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CONCERT
REVIEW by Luca Chichizola
NICK CAVE
AND
THE BAD SEEDS
Traffic Free Festival, Venaria Reale, Torino, Italy,
July 9th 2009 |
|
What
is better than a Nick
Cave concert? A free Nick
Cave concert, of course. It seems that the cultural
department of the city council in my hometown of
Torino has good taste in music, according to the
artists which have been invited to the Traffic Festival
since its first edition in 2004: Iggy Pop and the
Stooges, Shane MacGowan, Aphex Twin, New Order,
Franz Ferdinand, Gogol Bordello, Manu Chao, Lou
Reed, Daft Punk, Arctic Monkeys, Patti Smith, The
Sex Pistols and many others. |
 |
| This
year, the main attractions were our beloved Australian
bluesman/rocker with his very talented band, and
electronic-music wizards Underworld. Nice thing
about this festival is that, as I said, it’s
completely free and it involves other cultural events,
too: for example, since Nick Cave was in town, the
Museum of Cinema also dedicated a retrospective
to his works as writer, screenwriter and film music
composer. I personally didn’t see the exposition,
but I have had positive reports. |
| Anyway,
I was very curious to see the Bad Seeds live after
enjoying a couple of their concerts on DVD. Not
so much because of the slightly modified lineup
(Mick Harvey left the band and was replaced by Ed
Kuepper), but because I had read that their experiences
with their latest album and especially the Grinderman
side-project seemed to have brought a new fresh
approach to the live performances, too. |
 |
| This
year the music events of the Traffic Festival took
place not in a park in Torino, but at the “Italian
Versailles”, the recently restored Reggia
di Venaria. A magnificent setting, just half
an hour from the center of Torino. And again, I
must express my congratulations to the organization,
because it was impeccable: easy to reach, easy to
find parking, and with a sufficiently large open-space
area dedicated to the event without risk of damage
to the beautiful gardens of the royal estate. Acoustics
were decent, and the volume was good and loud (at
times even a bit too loud, at least judging from
the slight buzz I’m having in my left ear
today). OK, maybe the support bands could have been
better, since they ranged from the moderate dullness
of the three never-heard-before local bands which
occupied the stage during the first hour, to the
downright annoying performance of St. Vincent (one
of those boring “alternative” bands
which cover their lack of personality and charisma
with tiresome outbursts of grating noise): judging
from the general lack of interest, it was rather
obvious whom most of the audience had actually come
to hear… Well, maybe that should have been
obvious from the start, judging how many people
around me were wearing Nick Cave or even Einstürzende
Neubauten T-shirts: sure, there were also some young
people who clearly looked like they had never heard
of Nick and had come to the Festival just to have
some beers and spend a night out, but they definitely
were the minority. |
| So
my wife Silvia and I patiently waited for the supporting
acts to finish their show, and at around 22:30 Nick
Cave and the Bad Seeds finally arrived on stage.
Usual black dress with white pointed collar shirt
for Nick (luckily without the cheesy moustache that
he had been sporting recently), and similar sober
attires for the rest of the band… except for
the usual weirdo hair and beard sported by Warren
Ellis, who as time goes by looks more and more like
a bum picked up from the street (but boy, how great
a musician he is!). |
| It
is immediately evident, from the first songs in
the setlist (“Papa won’t leave you Henry”,
“Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!”, “Red right
hand”, and a thundering “Tupelo”)
that, as predicted, the Bad Seeds have received
a new injection of vitality, power and raw grittiness
from the Grinderman experience. Mr. Cave seems to
have discovered that strumming on the electric guitar
is more enjoyable than sitting at the piano, and
while he isn’t the most technically proficient
or refined player of a six-strings that I have heard
in my life, he certainly compensates that with energy,
passion and sheer wildness. The setlist of the gig
favoured the rockier and grittier songs from the
extensive catalogue of the band, and even the few
ones that in the albums used to be quieter, subtler
or with more complex arrangements, were often played
in radically different versions: stripped to the
core, tight, fast, grinding, absolutely mean and
hard-rocking. It looked like the Bad Seeds were
on a wild spree, and the sheer power of some songs
was breathtaking: perhaps too much for the ears
of some in the audience, as every time the band
unleashed one of their ferocious and sudden outbursts
of feedback-distorted aural assault at least a dozen
of older folks went away with perplexed faces… |
 |
| For
those like me who already knew what to expect, it
certainly wasn’t a problem… on the contrary,
it was rather fun, very energetic. So, the show
went on with classics like “Henry Lee”
(very wonderful), a blasting “There she goes
my beautiful world”, and two oldies which
are always great fun like “Deanna” and
“The mercy seat”. “Nature boy”
was another fine moment, although in a rockier and
stripped-down version compared to the richer one
played during the Abattoir Blues Tour (they had
backing female gospel singers there…), while
“The ship song” provided a slightly
quieter break. The quieter moment of the concert,
anyway, was the sparse and touching “Love
letter”, and this was the only song played
by Nick at the piano: I would have hoped for more,
but as I said before… if he’s happier
to play the guitar and occasionally bash some keys
on the electric organ, there’s nothing wrong
with me; if I want to hear some more of the “crooner”
Nick, I’ll simply pick up one of his older
live recordings, or one of his late ‘90s albums… |
| Other
fine moments of the show, again of the “raw&rockier”
kind, were a version of “We call upon the
author” which, in its sheer aggressiveness,
could put some of Nick’s Birthday Party stuff
to shame, a fine performance of “Midnight
man”, and the usually lovely “The weeping
song”. The only bit that left me a bit puzzled
was “Stagger Lee”, which (apart from
the final outburst of noise) was a bit less rhythmically
irresistible that the original recording. Probably
this partly has to do with Nick’s style of
live singing, which often could be considered more
of a “freeflow narration”: but if you
know him, you also know that if you want the best
vocal performances you have to go for the studio
albums because he has quite a habit of using a different,
more laid-back delivery on live shows. |
| The
concert ended with a very rocky performance of “Get
ready for love”, and a very good one of “Moonland”
- one of my favorite tracks from their latest album
- which was dedicated to that “big fucking
yellow disc up there”. |
| Overall
it was a very nice show. I appreciate it when artists
try to offer a live experience which differs from
what can be heard in the studio albums, otherwise
what would be the purpose of going to see a live
performance when one can hear exactly the same stuff
at home with better quality? |
| And
from this point of view, the show was very satisfactory:
again, it’s hard to describe with words how
loud, aggressive, energetic and raw the Bad Seeds
can be on stage. Kudos in particular to Jim Sclavunos
for the explosive drumming, and to Warren Ellis
for his absolutely weirdo behavior on stage: whether
he’s standing with his back to the audience,
or rolling on the floor like possessed by a demon,
or making strident noises with his violin, he almost
constantly steals the show from Nick. And coming
to Nick, well, he was his usual self: quite relaxed
and at ease, and even smiling a lot, but always
capable of sudden bursts of quirkiness and his trademark
jerky “rock postures” and jumps. And,
miracle of miracles, he only smoked ONE cigarette
in more than one hour and a half! |
 |
| Personally
I was worried that Silvia would kill me for bringing
her to this gig, since she only had explored the
softer side of Nick Cave so far (albums like “The
boatman’s call”, “No more shall
we part” and “Nocturama”), but
she enjoyed the concert very much, even the louder
and grittier moments of it! And this was no small
achievement at all: another testament to the great
personality and captivating power of Nick Cave and
the Bad Seeds. - Luca Chichizola |
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