narrowing focus of the Mick Harvey-led Bad Seeds to elect Warren Ellis as consiglieri came about when I was ready for more challenging sonic territory as an older guy. By now, this was a band of men.
Nothing though has deepened his connections with his audience than the death of his sons which has informed his work with such honesty and openness. Alongside his writing on The Red Hand Files (a must-read if you haven’t already) and a few very open-hearted long form interviews (check YouTube), it really is quite a profound connection he’s aiming for in his current guise.
All of which to say, I’m not sure how a beginner might even know where to start!
I found this live film riveting and sets out his stall well. I agree that it’s all a bit ‘much’, but once you’re in, it’s wonderfully immersive. Any other live clips from Live in Copenhagen are also excellent.
Beautifully put. I feel his characters became increasingly three dimensional after the earlier blood and thunder escapades.
The first song where I feel this is on Do You Love Me Like I Love You -part two.
Spookily Darlings (Dane Edna voice) – this is also the first appearance on a Bad Seeds record of Warren Ellis.
Also tried but never quite managed to make the connection with Nick.
Some great songs but more of a Best Of artist for me.
My loss I know, but the AW would be a lot more boring if we all liked
exactly the same things