Nick Cave in Cleveland, September 2023
The week before I got laid off, I bought two tickets to see Nick Cave solo on Monday, September 25 at the State Theater in Playhouse Square. M and I had really enjoyed his show with the Bad Seeds in Detroit in 2017 (it was, in fact, my show of the year for 2017, so I had no trouble convincing M to see him again, especially since his first Cleveland appearance since the 1980s meant we only had to drive downtown instead of 2.5 hours.
Thankfully, M and I recovered from Covid in time to see Nick Cave. Our friends happily agreed to babysit for us again and we were in our seats in the mezzanine well before the show started. So, it seemed, was everyone else I knew from years of hanging out at Cleveland concerts. I saw a WRUWite on the way in from the parking garage and another on the way out to the parking garage. In our section of seats alone we saw 6 people we know, we chatted with another WRUWite on the way out of the show, and several more of my friends posted pictures from various points inside the venue. Clearly, nobody else was going to miss to see one of Australia's finest exports in Cleveland.
I wasn't really sure what to expect from the show. I listened to the Nick Cave / Warren Ellis Carnage album in case it was a tour for that disc, which I didn't expect since Ellis wasn't along. I was right. Instead of hitting a new album in depth, Cave played hits, deep cuts and the occasional cover in a musical tour through much of his career.
Edit this setlist | More Nick Cave setlists
Very technically it wasn't a solo show. Cave played the grand piano and sang, occasionally rising to sing or talk to the audience. He was accompanied on bass by Colin Greenwood, who as Cave noted normally plays bass in a little band called Radiohead, who I somewhat unmemorably saw back in 2008. Greenwood almost seemed more like a fan who was living out of his dream playing with Cave than a member of an enormously popular band in his own right; there was very little banter between the two, and it was clear that this was Cave's show.
Cave was in fine form, the theater was mostly full (he still isn't as popular as he should be, apparently) and I doubt any of the attendees had any real cause for complaint. In Detroit, the band more or less plowed through the set with minimal interaction with the audience, but here in Cleveland on his own, Cave was feeling chatty. I don't think he strung together more than two songs in a row without some kind of audience interaction, whether a story, an introduction of a song, directing the audience, or responding to various shouts and cheers from the fans. He was very good at working the crowd, which given how long he's been doing this is not surprising. He came out in his traditional black suit, which M thought made him look somewhat like a mortician in the old west. At 66, Cave still is "known to be quite handsome / In a certain angle and a certain light."
Weirdly, in the moment the audience for Nick Cave reminded me of the audience for the time I saw Morrissey. No, really. Moz was routinely swarmed with people charging the stage to hug him and express their devotion. Cave didn't have anybody charge the stage, but rather a lot of the comments yelled from the crowd were over the top praise. I'm not saying he doesn't deserve that praise, but even Cave seemed a little embarrassed by some of the comments, even if he was deflecting them effectively enough. It was a little much and for me, at least, it detracted from the show, which was already a lesser show than the Detroit gig in my mind. It may not even be my show of the year, because The Magnetic Fields gig was very good. However in the big picture, it was a great show, and I hope to see Nick Cave again many more times.
For those of you who can't get enough Nick Cave, I recommend his weekly quasi-blog The Red Hand Files. He takes fan questions and the answers are usually delightful, and I usually dig the accompanying art. Or you can keep listening to his backlog, which I continue to slowly acquire and work my way through in depth.
This was my sixth concert of the year, and band number eight. As of this writing, the strategic ticket reserve is currently empty.
Thankfully, M and I recovered from Covid in time to see Nick Cave. Our friends happily agreed to babysit for us again and we were in our seats in the mezzanine well before the show started. So, it seemed, was everyone else I knew from years of hanging out at Cleveland concerts. I saw a WRUWite on the way in from the parking garage and another on the way out to the parking garage. In our section of seats alone we saw 6 people we know, we chatted with another WRUWite on the way out of the show, and several more of my friends posted pictures from various points inside the venue. Clearly, nobody else was going to miss to see one of Australia's finest exports in Cleveland.
I wasn't really sure what to expect from the show. I listened to the Nick Cave / Warren Ellis Carnage album in case it was a tour for that disc, which I didn't expect since Ellis wasn't along. I was right. Instead of hitting a new album in depth, Cave played hits, deep cuts and the occasional cover in a musical tour through much of his career.
Edit this setlist | More Nick Cave setlists
Very technically it wasn't a solo show. Cave played the grand piano and sang, occasionally rising to sing or talk to the audience. He was accompanied on bass by Colin Greenwood, who as Cave noted normally plays bass in a little band called Radiohead, who I somewhat unmemorably saw back in 2008. Greenwood almost seemed more like a fan who was living out of his dream playing with Cave than a member of an enormously popular band in his own right; there was very little banter between the two, and it was clear that this was Cave's show.
Cave was in fine form, the theater was mostly full (he still isn't as popular as he should be, apparently) and I doubt any of the attendees had any real cause for complaint. In Detroit, the band more or less plowed through the set with minimal interaction with the audience, but here in Cleveland on his own, Cave was feeling chatty. I don't think he strung together more than two songs in a row without some kind of audience interaction, whether a story, an introduction of a song, directing the audience, or responding to various shouts and cheers from the fans. He was very good at working the crowd, which given how long he's been doing this is not surprising. He came out in his traditional black suit, which M thought made him look somewhat like a mortician in the old west. At 66, Cave still is "known to be quite handsome / In a certain angle and a certain light."
Weirdly, in the moment the audience for Nick Cave reminded me of the audience for the time I saw Morrissey. No, really. Moz was routinely swarmed with people charging the stage to hug him and express their devotion. Cave didn't have anybody charge the stage, but rather a lot of the comments yelled from the crowd were over the top praise. I'm not saying he doesn't deserve that praise, but even Cave seemed a little embarrassed by some of the comments, even if he was deflecting them effectively enough. It was a little much and for me, at least, it detracted from the show, which was already a lesser show than the Detroit gig in my mind. It may not even be my show of the year, because The Magnetic Fields gig was very good. However in the big picture, it was a great show, and I hope to see Nick Cave again many more times.
For those of you who can't get enough Nick Cave, I recommend his weekly quasi-blog The Red Hand Files. He takes fan questions and the answers are usually delightful, and I usually dig the accompanying art. Or you can keep listening to his backlog, which I continue to slowly acquire and work my way through in depth.
This was my sixth concert of the year, and band number eight. As of this writing, the strategic ticket reserve is currently empty.