I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: June 5, 2017] Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

My Nick Cave story is that back in September 2001 I had tickets to see Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.  Then 9/11 happened.  Cave cancelled the American tour (he rescheduled it for the following year).  But I hadn’t heard that it was cancelled (who even thought to call a venue about that sort of thing).  So I drove all the way into Manhattan and then had to turn around and go home.  I was annoyed, obviously, and angry with Cave, although that’s not really fair.

But so this concert proved to be sixteen years in the making.

And it almost didn’t go as planned again.  I arrived at the Electric Factory early–I had heard the show was starting exactly at 8PM.  I was arriving by 7:30.  Perfect. But the lot was closed.  So they pushed us to the next one.  Where apparently idiots and bozos were running it.  It took 20 minutes, and cost a staggering $30 to park.  And to top it off they were trying so hard to squeeze in as many cars as they could they made us park so close I could barely get my head out of the door.  So I had to do some rearranging, and them hurt my arm while wrangling stuff out of the car.

The security line was fine and moved quickly until the guy in front of me had a bag.  That was a huge hold up as the two lines on either side of me flew by.  I walked into the place at 7:58 and it was packed.  There was literally nowhere to move, no way to get closer to the stage.  No breathing room.  I wound up standing in what was really a walkway surrounded by people pushing and a very tall German man who spoke very loudly into my ear while talking to someone else.

And it didn’t start on time anyhow.  I was pretty annoyed by the whole thing and even wondered if I should leave.  The view was terrible, the crowd was ugly and I was already cranky.  But I decided to stick it out–besides I couldn’t squeeze back in to my car anyhow.

The music started and it was keyboard washes.  Nothing special, but dramatic enough. But it went on a long time and I wondered what happened to that 8PM start.  Then the band came out–I could barely see the wild beard of Warren Ellis and then moments later Nick himself came out on stage.  People had told me that Nick had charisma and while I couldn’t exactly feel it from so far away, it was clear that he had electrified the room.  I could sort of see him but then I saw (on a monitor) that the stage had two lower sections out front and he kept climbing down to them.  No doubt delighting fans, but making him pretty much invisible.

He sang three songs off of the new disc.  I like “Jesus Alone” quite a lot and I enjoyed the way they projected his face whenever he sang the refrain “with my voice, I am calling you.”  After “Magneto,” he played “Higgs Boson Blues” from Push the Sky Away another album I don’t know all that well, although I did know that song.  I could barely see and I didn’t love the songs yet, but to hear his voice so clearly really did make things much better.

And then they started playing a aloud thumping bass and drum and Warren Ellis started to go nuts on his violin and they played an incredible version of “From Her to Eternity” one of my favorite Cave songs ever.  Up until now the sound had been beautiful–crystal clear in his voice and strings and everything, and not all that loud.  But when they launched into this and the follow-up–an incredible “Tuepelo”!–the noise was incredible.  And again, crystal clear (the sound quality was amazing).  And caching glimpses of just how Ellis was able to make all that feedback noise was an incredible experience.

He brought things down with a lovely “Jubilee Street” and then got us all singing along to a gorgeous rendition of “The Ship Song.” It was tremendous the way Cave knew exactly how to orchestrate the show–loud, soft, sweet, scary.  And he was clearly having fun with the front row folks (it could have been me–well, no even if I’d gotten there at 7:30 I’m sure the die-hards had been camping out for hours).  At one point he singled out someone and said “could you put your camera away, please.”

I was so excited when I heard the opening notes to “Into My Arms” and then so disappointed when the tall German man proceeded to sing the beautiful ballad right into my ear–I had to put an earplug in that ear just to block him out.  Fortunately the German man moved away after that song.

They mellowed things out again with two more new songs.  And then the percussionist hit a tubular bell and I got to see “Red Right Hand” in person and it was like the cloud of darkness lifted, replaced by a very different and much cooler kind of darkness.

The very first Nick Cave song I’d ever heard was when my friend Garry played me “The Mercy Seat.”  It has been one of my favorites for years, and yet somehow I had forgotten about it.  So when they started playing it I was beside myself.  And what a rolling unstoppable force that song is live.

Two more new songs ended the set.  The first was a beautiful “Distant Sky.”  On record, Else Torp sings much of the song.  During her part of the song, they projected her almost entire body as she sang her parts.  It was odd since it wasn’t live, and yet I think that perhaps she sang it live for the show.  It was really beautiful.  Then we sat impatiently waiting for the encore.

They came back out and played “Mermaids,” a song I didn’t know very well.  And then Nick saw someone in the front and said, “You’re hear again?  Are you going to every show?”  When the person said he (or she) was, Nick said that they were going to play a song just for Philly.  A song that should porbably be retired.  And we got a wonderfully louche version of “Nobody’s Baby Now.”

The bassist started playing what turned out to be the wrong song–a bassline I didn’t register.

And then we all sang along to a the gloriousness of “The Weeping Song”–a sing along if ever there was one.

The bassist played the slow riff from before and people freaked because it was the highly anticipated “Stagger Lee.”  I know this song pretty well as I love the Murder Ballads album, but I was really surprised how different this song sounded.  The music was downplayed–slow and menacing–because it gave way to the vulgar, profane, wonderful words.

And that was it.  Because how do you follow a performance of “Stagger Lee”?

We waited for something else to happen–was the show over?  Then I heard people getting very excited near us.

And then there was Nick.  He climbed the stairs right near us, stood half way up and began singing a gorgeous rendition of “Push the Sky Away.”  After a verse he called a young lady up and basically sang the song to her.  And they he called up a few more who got to hang out with Nick for a few minutes.  It was incredible to watch.

And that was it.

Nick raised my spirits like no show before. Sure I would have loved to have been able to see him better–to get close enough to slap hands with him–but that ending moment with him so close was the best catharsis I could have asked for.

It was amazing how the show could be so quiet and the so loud.  How Warren Ellis was such a maniac–squeezing every drop of feedback out of his violin and then playing something really beautiful a moment later.

What an amazing show.

So I checked the setlist for the show that I missed back in 2001 (well, the show that was rescheduled after mine) to see how it compared.

I would have really enjoyed hearing “Do You Love Me,” “Henry Lee,” and “Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry.”  And yet I got to hear “From Her…” “Tupelo” and “Into My Arms,” plus four extra songs.  And that moment on the stairs….  Yeah, I think I came out ahead.  A curse has been lifted.

2001 rescheduled show that I didn’t see	2017 Electric Factory, PA
Long Time Man (Tim Rose cover)	Anthrocene
Do You Love Me?	Jesus Alone
Oh My Lord	Magneto
Henry Lee	Higgs Boson Blues
Red Right Hand	From Her to Eternity
Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow	Tupelo
God Is in the House	Jubilee Street
We Came Along This Road	The Ship Song
The Weeping Song	Into My Arms
Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry	Girl in Amber
Hallelujah	I Need You
The Mercy Seat	Red Right Hand
And No More Shall We Part	The Mercy Seat
encore	Distant Sky
The Ship Song	Skeleton Tree
encore 2	encore
The Curse of Millhaven	Mermaids
Stagger Lee	Nobody’s Baby Now
	The Weeping Song
	Stagger Lee
	Push the Sky Away