This is the last time

...that I'll be posting anything Nick Cave-related for a while, but I thought I'd share with you this very funny interview with the man himself by the good people at the San Francisco Weekly blog site (which has way better music coverage than its printed counterpart in my opinion). Here is an excerpt from the Q & A:


HS: So you're just starting out on your U.S. tour.

NC: Yeah, we've been doing a lot of Grinderman shows, which are basically festival shows, and Grinderman thing very much infects the Bad Seeds thing. [Grinderman shows are] extremely aggressive, and that can't help but leak into what you're doing. You're like some kind of schizophrenic: Who am I today? Am I the introverted poet, or am I the fucking woman-hating sex machine? (Laughs, probably at the look on my face.) Woman-loving.

HS: (Weak laughter.)

NC: This is probably the easiest interview I've ever done in my life.

Read more...

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds: Part Deux

Night two at The Warfield was even better! Given how off the mark the setlist I posted last night was, I'm not going to put tonight's setlist in order until I can confirm it tomorrow. But here's what was played:

Night of the Lotus Eaters
Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
Tupelo
Today's Lesson
The Mercy Seat
Deanna
Midnight Man
Nobody's Baby Now
Papa Won't Leave You, Henry
The Weeping Song
Moonland
We Call Upon The Author
More News From Nowhere
Love Letter
Jesus of the Moon
Get Ready For Love
Hard-on For Love
Stagger Lee

Update: I don't go to very many shows. Tickets are usually pricey and I don't like to be disappointed when a band can't match their studio wizardry in a blood and guts live setting. I don't want to be entertained. I want to come out of the venue with my sensory processes temporarily impaired (in a good way). Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds remain a refreshing anomaly in rock music, surpassing the dark intensity of their recorded work with the primal energy of their performances. "Night of the Lotus Eaters" was one such example last night. "Get ready to shield yourself," (a lyric which sounded really depressing to me when I mistook it the first time I heard it for "get ready to shoot yourself") Cave admonished as the band took the stage with Mick Harvey on drums for the opener. Cave and company tore through the set, which included most of the same songs as the previous evening, with ferocity. I would almost describe it as a fire and brimstone ferocity, as Cave towered over us during "The Mercy Seat," taking on the aspect of an evangelic preacher, were it not for his crooning on the gentler ballads and the singer coyly referring to himself as "that beautiful face on the cover" when introducing one of the songs (I don't remember which. He's on so many of their album covers.) Highlights of the evening for me were "The Mercy Seat," "Papa Won't Leave You, Henry," "The Weeping Song," and "Love Letter." I thought "Stagger Lee" sounded better the first night, but it's one of my favorites so I'm not complaining. The band also appeared a lot looser tonight, but perhaps that was due to the consumption of the various alcoholic beverages on hand (ex. beer, red wine, and a mysterious ruby liquid in a cup). There were two hitches, one with Harvey's guitar and the other, Jim Sclavunos' off-timed finish on one of the last songs (I wanna say "Hard-on For Love," mainly because it would make for a nice pun). Warren Ellis and Mick Harvey did double-duty on several instruments: Ellis on violin (shredding it like a guitar), samplers, fender mandocasters, keys and flute; Harvey on guitar, keys and drums. The guys seemed to have a good time and we certainly did. It was a night I won't soon forget.

Now we'll just have to sit tight for the releases of "The Road" (Nov. 26) and Cave's new novel (Sept. 2009).

You better run to the city of refuge

'Cause Nick Cave and them Bad Seeds are in town. By sundown tonight, not even the rattlesnakes'll be safe.

Update: What a fantastic show! Below is a fairly accurate setlist of what Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds played at The Warfield tonight (9/19). They're all songs about "the usual stuff." Oh, and the mustache brigade (in the audience) was scant seen this evening. I saw maybe four or five who deserve an "E" for effort, but nothing even approximating the Selleck, Bronson, or Cave variety.

Setlist revised from Blah Blah Blog:

1. Night of the Lotus Eaters
2. Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
3. Tupelo
4. Today's Lesson
5. Red Right Hand (Scream 3 version) (MP3 from Rarities and B-sides Vol. II, 2005)
6. I Let Love In
7. Midnight Man
8. The Mercy Seat (Acoustic version) (MP3 from Rarities and B-sides Vol. I, 2005)
9. Deanna (Acoustic version) (MP3 from Rarities and B-sides Vol. I, 2005)
10. Moonland
11. The Ship Song
12. We Call Upon The Author
13. Papa Won't Leave You, Henry
14. More News From Nowhere
15. The Lyre of Orpheus
16. Into My Arms
17. Get Ready For Love
18. Hard-on For Love
19. God Is In The House
20. Stagger Lee

Bonus link: "Little Empty Boat" (MP3 from Rarities and B-sides Vol. III, 2005)

Update: The crowd at San Francisco's Warfield Theatre last night was unabashedly vociferous in their adoration of the music, the man and the band. Throughout the night, Cave darted from one end of the stage to the other, howling, dancing and leaning into the throng of enthusiastic fans, while the band anchored the vocals to music (keyboardist, Conway Savage and drummer, Thomas Wydler, making shakers seem like pretty fun instruments to play.) Cave, amused and bemused, by the intermittent, hardly audible calls and shouts from the front audience, reciprocated the love. Starting the set off with "Night of the Lotus Eaters", a Tennysonian number, it was the first of many songs they played from their latest album, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (Mute, 2008). It was followed by the title track off of Dig!!! and the syncopated chanting of "Tupelo" from the First Born Is Dead. They performed audience favorites, "The Mercy Seat", "Deanna", and "Red Right Hand" with "I Let Love In" for variation, and then my brain mutinied. I gave up trying to remember the correct order of the setlist and let the music in. They charged right into "Midnight Man" (introduced by Cave as a song about "stuff") "Today's Lesson" and "The Lyre of Orpheus," for which the frontman solicited the audience's participation to fill in the "oh mama's." One of my favorites of the night, "Papa Won't Leave You, Henry", was followed by "Moonland" and the rocking invocations of "We Call Upon The Author," replete with Warren Ellis writhing on the floor while he seemed to be conjuring the electronic breakdowns in the song from the stage itself (He might have had a laptop on the floor. I couldn't see.) The set was capped off with "More News From Nowhere." After a brief intermission, unsated fans were treated to an encore of "God Is In The House" from No More Shall We Part, "Into My Arms" from The Boatman's Call and a tune about everybody's favorite outlaw sociopath, "Stagger Lee."

Hands up! Who's ready for more? I am!

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds will be playing at The Warfield September 19th and 20th. Surprisingly, General Admission tickets are still available for both shows on the Ticketmaster site. I will be there as well as probably every Nick Cave fan in the Bay Area. A full write-up of the shows and a tally of how many mustaches were spotted in the course of the evenings will be forthcoming. Below is a live session that the band performed at KCRW studios in 2001.



Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Black Crow King (The Firstborn Is Dead, 1997)
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Helpless (B-sides and Rarities, Vol. I, 2005)
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Midnight Man (Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, 2008)