Despite being billed as a solo outing, the first of Nick Cave’s three sold-out shows at Vicar St. turns out to be a mini-Bad Seeds gig, featuring old Nick on grand piano, along with drums, bass (courtesy of Bad Seed Martyn Casey) and the incredible Warren Ellis on violin and mandolin.
Looking healthier than he has done in years, with his hair freshly shorn, and sporting his usual black suit, Cave is all smiles and waves as he takes to the stage, perches behind his grand piano and introduces the band. Then it’s down to business, as he launches into ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’, one of the finest cuts from his latest album Nocturama.
For the next hour and a half, the capacity crowd (which includes Shane MacGowan and Irish football manager Brian Kerr) gets to worship at the altar of Nick, as he flits through his entire back catalogue with seemingly wilful abandon. ‘West Country Girl’, from The Boatman’s Call, is searing, Fred Neill’s ‘Dolphins’ (also covered by Tim Buckley) is shimmering and ‘God Is In The House’ (from No More Shall We Part) is a gorgeous, glorious singalong. ‘Into Your Arms’ seems even more hymnal and beautiful than ever before, while ‘The Ship Song’ remains an all-time classic.
Sans the full support of the Bad Seeds, Cave is less demented pentecostal preacher, more amiable spiritual guide, leading the faithful through stripped-back renditions of his songs of love and redemption. He even engages in some banter with the crowd – ‘People Ain’t No Good’, shouts up one concert-goer, desperate to hear his favourite song. “Tell me about it,” comes the quickfire reply.
The Birthday Party’s ‘Wild World’ is taken out of the closet, aired and given new life. A slowed-down take on ‘The Mercy Seat’ has more in common with Johnny Cash’s cover than Nick’s own frantic original (indeed, Cave dedicates a song to the late, lamented man in black).
‘Henry Lee’ is staggering, a full-on aural assault, courtesy of Warren’s demonic violin-work. In fact, the Dirty Three ringleader is a worthy foil for Cave throughout the entire gig, both visually and sonically: where Nick is all pent-up aggression and sombre calm, Ellis is a whirling, twisting ball of pure energy. This man doesn’t just play violin with his hands, he plays with his entire body: the music seeming to seep up through the soles of his feet, coursing through the length of his frame before escaping in wild and wonderful arcs that fill out the music with vivid colour.
The only quibble is that it’s all over too soon, and everyone can point to Cave classics that weren’t played, like ‘Deanna’, ‘The Weeping Song’, ‘Straight To You’ etc. But when you have a back catalogue as strong as this, you’d need to play for four hours or more to keep everyone content. Having said that, we would have happily sat through it.