Reviewed onFriday January 20 (photo by Ashley Mar)
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds’ new album Skeleton Tree is a sad study in what happens when tragedy comes knocking at the door of a tortured artist. In the accompanying film One More Time With Feeling, we experience this tragedy and this music intimately, sitting by Cave’s side as he works through the stages of grief following the death of his teenage son Arthur. Tonight, we sit in an arena-sized theatre complete with cup holders on our seats, and observe tragedy from afar.
Except tragedy is far from the overwhelming sentiment at Cave’s return Sydney show. Bravery is not the word either, though this soul-baring album only landed in September, and is hardly the kind of music suited to arenas. From the moment Cave and his seven Bad Seeds step onstage, this is a triumph; a triumph despite it all.
There are some 8,000 fans in this new Sydney music venue, yet Cave gets up close and personal almost immediately. He casts a demonic figure as he bellows ‘Higgs Boson Blues’ at his disciples in the front rows, while the industrial hammerfist of ‘From Her To Eternity’ is felt right up in the bleachers.
From ‘Anthrocene’ and ‘Jubilee Street’ to set highpoints ‘The Mercy Seat’ and ‘Stagger Lee’, the songs depart significantly from their studio versions. It’s a wonder that it all manages to stay on course, but that much is owed to Warren Ellis and Marty Casey, the respective multi-instrumentalist and bass player, who are in particularly fine form tonight.
Elsewhere, Cave suggests a sing-along for ‘Into My Arms’, but the crowd seems happier to stand back and see where he’ll take it himself. No surprises there: Cave is eminently watchable, and whenever he’s not at the piano, he’s almost certain to be found in front of the stage and down at the barrier.
After ‘People Ain’t No Good’, Cave casts a doubt on his introverted younger self – people “have improved”, he jokes – and he’s the first to wave a gracious goodbye after ‘Push The Sky Away’, while the band vamps its way to the final note. It’s impossible to predict where Cave might go from here, but the magic is as present as ever.
