Nick Cave is crossing Europe in October and November, from Zagreb to Paris, from Barcelona to Dublin, escorted by his Bad Seeds, with whom he has not toured since 2017. The objective is to present his latest painful album, Wild God (2024), third chapter of a narrative that he has clung to to move forward with his life, starting from the tragedy.
His son Arthur, one of his twins, also children of the designer Susie Cave, died in an accident on the cliffs of Brighton, at just 15 years old. It’s been nine years since that and, for many, they might not be enough, an entire life might not be enough, to stick your head out and see the dawn with a look that is not resentful. Wild God It is the testimony of how the artist has found a way to continue living: believing in a wild God.
The expectation for this concert in Madrid was great. There has been a lot of talk about the album and it has always been good. It has been accompanied by interviews in which Cave has decided not to be abrupt with his interviewers and have interesting conversations, like this one with the writer Mariana Enríquez. There have even been giant billboards advertising the album in the subway, a confirmation that the artist has reached a wide audience and is capable of filling stadiums of more than 10,000 people, unthinkable 30 years ago, when it was published. Let Love In.
From that album, last night he performed the tavern Red Right Handreceived with enthusiasm not perhaps because thousands of people had bought that album at the time, but because a television series rescued it. That was the Cave of blood and alcohol. A Cave that now only exists in memory but that was sometimes seen on the night in which Madrid came together to worship and touch this god.
That Cave, who also appeared in the great and ecstatic song From Her to Eternityis the one that was left to Blixa Bargeld’s Bad Seeds along the way. The egos of Blixa and Nick could not stand each other and the former collected all that delirious harshness that he provided to Nick Cave and poured it into his group Einstürzende Neubauten. An amazing paradox of fate – there is no indication that it happened on purpose – Einstürzende Neubauten played in Barcelona the day before at the same time as Nick Cave. When she came out on stage, Blixa thanked her for their assistance: “I know it is a difficult decision.” Nick Cave said nothing, of course.
Although the Palau Sant Jordi had been filled to two-thirds of its capacity, the WiZink Center was almost full, but not sold out, with tickets available at some points in the stands. The price was not affordable: the entrance fee was close to one hundred euros. Rock’n’roll has gone through the roof and an experience like this, although lasting more than hours, is already a luxury.
More than twenty songs took the audience on a journey where, above all, the aforementioned Wild God, with just two touches from the two previous albums, after the death of Arthur Cave: Ghosteen (of which he played the shocking Bright Horses, with magnificent high-pitched choruses (almost in the Sigur Rós register), elusive, from the essential and Valleinclanesque Bad Seed Warren Ellis, who plays the violin as if it were a guitar) and Skeleton Tree (which he resorted to I Need You). They are songs chosen in a coherent way to bring them together with the narrative of the wild god, songs like Frogs, Wild God and Song of the Lake, which are three from the last album and the three with which he opened the concert. A choir made up of three women and one man gives the gospel sound that suits these songs so well.
After the shock that From Her To Eternity, Cave sat down at the piano to return to Wild God with three other songs: Long Dark Night, Cinnamon Horses and Conversion but, between the second and third, the seed of evil grew with Tupelothe tribal song that opened his second solo album (his career began with the wild party that was Birthday Party) titled The Firstborn Is Dead. A classic live show in which Nick Cave – and his audience – enters a hypnotic trance and reminds us, amidst thunder, that Elvis was born during a storm of biblical proportions, under which birds could not fly and fish could not swim. At one point in the song, Cave throws himself into the audience, melting into the arms of the front rows. It will do so repeatedly during the concert, thanks to a walkway that occupies the space of the pit that traditionally separates the stage from the audience. Intentionally, Nick Cave seeks to get even closer to people on this tour: “You are beautiful!” he will shout to the audience repeatedly.
Between Tupelo and ConversionNick Cave alludes to mobile phones. It’s not the first time. Days ago, in Krakow, a video widely seen on social networks shows him making a deal with the public: he will pose for 30 seconds in which people will be able to take all the photos and videos they want; Then the phones will go down. In Madrid, something similar happened. “Put down the phone,” he told someone, “I’m going to sing this song for you and it will be the most special moment of your entire life, an experience that you will not forget, but you will have to put the phone down.” And Nick Cave is obeyed.
The interpretation of the aforementioned I Need You It was one of the most fascinating moments of the concert. With the singer alone at the piano and the camera in front of him, broadcasting his face to the large screen at the back of the stage. Another great moment came with another Cave song from the 80s, The Mercy Seat (from his album Tender Prey), that Nick in red and black who commands an army it is not known whether to hell or where, but it is impossible not to follow him. “Fucking Madrid!” he shouted on more than one occasion.
The concert is coming to a close and the encores remain, in which Nick Cave will emotionally remember the Bad Seed most missed, the late Anita Lane, to whom he has dedicated a song on the album titled O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is). Cave spoke of her and said that she had died last year, or perhaps the year before. In truth, it has been three and a half years since his death. But absence is like that: time doesn’t matter, it’s just emptiness. The little response from the public to the dedication, its projected images or her own voice playing on a recording, indicates that very few people know one of the founders of the Bad Seeds.
In general, it is perceived that its audience is mostly new or arrived through television. The Nick that Anita loved continues in the encore with another of his wonderful evil songs, which can only be sung with a rum in hand, Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry (of the Henry’s Dream). And, to please the audience and lower the tone before the farewell, one of his most beautiful songs: The Weeping Song. “It’s a song to cry about, but we won’t cry alone,” Nick said, correctly. The musician asked the audience for collaboration to do “that Spanish thing,” clapping quickly. At first it didn’t go well but then things, like in a rehearsal room, progressed. Cave used some of the audience’s arms to hold his microphone while he applauded, with the naturalness of friendship.
The group leaves but he alone will interpret the final message: the baladón Into My Arms, in which some notes are given about the God in which a religious Cave does not believe: “I don’t believe in an interventionist God, but I know, darling, that you do. But if I believed, I would kneel and ask him not to intervene when it comes to you, not to touch a hair on your head, to leave you as you are. If there is a God, it should be a God who delivers Nick Cave to the arms of the fans, at least one more time, you can’t ask for more.
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