Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds honour Anita Lane and cover Grinderman at emotional Berlin show
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds paid tribute to the late Anita Lane and honoured their former home as the ‘Wild God’ tour rolled into Berlin last night (Sunday September 29). Check out photos, footage, the setlist and more below.
Ahead of their upcoming UK arena dates, the band are currently fresh at the top of their scheduled European tour in support of the acclaimed 18th album ‘Wild God’.
The band kicked off with a euphoric rendition of album highlight and Cave’s favourite new track ‘Frogs’ that saw the fans respond in kind to the frontman’s call of “jumping for joy”. As he got up close and personal, Cave took the first of many opportunities to thank the city he once called home in the early ‘80s during his more hedonistic days – before introducing a rapturous delivery of ‘Wild God’. The album title track was received like an old favourite; particularly the almighty climax of Cave bellowing “bring your spirit down”.
“Thank you, fucking Berlin,” said Cave after. “Alright, this is a song about – ah fuck, I don’t really know, we’ve never played this song before. It could be a disaster or a very beautiful thing, you just never know,” he went on, introducing the live debut of ‘Song Of The Lake’.
The band followed with the classic ‘O Children’ – a song which allowed the set to breathe and Cave said was about “unforgiving song about watching our children as we pursue our own goals”. “Are you ready?” he offered afterwards. “This is a terrifying song with a happy ending. I lied about the second part of that. It’s a terrifying song with an even more terrifying ending. It’s called ‘Jubilee Street’.”
The cut from ‘Push The Sky Away’, now a true highlight and centrepiece of a modern day Bad Seeds set, bloomed towards the climax with the crowd responding in kind as Cave shouted in the clamouring front rows of the crowd: “I’m transforming, I’m vibrating look at me now.”
Other peaks came with a feral outing of fan favourite ‘From Her To Eternity’, before well-received ‘Wild God’ cuts ‘Long Dark Night’ and ‘Cinnamon Horses’. The latter had much more of a blockbuster Hollywood ending when played live, largely due to the passionate delivery of the band’s backing singers and the cinematic percussion of Jim Sclavunos.
“Alright, you ready?,” said Cave later in the set. “This is a song about Elvis Presley. I don’t know if you know him, but you should check him out,” he joked, in jovial spirits throughout the show. “Elvis Presley was born in a town called Tupelo,” he offered, introducing the song of the same name which he notes was written here in Berlin. “Check it out, pay attention.”
The sheer intensity of the song acted like a time machine in Cave performing in the feral state as he would have back in the band’s wilder ‘80s days.
‘Wild God’ tracks enriched the latter part of the set, particularly ‘Conversion’, which saw a masterful call-and-response sing-along as the screen flashed the lyrics “YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL” and “STOP” in the album’s aesthetic – with the crowd reaction suggesting that it could become a future latter day era set centre-piece like ‘Jubilee Street’. Meanwhile, the emotional intensity of ‘Joy’ and ‘I Need You’ saw them with the same weight as the likes of ‘Tupelo’, ‘Red Right Hand’ and ‘The Mercy Seat’.
“Do you know who Anita Lane is?” Cave asked, paying tribute to his late partner and former Bad Seeds and Birthday Party bandmate, who passed away in 2021. Noting how she also lived in Berlin, he hailed her a “deeply inspiring character” and “a bright flame that all of us dark drug addicted characters would circle around.” He then dedicated ‘O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is)’ to her, the ‘Wild God’ tracked penned in her memory, with footage of the artist playing as an answering machine message from Lane played over the top.
The band also gave the title track and ‘White Elephant’ from Cave and Warren Ellis’ ‘Carnage‘ the full Bad Seeds treatment, along with a fevered performance of Grinderman’s ‘The Palaces Of Montezuma’ in the first encore. Fans after the show spoke of their desire to see side-project Grinderman return, and Ellis has revealed that it’s not out of the question.
“I’d never say never!,” he told NME earlier this month. “But we better bloody get on with it. The average age of us is about 100 now. Look, it constantly runs around and comes up in conversation every once in a while.
“There seems to be much more love for Grinderman now than when we were around! I wouldn’t be against it; it was so enjoyable. We’ve got to get this record out of the way, then maybe when we’re 80? Maybe we could double up with Oasis and maybe they could support us? Maybe Oasis can support Grinderman if we reform when we’re 80!”
The second encore came with heartfelt performance of ‘Into My Arms’ performed by just Cave on piano before a closing ‘As The Water Covers The Sea’ and a surprise finale of ‘The Weeping Song’ with maximum crowd participation and thanks and applause for the full band – including Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood on bass duties in the absence of Martyn Casey.
“It’s an awesome group of people to play music with,” Greenwood told NME ahead of the show. “They’re brilliant and with ferociously loud drummers; what a team. For me, it’s a really fun thing to do because it’s not Radiohead. There are a lot of different colours in the music, so I’m having a blast.”
Having previously performed with Cave live on his recent solo tours as well as several dates of the ‘Carnage’ tour with Warren Ellis, Greenwood also contributed parts to the band’s new album, ‘Wild God’, too.
“He’s such a great story-teller, and I really love his piano-playing,” Greenwood said of Cave. “When I took the rough recordings from the new album home to listen to and heard his voice fill up my front room, I thought, ‘What a voice! He’s got the lot!’”
“I knew his music of course, but I didn’t know it super-well. I knew ‘Let Love In’ and really liked that record, as well as the previous records ‘Push The Sky Away’ and ‘Skeleton Tree’, Being lucky enough to watch him work and write with Warren has been a true privilege.”
Greenwood praised the Bad Seeds music for their power and dealing in “euphoric intensity”.
“The music so powerful, passionate, emotional, involving and entrancing,” he added. “I saw Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds for the first time in 2017 in Antwerp. I just watched Nick hold that audience in the palm of his hand; there was this ornate soulfulness to it that I adored. To be a small part of that amazing story is an enormous honour and privilege for me.”
Asked about stepping up to the task of dressing as sharply as the Bad Seeds, Greenwood replied: “Well, when I did the piano tour with Nick, he asked me over for lunch to talk about it. He said, ‘Now Colin, you can wear whatever you want on stage – but I’m going to wear a suit and I think we’d look good if we both wore suits!
“I’d never worn before on stage. I’m always a double-denim dad on stage. I’ve worn the same thing in Radiohead for 25 years, which I’m very proud of, so he’s pulled my act together and made me look more sartorial!”
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ Berlin setlist was:
‘Frogs’
‘Wild God’
‘Song of the Lake’ (live debut)
‘O Children’
‘Jubilee Street’
‘From Her to Eternity’
‘Long Dark Night’
‘Cinnamon Horses’
‘Tupelo’
‘Conversion’
‘Bright Horses’
‘Joy’
‘I Need You’
‘Carnage’ (Nick Cave & Warren Ellis cover)
‘O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is)’
‘Final Rescue Attempt’
‘Red Right Hand’
‘The Mercy Seat’
‘White Elephant’ (Nick Cave & Warren Ellis cover)
Encore:
‘Palaces of Montezuma’ (Grinderman cover)
‘Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry’
Encore two:
‘Into My Arms’
‘As the Waters Cover the Sea’
‘The Weeping Song’
‘Wild God’ is out now. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ ‘Wild God’ tour continues throughout Europe before arriving in the UK and Ireland in November. You can buy tickets here (UK and Ireland) and here (Europe).
Meanwhile, Greenwood is set to publish How To Disappear – new photo book that documents the bassist’s life with Radiohead. How To Disappear is set for release on October 15 via John Murray Press worldwide and distributed in North America by Mobius Books. Visit here to pre-order.
In a four-star review of ‘Wild God’, NME concluded: “Bad Seeds records are infamously loaded with gothic doom and gloom. Of course, this ain’t a poptastic LOLfest, and still coloured with the many shades of a life so challenging and weathered. But never has Cave been so freewheelin’ than on the giddy ‘Frogs’, ‘Jumping for love and the opening sky above’ as ‘Kris Kristofferson walks by kicking a can in a shirt he hasn’t washed for years’. With a lust for life, the once-dark prince is letting the light in.”
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Andrew Trendell
NME
