Nick Cave – 3Arena – Review

Nick Cave – 3Arena Dublin 12th of November, 2024

Support on the night came from Black Country, New Road, who continue their transition from a rock band into a jazz/ art collective since the departure of Isaac Wood in January 2022. They were an unusual choice to open for Nick Cave and the audience seemed equal parts bemused and enthused by their performance. They create some impressive vocal harmonies and their percussion sound could at times be compared to Steve Reich.

Nick Cave arrived on stage at 8.30pm. The only surprising element of the Bad Seeds was the four backing singers who sang throughout the night. Otherwise, we had guitar, piano, bass, and percussion with Warren Ellis taking the role of head Seed, or as Nick described him, a tortured, twisted genius!

The set opened with two songs from the new album with Frogs and Wild God for a steady start to proceedings, but the crowd really good going with Jubilee Street followed by From Her to Eternity, with Nick connecting with the front rows of the audience. His interactions with the audience became a feature of the night, with one man showing his chest tattoo of Nick, getting the response ‘that’s commitment’ from the main man. Nick also seems to have a dislike of cellphones and asked several fans to put that away but otherwise, he was in very good spirits. Another highlight was the song Tupelo, which he said was about a storm on the night Elvis was born.

“Where no bird can fly, no fish can swim
No fish can swim
Until the King is born
Until the King is born”

The final songs of the main set included a powerful rendition of Red Right Hand, followed by The Mercy Seat and ending with White Elephant leaving the audience exhausted.

The band returned for a four-song encore, the first being a song dedicated to a departed friend and former Bad Seed Anita Lan with ‘O Wow O Wow’, before a couple of classics in Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry and The Weeping Song. At this point, the band departed allowing Nick to perform a solo piano version of Into My Arms, with much help from the audience.

Nick has made the transition from filling smaller venues to Arenas look easy. He worked the crowd into a frenzy with the simplest of tricks, getting us to sing, chant and clap along with him. He has talked before about the importance of communal events, where thousands of people act as one and he is one of the finest practitioners of the art, a preacher preaching to his converted.

Setlist

Frogs
Wild God
Song of the Lake
O Children
Jubilee Street
From Her to Eternity
Long Dark Night
Cinnamon Horses
Tupelo
Conversion
Bright Horses
Joy
I Need You (Nick Cave solo at piano)
Carnage (Nick Cave & Warren Ellis cover) (Lyrics changed from ‘Reading Flannery O’Connor’ to ‘Listening to Sinéad O’Connor’)
Final Rescue Attempt
Red Right Hand
The Mercy Seat
White Elephant (Nick Cave & Warren Ellis cover) (Followed by band introductions)

Encore:
O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is) (Dedicated to Anita Lane)
Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry
The Weeping Song
Into My Arms (Nick Cave solo at piano)