Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Album thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Jun 3, 2018.

  1. Steve62

    Steve62 Vinyl hunter

    Location:
    Murrumbateman
    Oh no. Mark -I've just caught onto the fact you have had this Nick Cave thread running via your post on Australian music acts. And you've already reached the end. Nick is a big favourite of mine. He's always fantastic live and he's one of the very few artists who I think have maintained their creative edge into middle age. White Elephant for me is the highlight of Carnage - full of menace and it has quite a lot going on in the lyrics.
     
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  2. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Yea, I didn't do a great job with this, but there were some folks that joined in and it was a good chat, about the good son. You can quite happily go through, and perhaps get some folks on here talking about Nick's recorded work.
    After I finish a couple of things, I need to get back on here and run through Idiot Prayer and Carnage

    I'm quite excited actually, in March I have 2nd row tickets to see Nick and Warren Ellis in Dallas.... It won't exactly be the Bad Seeds, but I looked on youtube, and looks like it will be good anyway
     
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  3. Steve62

    Steve62 Vinyl hunter

    Location:
    Murrumbateman
    I have a recording of their show in Ipswich UK on 12th September. There's no Old Testament-type stuff but they did a brilliant job with the Ghosteen and Carnage material. Intense is the word.
     
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  4. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Sitting in the Majestic Theater in Dallas, awaiting Nick and Warren's arrival....
    Atmospheric music fills the air. I wonder if the people around me realise the volume is raising up.... subtly raising up.... it's getting less subtle as a sub starts humming...
    Catch ya's later
     
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  5. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    If he is coming near you, go and see him/them.
    Just got out.absolutely awesome
     
  6. ericthegardener

    ericthegardener Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dallas, TX
    Ha! I just got out of the same show. Loved the back up singers! Great show!! (Going to see the Oils in June. Only leaving the house for Aussies this year.)
     
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  7. Steve62

    Steve62 Vinyl hunter

    Location:
    Murrumbateman
    Nick Cave and Midnight Oil always give a live audience great value. You can't go wrong really.
     
  8. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Majestic Theater March 4th Dallas 2022

    Bright Horses; - Ghosteen
    Night Raid; - Ghosteen
    Carnage; - Carnage
    White Elephant; - Carnage
    Ghosteen; - Ghosteen
    Lavender Fields; - Carnage
    Waiting for You; - Ghosteen
    I Need You; - Skeleton Tree
    Cosmic Dancer - T Rex cover
    God is in the House - No More Shall We Part
    Hand Of God - Carnage
    Shattered Ground - Shattered Ground
    Galleon Ship - Ghosteen
    Leviathan - Ghosteen
    Balcony Man - Carnage

    1st encore
    Hollywood - Ghosteen
    Henry Lee - Murder Ballads
    Breathless - Abattoir blues/Lyre Of Orpheus

    2nd encore
    Into My Arms - Boatman's Call
    Girl In Amber - Skeleton Tree

    The was an excellent and very interesting show.

    From my perspective, I've been a fan since the early 90's, and most folks I knew seemed to not understand what I saw in this guy. Oddly, Jimmy Barnes (if Cold Chisel fame) was talking to someone, and at some point stated the Ship Song was one of the most beautiful songs he had ever heard.... so I ventured off to hear this song, and bought the Good Son. From that point, I ventured through the catalog, and ended up buying it all, including the Birthday Party albums.
    For some reason after Murder Ballads, I internally thought that my Cave journey was all over.

    Cue 2016, and the release of Skeleton Tree.. prior to hearing the circumstances behind it, I was stunned by this album, and it reignited my Cave journey, and once again I bought all the albums I had missed.
    Since I have eagerly awaited each subsequent album, and I am yet to be disappointed.

    Cue November 2021, my wife sends me a text with a link to the info about this Nick Cave and Warren Ellis concert in Dallas...
    Kind of broke, Dallas is 6 hours away, but never having had a chance to see Nick live, it needed to be organized, and so it was.

    Cue March 4th 2022
    It has been a strange few years, the world is imploding under it's own stupidity, but that music outlet to revive the will to live still there....
    After about 6 hrs on the road, and hitting 4 hard core sets of road works that extended the journey by about an hour and a half, we finally arrive in Dallas at the Renaissance Saint Elm hotel, next door to the Majestic. The hotel is excellent, and has only been reopened for a week apparently, excellent.
    We had dinner at their restaurant, due to time constraints, but Toussaint's was also excellent, I highly recommend the Beef (French word I'm not familiar with)

    The Majestic is a lovely old theater, 100 years old in fact. Ornate, but not garish, and the seating is well arranged, and it seems a good view would be had from everywhere.
    I was lucky enough to get second row, behind the two row pit.... probably the closest seats I have ever had, by a couple of rows.

    The Concert

    The pre-show music had the feel of soundscapes similar to those on Cave's recent albums, and they played subtly in the background.

    As we were getting closer to the show, the volume subtly started rising. Around 8 PM, the music seemed less like background music, as it had now grown to substantial volume. By about 8:05 I could feel the bottom end vibrating in my chest, and anticipation was growing.
    This ended up coming to a big crescendo as the lights died and Warren came on, closely followed by a guy that played keys, bass and drums over the course of the night.
    The three excellent back up singers came out also..... and then our tall, lean star of the show took the stage.

    The band launched into the beautiful Bight Horses and we were underway.

    The sound of the theater was excellent, and reminded me how much better these types of venues are than big arena's and such.

    The intimacy created by Cave was hypnotic. As anyone who has ever seen him on video knows, he is forward on the stage, leaning over the crowd, as if to try and speak directly to each individual, and remarkably he does.

    Warren sits on the right hand side of the stage to we the crowd, with his pedals and tools, and his little keyboard, that I presume is a midi-driver, because those sounds don't generally come out of a keyboard like this. We also have the violin and a couple of other things laying around.... will he pick them up?

    The crowd is very into this. It is obvious from early on that this is an enthusiastic crowd, and over the course of the night many folks whoop and holler, yell out requests, yell out love for Nick, and also yell out love for Warren, and that became almost a running gag for the second half of the show. I for the first time ever at a concert got caught up in the enthusiasm and late in the show hollered out, much to my own embarrassment... but anyway.

    Warren doesn't really speak much. He counted in a couple of tracks, and added some excellent ghostly backing vocals when applicable, but he has control over those lush completely engulfing soundscapes, that on occasion were almost overwhelming.

    Nick, when singing his songs was a picture of emotional concentration, and deeply in the zone.
    Surprisingly to me though, the general vibe of the show between the songs was lighthearted and fun.
    The crowd whooped, Nick whooped back.
    Nick and Warren shared a laugh and a smile here and there.
    At one point some guy screamed like he was falling into a blender or something, and I think everyone laughed.
    The concert was way more fun than I expected, but the musical intensity was everything and more than I had hoped for. No matter how lighthearted the show was in between songs, as soon as the next song started it was back deep into the intensity of these amazing songs.

    Frankly, I loved every second of this show, but some highlights for me were

    Hand Of God - with a lot of the show being textural, almost ambient at times, the intensity of this track was incredible.
    We had the general flow of this newer incarnation of Cave, but when we get to the chorus, it was almost as if it reached back in time and pulled some of the fire of the Birthday Party into the mix, bit here, more coherent, and more intense in that coherence.
    The whispered outro was stunning, and the dynamics of this were truly moving.

    So much beauty in these songs, but
    I Need You - is such a wonderful song and came across, possibly even more beautiful live.

    Girl In Amber - this song was dedicated to Anita Lane, Cave's partner in writing and life early in the Bad Seeds years. Sadly Anita passed in early 2021, and this already beautiful song, seemed even more poignant, and closed out the show incredibly well.

    In the middle Cave spoke of his appreciation of Marc Bolan, and his lyrics, and did a wonderful cover of Cosmic Dancer, on the piano. Warren took a violin lead break, and it was the first time he had picked up the violin all night, and for me, another highlight.

    God Is In The House was another song where we got Warren on the violin, and as always it was flawless.

    Look, for me there wasn't a weak point here at all.
    Cave in the playful mood, brought the folks in the balcony into the show, getting them to holler on the word Balcony in Balcony Man, and it could have been messy, but it again worked wonderfully well to close out the set.

    Hollywood - was the first encore, and it is a stunning track, and it took on a slightly different direction. I can't help feeling there was some improv here, and again it was excellent.

    At this point in the show, after this song I think it was....
    Someone in the crowd asked Nick if we could come to the front of the stage, and I can't remember exactly what Nick said, but it was essentially come on then.
    So we stood up next to the stage, increasing the intimacy of the show again.
    Henry Lee was typically great.
    Then we got the somewhat impromptu Breathless, as it had been requested a couple of times.
    They carried it off beautifully, with Warren playing his flute... very off the cuff, and extremely well executed.

    The crowd were totally enraptured, and the girl next to me almost deafened me with her screams.
    The band came out again, and we got Nick on the piano for the always stunning Into My Arms. A very minor little miss in there, that most likely wouldn't have noticed, and even if they did, it didn't effect the sings transcendent beauty and poignancy.

    And as I say, we ended up closing with the outstanding, beautiful and poignant Girl In Amber.

    It isn't possible to share how much I loved this show, and I have probably missed so much important detail, but this sits up amongst the best shows I have ever been to.
     
  9. ericthegardener

    ericthegardener Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dallas, TX
    Great review and pretty accurately captures what I witnessed, but you've described it more eloquently than I could. Were you the Australian guy down front that Nick didn't understand at first? If so, what did you say?
     
  10. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Yea, that was me. Caught up in the moment, and then a little embarrassed and sheepish.
    I just said something like we're all around your piano, do The Good Son, or something....
    Meh, it's best forgotten, and it was a stupid thing to say. It is, and understandably so, about the new music. Nick doesn't look to be becoming a legacy artist any time soon, and neither should he.
     
  11. joe1320

    joe1320 Forum Resident

    Location:
    dublin, ireland
    Thats a great review thanks for sharing your experience, I never seen Nick play as he only doing outdoor shows in Ireland. I would love to see him in a similar venue as you did.
     
  12. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Forgive all the typos, miles from home, stuck on my phone
     
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  13. Callahan

    Callahan Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    Thanks Mark! What’s a great review! You’ve gotten me even more psyched up to see them in NY later this month.
     
  14. imail724

    imail724 Forum Resident

    Location:
    NY, USA
    How do Nick/Warren shows compare to a Bad Seeds show? I had tickets to see the Bad Seeds for the first time in 2020, but that was obviously cancelled. Thinking of getting a ticket to one of the Nick and Warren shows coming later this month.
     
  15. John Moschella

    John Moschella Senior Member

    Location:
    Christiansburg, VA
    Been a Cave fan for a long time. Started buying his albums when Tender Prey came out. So, not at the beginning, but quite a while.
    Push The Sky Away may be my favorite LP, and the original vinyl sounds great BTW. Also a big fan of Lyre/Abattoir, Murder Ballads, Henry's Dream, and The Boatman's Call.
    However, starting with The Skeleton Tree there hasn't been anything that I really like.
    Ghosteen was the first album that I did NOT buy on vinyl, and that is saying something.
    I must have listened to it at least 4 times, and musically it's just too boring. I know it has it's fans, just not for me.

    But nothing prepared me for Carnage. I listened to it all the way through on release and it left me feeling bad. Then the second time I actually felt physically ill. Never had that happened, the power of music, but not in a good way.
    Haven't had any inkling to try again.

    I actually like the soundtracks with Ellis, just not the last 3 albums. Oh well, I'm still amazed at Push The Sky Away, a great work.
     
  16. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Sadly I never got to see the Bad Seeds.

    If you enjoy the last three or four albums, there's no reason you wouldn't enjoy this show.
     
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  17. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    The Majestic Theater, Dallas, Texas

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  18. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  19. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  20. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  21. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  22. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    God Is In The House

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  23. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  24. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  25. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

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