Nick Cave
'If I die tonight, bury me in my favourite yellow, patent, leather shoes' - so sang Nick Cave midway through his set list at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham. An evening of firsts. Nick Cave did do a concert programme, so I ended up with a shiny new key ring!
The bad seeds are his backing band. I am now, it seems, an honorary member. The other first was being searched before being allowed into the venue. You are filtered in lines and then bag searched (I didn't have a bag as I had read the security info and couldn't be bothered with the hassle these things invariably bring - I still remember the farcical bag search at the Pink Floyd exhibition), but I have never been searched going into a gig from memory. This is okay because Terrorists will not win and they will not get us to change the way we live. No one now believes this, do they? (Have you witnessed the protection blocks?)
However, I am then inside my least favourite Nottingham music venue. It's designed for Ice Hockey and not the acoustics of music, it shows. Hence I have a seat closer to the side. If you go to the back the sound won't make it to you.
And what a sound. Now, on Monday night, 4 days after the concert my ears are still ringing from the sonic bombardment dished out by the bad seeds. A lot of his songs that night were the slow, sad love ballads for which Nick Cave's lyrics can rip your heart out and hand it to you on an emotional plate still beating, just covered in your own tears. But, the loud stuff, is loud. Like being inside a bomb going off. A sonic bomb...from which recovery is obviously more than 4 days...and counting!
Yetm for all the physical pain it was a remarkable gig. One of my favourite for many a year. It had it all, 4 songs at which to discover you have something in your eye, like grit, perhaps. Or the driving sound of the Bad Seeds powering his lyrics on! Oh, and those lyrics. How I would yearn for a mind as creative as Nick Cave's. A man who can weave a solid narrative blanket of words and then lay this creation, ever so gently across a musical bed. I want that. I shall, though, never have it. It is not me for, creativity on that grand scale.
And then, he decides to walk into the crowd to continue with the encore!
and he comes closer, closer to me.
Now, this is arguably the closest any artist I have paid to see has ever got. Most will stay on the stage. It seems he suffers from a wanderlust. I am not sad about this. It was all so terribly exciting.
It mad me break my rule about not using my phone at concerts. It made a lot of people break this rule it seemed. Once in a lifetime experience I guess. It certainly felt like that this night.
So, of the 4 songs which made me check my eye for grit, here's the most tender, most beautiful one.
However, I am then inside my least favourite Nottingham music venue. It's designed for Ice Hockey and not the acoustics of music, it shows. Hence I have a seat closer to the side. If you go to the back the sound won't make it to you.
And what a sound. Now, on Monday night, 4 days after the concert my ears are still ringing from the sonic bombardment dished out by the bad seeds. A lot of his songs that night were the slow, sad love ballads for which Nick Cave's lyrics can rip your heart out and hand it to you on an emotional plate still beating, just covered in your own tears. But, the loud stuff, is loud. Like being inside a bomb going off. A sonic bomb...from which recovery is obviously more than 4 days...and counting!
Yetm for all the physical pain it was a remarkable gig. One of my favourite for many a year. It had it all, 4 songs at which to discover you have something in your eye, like grit, perhaps. Or the driving sound of the Bad Seeds powering his lyrics on! Oh, and those lyrics. How I would yearn for a mind as creative as Nick Cave's. A man who can weave a solid narrative blanket of words and then lay this creation, ever so gently across a musical bed. I want that. I shall, though, never have it. It is not me for, creativity on that grand scale.
And then, he decides to walk into the crowd to continue with the encore!
and he comes closer, closer to me.
Now, this is arguably the closest any artist I have paid to see has ever got. Most will stay on the stage. It seems he suffers from a wanderlust. I am not sad about this. It was all so terribly exciting.
It mad me break my rule about not using my phone at concerts. It made a lot of people break this rule it seemed. Once in a lifetime experience I guess. It certainly felt like that this night.
So, of the 4 songs which made me check my eye for grit, here's the most tender, most beautiful one.
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