Today is not Abattoir of Orpheus day, Laz, one day it will be.
I'm finally getting around to penning my thoughts on the amazing Nick Cave & Warren Ellis show that took place at Hanging Rock in late November.
Hanging Rock is a 6.5 million year old volcanic rock formation about 45 minutes northwest of the Melbourne CBD, 'hanging' 100+ metres over the amphitheatre below. It is incredibly important to its Traditional Owners, encompassing at least three Tribes, and it makes for a truly magical concert backdrop; the sun sets to the west of the rock formation, the rock appears to change colour.
Courtney Barnett opened, I hadn't seen her in a while, and she was great. I love the way she has fun with the lyrics in the chorus of Pedestrian at Best, Avant Gardener and Depreston ruled, Write a List of Things to Look Forward to is a great song off her (really good) latest album, and, in an awesome surprise, she brought out Kurt Vile for Over Everything from their collab record, which was really cool. He's not even touring here!
Rain kicked in just before CB started and persisted throughout her set, I got soaked and the ground was pretty muddy, but got a poncho and not much was gonna stop me from enjoying Cave & Ellis.
The band comes out - three impeccably-dressed backup singers, and Colin Greenwood, who is playing bass on this tour! - followed by Warren and then Nick.
(Oh, I also ran into an old friend. He passed my tiny yellow/green 1985 Honda City on the highway on the way in, looked over and saw me driving, and then we happened to get the same bus in. We got food, spent time in the rain, drank, chatted. It was lovely seeing him and we've caught up twice since. I love him, and it felt like a little gift from the universe after a tough year.)
I make no secret of the fact that I think that there is no musician on earth in the sort of form Cave is in at the moment, along with Warren. Push the Sky Away, Skeleton Tree, Ghosteen and Carnage are all phenomenal records. I'd been checking out setlists, and was delighted to see that this CARNAGE tour is largely it and Ghosteen. (Oddly, the shows he's playing with The Bad Seeds, of whom Warren is a member, are career-spanning. No more than three songs off any album, and only three tracks from Ghosteen, which is my favourite record of his and one of my favourites of all-time.)
Three Ghosteen tracks open the set, and then Carnage, which sounds quite similar to that record. At one point, Nick (whose crowd work has been amazing in the decade I've been a fan) says something about the number of slow songs. But it's such a credit to him and Warren and the band that it matters little. They had the crowd eating out of the palm of their hand from the second the show started. The location and setting helped as well I'm sure, but it was pretty stunning to see the reception from the crowd. A crowd of about 18,000 and 95% were on their feet, and a not-insignificant portion singing every word and dancing along to these barely-danceable songs. There's just something about his recent music, combined with the harrowing stories that surround it, and Cave's maturation into this warm, gentle, deep persona, that just all feeds into the magic and elevates the show beyond itself.
And then there's Warren. He is an absolute fucking delight. He is definitely far more beloved in this country, being Australian as well, and also the leader of Dirty Three, but people
love him. His talents are a sight to behold, the gravity he brings to these relatively threadbare songs just sitting over a tiny keyboard placed on his knees. The sounds he brings out of the violin. His backup vocals. At one point he does "the sexiest song introduction ever" (Cave's words) that's just this pretty bogan "one, two, three, four..." At many other points, he gets giddy with glee and, shoeless, starts playing his violin and laughing while leaning backwards with his feet in the air. It's so great, their bromance is beautiful.
White Elephant was fucking mega, I really hope they release a live set from this tour, cos that shit was fucking fire. So awesome watching Cave strut around the stage singing the aggressive, sweary first half of the song. Ghosteen was exceptional, and transcendent.
I Need You is the first song not from CARNAGE or Ghosteen, followed by a cover of Cosmic Dancer (just listening to the original now, this is perhaps a band I should listen to, I hear T. Rex and think only of Bang a Gong), then Breathless (great song, I should listen to Lyre of Blues, hey. Although I'm listening to the original now and it's a bit on-the-nose). Hand of God great fun, quite extended as Nick goes to the edge of the stage after the song has ended, whispering to the crowd to continue the refrain.
Then comes my favourite part of the night.
The sun has set at this point, although it's still dusk.
Shattered Ground begins. I fucking love this song man. Those synths that come in around 35 seconds in are so beautiful, combined with Nick's voice, which on this track on particular sounds imbued with a tonne of emotion.
Having just been through, and still moving through, my first-ever breakup, with someone I thought I'd be with forever, some of these lyrics really hit me.
I started crying, and then even more as they played my favourite song from Ghosteen, the incredibly evocative, wondrous, beautiful, heartwarming Galleon Ship. Fucking hell, man.
I think Shattered Ground / Galleon Ship is up there with the best one-two punches I've ever seen at a concert.
I spent a bit of the concert in my head, noticing I'm in my head, beating myself up for being in my head, comparing myself to others, part of me wanting to go home because there I can distract myself and not run the risk of ruining my own night.
But during this 10 or so minutes, I was able to cry freely and feel the music and the lyrics and the beauty of the place and the moment and hold the parts of me that were freaking out a bit. Such a beautiful moment. Thank you Nick, Warren, and band
Leviathan and Balcony Man close out the main set. The latter was so fucking good. Nick by this point has been very thankful and grateful to the crowd, it is evident that he genuinely really appreciates the support and to be able to play music in Australia again after so long (even if he doesn't call this place home anymore). Also lovely to see him acknowledge the sacredness of Hanging Rock. Anyway, he does a preamble before Balcony Man, about how at some point in the tour, the crowd started screaming every time he sung the word "balcony", and how he loved it and wanted it to continue. So you have this song start up, which for the first third is actually quite desolate and despairing, and every time he sings "balcony" the lights go up and the crowd woooos. If any moment from the night could capture the majesty of this concert in isolation, it's that: they're playing this quite weighty song, which alternates between desolate and really beautiful and pretty, and Nick's at the piano just having the fucking time of his life encouraging the crowd to scream and cheer, over-enunciating the "I'm 200 pounds of packed ice/octopus/bag of blood and bone" as if he's winking to the fact that the lines are a bit ridiculous. Such a treat.
They've already been playing 90 minutes, and then they come back out for an encore. Nick whips out a joke at the top, something about the next song being really, really long. It was Hollywood, and it was epic. I think it's the only song on Ghosteen with anything remotely approaching drums, and it ruled. The drummer, Larry Mullins (ha), who is a touring member of TBS, did a great job, and the part of the song where it kinda freaks out and the bass just rips was sick, and then the Kisa Gotami and the Mustard Seed part was magical, particularly with that amazing "it's a long way to find / peace of mind" refrain.
The set then loosened up, they played Henry Lee, with one of the backup singers taking PJ Harvey's part (another song I'm listening to for the first time right now), the Gen Xers and somewhat older started losing it around this point (but credit to them, they'd loved the whole night, they were just also loving hearing a few old classics), then Weeping Song, which, listening to now, was much better live. Then the piano version of Jubilee Street, any opportunity to hear it or Higgs Boson Blues is most welcomed, then Into My Arms, and then the night closed out with Ghosteen Speaks.
It was a magical evening, and then I took off for the bus, waited 45 mins in line, got on, got dropped off, made my way to my car and then drove home. Special evening.
The only thing that soured my experience was looking up the setlist from the night before, and seeing that they got the exact same set, AND they played Albuquerque, which is my favourite song off CARNAGE