I saw Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds with 'special guest' Cat Power last night at the Brisbane Convention Centre, and there were about 4 thousand people there. Cat Power was her usual withdrawn, self-conscious, stage fraught self, opting to finish only two songs that she started, and after one chorus would usually just stop playing and say, "uhhh...i think im gonna play a different song now..." whilst her two bandmates glanced at each other with a certain "here we go again" look in their eyes. She seemed like she was playing cover versions of her own songs, messing with the melodies too much, skipping verses and choruses, and deciding to leave the *killer* hooks out of Good Woman and I Don't Blame You, to the dismay of the otherwise supportive audience. She apologised after each song, even those she executed well, and gave herself the 'Julius Caeser' thumbs down above her head after a few songs. She kept saying "we're almost done", as if she was paining everyone in the audience just by being there. She never looked at the audience and usually had her back turned/side on, but still her voice was amazing, and stuff.

AAAAAAAAAAAnyway, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (sans Blixa) came on at about 9:30 and they taught me several things:

-there are few, if any, acts that have as many fucking great songs as them
-he is the best frontman in the world
-he can dance like no one else his age, with the kicky things and stuff
-when they want to be, they are the loudest fucking band on the planet
-they are sooooooooo fucking underrated
-he is the best/youngest looking 47 year old ex-junkie/alchoholic in the world
-they are an exxxxcellent live band
-Warren Ellis can rock the violin like no one else
-like heads, two drumkits are better than one

They had two drumkits/drummers, and when they were both going, like on the Mercy Seat, your brain felt like it wanted to burst and leak its sweet gooey gooey goodness out from your skull, but in a good way. The four or so gospel singers, contrary to what i presumed, didn't detract from the vocals at all: they just made it better. They did 3 encores, which was quite pleasant. All in all, this is the best show i've seen them do, in real life or on video/dvd, and the best show i've seen, period.

I __ __
/ \/ \
\ / Nick Cave
\ /
\ /

that heart took like 5 fucking minutes to make, so soak it in.

that will be all...

the heart didn't work. Well that's just fucking fantastic.....


well......


I Nick Cave

He played here too but my lack of a job/money combined with the quick selling out of the show meant I couldn't go.

isn't he playing over the Tasman tonight or tomorrow?

How's that?

Great review, man! Sounds like a large time.

<---- Soooooo frickin' jealous (and happy for you).

Man, I've been waiting for Sir Cave & the Naughty Seeds to come over to this continent.

His last album(s) is my #1 for last year and for the last little while.

I've seen him play once and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen.

he seems to not tour America often. The thing i love about him is that he hasn't lived permanently in Australia since the late seventies, and he still has a broad, unadulterated Aussie accent, unlike posers like Kylie Minogue who live in London for a couple of months and come back sounding like the fucking queen

i ALSO saw Rowland S. Howard (guitarist for The Birthday Party) do a solo show the other night. Midway through the set this dude yelled out, "Rowland...you're better than Nick!"

to which Mr. Howard smugly replied, "Nick who?"

it was a good show.

[img][323:500]http://www.pvv.org/~olafb/pics/gallery/NickCave2.jpg[/img]