London, Brixton Academy 11 November 2004
There is little about Nick Cave that you
could call 'conventional', and this is something that we have become
accustomed to with each successive album. The new double album (labelled
by band and record label as a 'two album set' in a frankly unsuccessful
bid to deflect any criticisms of prog excess) is perversely Cave's
most accessible and yet most adventurous set of songs to date, hardly
conventional in any sense of the word, but bizarrely listener-friendly
at the same time. Strange, then, that Cave should resort to one
of the most common indiscretions of the 'lead singer' - arriving
on stage a short pause after his band. He is, by his own admission,
a hard task master as a band leader, and one could hardly blame
him for milking the satisfaction that must be derived from the rapturous
applause afforded to him upon arriving on the stage.
The Bad Seeds wasted no time in diving into
the opening track of the night, the tense and heavy 'Abattoir Blues',
their collective playing effortless and the addition of four backing
singers adding to the overall rich sound. The stage consisted of
all seven current Bad Seeds - from left to right : Mick Harvey
(guitar), Conway Savage (organ), Thomas Wydler (drums,
percussion), Martyn P. Casey (bass), Jim Sclavunos
(drums, percussion), Warren Ellis (violin, mandolin, bouzouki)
and new boy James Johnston (organ, guitar) - plus four backing
singers, plus the inimitable Nick Cave stalking the stage and occasionally
playing the piano. The band are a smart, tight bunch of musicians,
barely moving, barely breaking a sweat even when called upon to
make the most infernal racket known to man - the combined sound
of their instruments, plus the gospel volumes delivered by the backing
singers and Cave's howling vocal all conspired to provide me with
a three-day ringing in my ears, such was their collective noise.
The only exception in the mobility stakes - aside from Cave's lurching,
urgent stalking and the backing singers' slightly out of place co-ordinated
dance routines - was Warren Ellis, who barely ever faced front of
house, instead facing into Sclavunos' drumkit while frantically
bowing, plucking and scraping his various instruments like a man
possessed. There is a great interplay between Cave and Ellis - think
Bowie and Ronson, except perhaps without the homo-erotic overtones.
The first part of the set is devoted exclusively
to material from the new album, with Sclavunos and Wydler sharing
the drum duties according to the song - as per the album, Wydler
played the more sedate material from The Lyre Of Orpheus,
while Sclavunos took the heavy-handed approach on Abattoir Blues'
more ragged songs. There were a number of highlights among highlights
from the albums, not least the cataclysmic sound of 'Hiding All
Away', where the still-unexpected blues drops sounded all the more
intense in the live setting, finding Cave flailing arms and legs
in a violent manner. (Was the final phrase of 'There is a war
coming' any more poignant on Remembrance Day? Probably not intentionally.)
'The Lyre Of Orpheus', again in a surprisingly-mainstream gesture,
was delivered largely from a metal stool which appeared suddenly
on stage; while hardly possible to compare Cave with Westlife, inevitably
the stool was a source of some baffled amusement among the audience,
but Cave carried this off remarkably well, instead acting as wizened
storyteller with what looked to be the lyrics for the Greek tragedy
in his hand. 'Nature Boy', 'Breathless' and 'There She Goes, My
Beautiful World' all sounded like dreamy pop in the live context,
Cave holding his microphone close to Ellis' flute in order to capture
the soft, hazy introduction to 'Breathless'. 'Supernaturally' was
kickstarted with its rapid handclap rhythm, Cave bending and braying
like a pissed ringmaster. In total, they played eleven songs from
the new albums, something I've never heard of, and understandably
some members of the audience were slightly disappointed by the lack
of older material, judging by the cries for certain older tracks
between songs.
This was duly rectified after Cave and the band
exited the stage and returned for what could never be considered
in normal terms an encore - seven songs culled from the back catalogue.
Getting right down to business, Cave and Johnston shed their jackets,
with the former suddenly resembling that dishevelled creature from
yesteryear as he pushed the sleeves of his white shirt up and gradually
became slowly untucked. Things started fairly inconspicuously with
'God Is In The House' from No More Shall We Part, Cave playing
the piano and milking the beautifully idyllic vibe of the track
with aplomb. A personally rewarding experience was the always-pleasing
'Red Right Hand', eternally mysterious, and perhaps even more sinister
(albeit unintentionally) in a post-Bush world. This was followed
by the rapturously malevolent 'Deanna', wherein Warren Ellis bowed
his violin just a bit too hard, sending the bow careering across
the stage in pieces and narrowly missing Cave's head by a matter
of inches; ever the showman, Ellis refused to let such trivialities
detract from completing the frantic conclusion of the track, instead
plucking the strings with a vehemence that must have brought blood
to his fingertips. On a non-duet version of 'The Weeping Song' without
Blixa Bargeld's 'father' role, Cave covered off both vocal
parts himself; delivered thus, it didn't sound at all strange, but
in a way one was drawn to the sense of suadade inherent in
the song, now exacerbated by the absence of one of the band's best-loved
personalities.
Weeping turned to boats for 'The Ship Song', a classic
Cave ballad that rendered me suitably numb, requiring the newly
gospel-ised 'City Of Refuge', with its motorik beat and driving
intensity to suddenly kick up the volume and bring the crowd alive
once more. In quick succession, this was followed by the expletive-laden
'Stagger Lee', wherein a new ending was added that saw Stag tumbling
down toward Hades, but still somehow finding the strength to shoot
and kill the devil himself. It's this dark humour that allows Cave
to counter any label of obsenity within an ostensibly offensive
track. The band left the stage again at this point, but regrouped
- for the first time without the backing singers - for the sensationally
malevolent 'Mercy Seat', which felt impossibly powerful given that
this was almost two hours into the set. I just hope that I have
just as much energy, drive and passion when I'm 47.
This was my first experience of Nick Cave And The
Bad Seeds live - a long overdue experience after ten years of being
a fan, but one of the most rewarding live concerts I have ever been
to. The concert was also filmed, presumably for an upcoming DVD
release, for which I cannot wait, if only to relive the experience
of seeing Ellis' bow narrowly missing the frontman.
Set list
Main set - in no particular order
Abattoir Blues
Messiah Ward
Hiding All Away
The Lyre Of Orpheus
Breathless
There She Goes, My Beautiful World
Supernaturally
Get Ready For Love
Babe, You Turn Me On
Easy Money
Nature Boy
Second set - in order
God Is In The House
Red Right Hand
Deanna
Weeping Song
The Ship Song
City Of Refuge
Stagger Lee
Encore
The Mercy Seat
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