Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Live Review

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds kicked off the UK portion of the tour for the new album Wild God Saturday 2nd November at the first direct arena Leeds.

He is a force, Nick Cave. Holding the crowd from the moment he took to the stage to over two hours later after finishing his second encore of the evening. Skipping around the stage, out to the crowds edge to jumping on the piano. An abundance of Black ‘Bad Seeds’ t-shirts spotted throughout the crowd as they stood & sat eager to hear song after song from the seasoned artist and the Bad Seeds 18 album back catalogue.

Nick Cave throughout the evening you could tell was having a great time, with him repeatedly exclaiming “F**king Leeds” in between his performances of songs from right across the back catalogue. An introduction to ‘O Children’ came early with a nod to the Harry Potter film that brought the song to main stream with Cave then going on to state how the song being about our inability to protect children and how he prays the song becomes irrelevant in the future. Joining Cave at the front of the stage just to side you have long time member of ‘The Bad Seeds’ and extraordinary musician Warren Ellis playing many different instruments throughout the show.

Cave, Ellis and the other members of ‘The Bad Seeds’ that included Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood were joined on stage by a four person gospel choir. Haunting new song ‘Long dark night’ midway through the show stunned the crowd back, some to tears with his raw emotion and melancholy. Cave got the energy back in the room having the crowd clap along as “Tupelo”, Caves song about Elvis Presley’s birth followed.

Another hit brought to the masses by mainstream media gets played later on, ‘Red Right Hand’ the theme song to the gritty drama Peaky Blinders, closely followed by epic ‘White Elephant’ that begins as many of their songs do, quiet, moody, brooding to then break from mould to develop into a joyous uplifting anthem that has the whole arena, almost capacity 13 thousand fans lifted.

Cave returns to the stage for the second encore solo, rounding off the evening absolutely perfectly at his piano with the iconic “Into my arms”. The crowd sombrely singing back to him every word.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds delivered an enchanting emotional show that should not be missed. Tickets for the other UK dates can be found here.

• 5.11.2024 — AO Arena, Manchester, UK
• 6.11.2024 — Utilita Arena, Cardiff, UK (SOLD OUT)
• 8.11.2024 — The O2, London, UK
• 9.11.2024 — The O2, London, UK
• 12.11.2024 — 3Arena, Dublin, Ireland (SOLD OUT)
• 13.11.2024 — 3Arena, Dublin, Ireland
• 15.11.2024 — bp pulse LIVE, Birmingham, UK