Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
18th January 2017
Vector Arena, Auckland, New Zealand
Review by Kate Taylor, Photography by Mark Derricutt.
Absolute behemoth of the Australian alternative music landscape, Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds sauntered into Auckland and soothed the post-Christmas and New Year’s break souls assembled, into a malaise of electric light and emotion. A figure of dread for many, including myself as a teen, Nick Cave is that romantic, emotional and macabre prince of poetic darkness that is sensual and a little bit dangerous.
Mr. Cave did not disappoint on this particular evening but did have me kicking myself that I’ve not come into his world before to bask in his darkness and love: unrequited or otherwise, that he paints with his heady, intoxicating poetry. Like many, stationed out front of Vector Arena getting a feel for the place, it was a hi-vis wearing angel, that bellowed to the thronging Cave fans scurrying towards the mouth of the musical inferno that, “He’s on stage. The performance has started!” Well, without further ado, myself and a flood of varied punters made haste to our positions. Including old school heads; re-livers of their youth, young music appreciators plus generational groups sharing the tunes of this incredible talent.
Honestly not knowing what to expect, I was delighted by the selection of songs that Cave, his right-hand man Warren Ellis and the rest of the accomplished Bad Seeds decided to shower upon us. Including absolute classics like From Her to Eternity, Red Right Hand, Into My Arms or The Ship Song. Newer capsules of narrative like: One More Time With Feeling, Higgs Boson Blues or Jubilee Street were also received with fervour; the latter working into a discordant and frantic crescendo before dismantling itself at our feet. Cave himself emits this crazy energy, he’s connected with all before him and yet above us, floating in the ether of his own genius without a scrap of pretention. It’s all from his twisted, wizened and misunderstood heart, just for us. His every movement had the crowd mesmerized and it was as though he could feel the spell he’d bewitched us with; at one instance Cave barrelled across the stage and as his whippy mic cable entwined with his lyrics stand and threatened to topple it over; Cave could feel the gathered gasp and point under the swell of his music and snapped his head around precisely to snatch it up, lest something so human as knocking an object over, ruin our perspective of Cave’s other worldly omnipotence.
Cave is not at all shy with being touched by his fans, designing his stage so he can get right down in among it, with dozens of imploring hands running up his immaculately suited body. When the lyric in Higgs Boson Blues asks “Can you feel my heartbeat, going BOOM BOOM BOOM”, Nick ‘broke Cave’ as he giggled, delighted when some up close and personal punter obviously found his pulse as he sang, tickling him literally and figuratively. Cave loves his fans, this much is very clear as any song break had his casual, wonderful and Ocker AF banter coming forth to entertain us, in his lovely Australian lilt. Taking a quick respite from the stage, Cave returned for a striking encore and most surprisingly, was taking requests! The Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Jukebox played out another few cuts with Nobody’s Baby Now and deliciously, the incredible Stagger Lee, to which Cave asked us: “Really?! You want to hear that? Aren’t we getting a bit old for that one now? Ok, we’ll crank it out for a few more years then”. Please do Nick, please keep cranking out the aural art forever.
Were you there at Vector Arena to witness this incredible show? Or have you seen Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds somewhere else before? Tell me about it in the comments below!
Setlist:
- Anthrocene
- Jesus Alone
- Magneto
- Higgs Boson Blues
- From Her To Eternity
- Tupelo
- Jubilee Street
- The Ship Song
- Into My Arms
- Girl In Amber
- I Need You
- Red Right Hand
- The Mercy Seat
- Distant Sky
- Skeleton Tree
- People Ain’t No Good
- Jack The Ripper
- Nobody’s Baby Now
- Stagger Lee
- Push The Sky Away
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