Look, I have absolutely not enough knowledge or experience to say this, but Nick Cave has to be one of the greatest frontmen in history. His presence itself can drive 7 thousand people mad, and at least a few dozens would try to break the rules of physics just to shake hands with him or at least touch his fingers.   

That was my conclusion in the first 4 minutes of the man in question and The Bad Seeds concert I went to last Tuesday. I went expecting a full but no oversold venue, but I was not expecting the devotion. So, you’re maybe asking yourselves: This guy went to a concert without wanting to see the band as much as everyone else? The answer, of course, is no. The man is a legend, and for the last few years, the 30+ years old, ever-shifting band is one of the most essential I’ve listened, hands down. But, for the first few moments of opener, ‘Jesus Alone’ I was amazed by how important Nick Cave became just by approaching himself to the crowd and extending his hand as if he were to cure a disease with the movement. Everyone lifted their hands trying to reach him (I was actually pretty close, if I may), and for a moment, a friend I went with and I thought he was going to let himself fall over our amazed faces, and the song wasn’t even over.   

The rest of the concert was a statement that served as a solid proof that that kind of admiration is strongly justified. Cave owned the stage, and his band drove a musical endevour through the 2 and a half hours it lasted, swiftly and with an amazing precision. First example, the two-punch of the aforementioned song, and ‘Magneto’, two eerie songs belonging to the band’s last album that could actually close the concert too. After that, a string of songs from his earliest albums that ranged from the excentricty of ‘Do You Love Me?’ to the strangeness of ‘Red Right Hand’. These songs were played extravagantly, with a lot of distortion and drum fills, and Cave roamed the stage, kicking into the air, shouting into the microphone and conducting the wave of hands with his unorthodox movements. 7 songs in, the man was drenched in sweat.   

After that, he returned to the piano to conduct a string of ballads that would leave the venue silent. ‘The Ship Song’, the b-side ‘Shoot Me Down’ and ‘Into My Arms’, one of the several climaxes of the night, as everyone in the room singed along to it, were a perfect response to the previous intensity. After the beautiful duet of ‘Distant Sky’, another highlight, the band returned to the noise and rawness with ‘Tupelo’, the change was overwhelming.

So, you probably got it so far. The dynamic was impressive, The Bad Seeds have enough catalogue to combine a concert with their most powerful and heavy songs, and their most magnificent low-tempo tracks. In paper, it shouldn’t work this well, but it did, and it is only because Nick Cave is a true conductor, as if The Bad Seeds weren’t not only his faithful group of talented musicians, but a perfectly arranged orchestra. An example is ‘Jubilee Street’ my favorite moment of the evening. Not only it was already one of the songs I love the most of the band, but also the way they played it, with an energetic and exciting coda that I wasn’t expecting, it was hard not to love it even more. They morphed their songs into what they wanted but it never felt out of place.   

The concert kept up with that energy until it ended. Cave crossed the sea of people to reach a platform in the middle of the venue while the band blasted ‘The Wheeping Song’, and he finished it there. For the last two songs before the encore, the frontman invited some fans to the stage, while he sang and danced, and treat them not only as expectators, but as people with whom he could share his emotions. The encore didn’t dissapoint, with a strong rendition of the propulsive narration ‘The Mercy Seat’. 

I guess it’s a normal sensation to leave a band you love’s concert loving them even more. The level of understanding you reach while being there has no other result than you realizing how essential they really are, to you and to thousands of other fans. It’s redundant to say Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds are no exception. But the magnetism of the singer and the musical prowess of the band are something unique to behold and enjoy.    At the end of ‘Jubilee Street’ as The Bad Seeds blasted their instruments, Nick Cave shouted: ‘Im transforming, I’m vibrating, look at me now!’ The thing is, we were all doing it since the beginning. And for all I care, I could always do it again. 

• Setlist:
• Jesus Alone
• Magneto
• Do You Love Me?
• From Her To Eternity
• Loverman
• Red Right Hand
• The Ship Song
• Into My Arms
• Shoot Me Down
• Girl In Amber
• Distant Sky
• Tupelo
• Jubilee Street
• The Wheeping Song
• Stagger Lee
• Push The Sky Away  
• The Mercy Seat
• City of Refuge
• Rings of Saturn