Nick Cave concert.
So it started and I was all like "Can Nick Cave like maybe not dance? I don't know what is going on." He kind of looked like your cool Math teacher from High School (we all had those right?) doing slam poetry on acid and then you find out later he hasn't ever touched acid in his life (Nick Cave has totally touched acid though). Like especially when you hit Higgs Boson Bluess. Giant fucking nerd moment. They played through about half of the new album which was all pretty good. Then he broke out into From Her to Eternity and that answered my question. Nick Cave can dance, it is just that you can't dance to modern Nick Cave. Old stuff that like gives a fuck about structure and form you can totally dance to and his dancing fits it perfectly. That moment is pretty much the moment you find out that your cool Math teacher from High School likes to bust out the old stuff he wrote when he was nearly arrested for being an eco-terrorist. Incredibly angry and noisy as fuck.
It really solidified stuff I had been saying when I tried to hook Ciatos on him a few years ago, Nick Cave changes completely post Murder Ballads which is the perfect in between point for grim fucking music about terrible things he was known for after The Birthday Party and the extremely poignant bittersweet borderline spoken word he does now. It sort of culminated into this really chill laid back album about people dying. Also showed the videos of him singing live that I have seen did not lie. His voice carries through amazingly accurately from the studio to the stage and that voice is goddamned amazing.
Anyway they closed out with the Encore as Stagger Lee which was pretty great as Stagger Lee stuff tends to be.
Concert was worth price of entry because it gave me two things in life that I needed to have happen. First of all I saw Nick Cave singing Red Right Hand live and oh my gods was that brilliant and one of the things on my list of things I wanted very badly to see (here is hoping Bowie does a tour on this new album and then I can probably die having most of the things I want to see from music fulfilled that are still physically possible). Second of all, I learned how to rock the fuck out while playing a violin thanks to Warren Ellis (not
that one
this one although to be honest there isn't a huge difference in what they do within their mediums honestly, both are weird and amazing).
Also of note, I realised that there is people out there that Nick Cave was their jam back in the day rather than being like an intellectual obsession. This was the stuff they just bounced to and totally dug obsessively. Straight up fist pumping and doing that weird point your finger in time with the music thing that people do at concerts to stuff from Henry's Dream or Your Funeral ... My Trial just seemed so weird. Like they are cool albums with cool tracks, but nothing that I would really say is an album you nod your head to and really get totally into like that. It was weird.
So in short Nick Cave was a sexy High School Math Teacher with an amazing voice who makes no fucking sense. You should go with Ciatos and take notes Elves or you might be in trouble. Nothing was played off Nocturama in the set he played for me Ciatos, but there was Love Letter for something off No More Shall We Part, so that was good (and strangely out of place in the set honestly). A good selection of tracks either side of Murder Ballads outside of the new stuff and only one of Murder Ballads itself. Good fun concert, I hope the one get later in the year is just as good.
Also I realised that
The Weeping Song is the most Kotori song ever. It is literally a song called The Weeping Song and is about Weeping.
It literally has the lines
This is a weeping song
A song in which to weep
While we rock ourselves to sleep
Literally the most Ko sentiment expressed in the most Nitori styles.
