Roy Jurgens on June 30th, 2017

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A long time ago a friend (and leader of a very successful band) shared the secret of his success. “We mean very much to a very few,” he revealed, explaining the fervent cult-like adoration feigned upon him despite a lack of mass media stardom. That sort of cunning accurately characterizes the hysteria around Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. One could accurately argue that 6,000 people behaved as if they’d seen God himself during the 18-song set Thursday night at the Greek Theatre.

The 59-year-old Australian has never sought nor achieved mainstream success, has never had a hit on the radio, has never enjoyed any of the fleeting band du jour popularity that affixes itself so many artists, only to leave them playing Indian casinos a decade later. He has career relevance and longevity that many artists could only dream of, with an audience that is dedicated, sophisticated and bordering on the fanatical, hanging on every word and gesture as if it was meant solely for them.

The Bad Seeds, comprised of Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey, Thomas Wydler, Jim Sclavunos, Conway Savage, George Vjestica and Larry Mullins, back Cave like an allegiant criminal organization. Everyone knows their role, and Ellis is the chief enforcer, willing white squall from his violin one moment and following with the most beautiful Celtic lilting the next.

Building a setlist that satisfies the palate for the familiar whilst debuting new work can be a challenge for an artist with a body of work as substantial as Cave’s. There were songs old and new, woven deftly in an effort to provide a journey of tension and release. A whopping six tracks from last year’s release, “Skeleton Tree,” made the set. This is a pretty daring move, as artists this far along barely fit two new tracks among the “hits” they’re required to play.

Dissonant, sparse and droning, the new songs framed Cave’s standards nicely. As first witnessed on last year’s concert film “One More Time With Feeling,” Cave’s enduring career was tragically marred by the death of his son Arthur in 2015. The greatest artists always write from the heart, and while cynics may protest, a song like “I Need You” is as crushingly veracious as it gets as he solemnly repeats the line “Just breathe, just breathe.” Broken, grieving and fluid, “Anthroncene,” “Jesus Alone,” “The Girl In Amber” and the title track “Skeleton Key” were breathtakingly beautiful explorations into his blue-noted devastation.

Ballads “Into My Arms,” “The Ship Song” and the “Weeping Song” were passionate paeans to love and deliverance, songs so substantive that any writer would feel blessed by the angels to have written them. The standard Bad Seeds howlers “From Her To Eternity,” “Tupelo,” “The Mercy Seat,” and “Stagger Lee” were bloody tributes to the allure of ultra-violence. But the band truly shined during “The Mercy Seat” and “Jubilee Street,” masterfully ramping up a rock ’n’ roll bolero into a climax of orgasmic proportions. The sultry “Red Right Hand” brought notice as Cave waxed a tale of a dangerous greedy man and added “You’ll see him on the internet, read his angry little tweets.” The crowd knowingly roared its approval.

One should not be left with the impression that a Cave gig is one long dirge. He punctuates his tales of savage murder, woeful calamity and black-hearted romanticism with spots of well-placed gallows humor. These are dark tales delivered with a wink and a nudge. Amid the rolling fog there are twinkles of redemptive sunlight.

It is Cave’s innate ability to draw a spiritual connection, sans dogma, from an rapt audience that is his calling card. Like the most skillful of shamans, he’s not selling himself to his audience as much as sending a Mayday signal that he’s got what their soul so desperately needs. He is a poet who has mastered the art of melancholia, following in the footsteps of Blake and Hardy, while throwing in a bit of Voltaire and De Sade for good measure. Equal parts hedonistic sinner and bible thumper, he is a snake charmer who deftly hypnotizes his flock. Coincidentally a certain writer’s date for the show fell for his shallow spiel, as he elegantly swooned her away with a kiss, the cheeky bastard.

The film “One More Time With Feeling” will be making a cinematic reappearance in Los Angeles at the Egyptian Theatre on Friday, July 7, and the Aero Theatre on Saturday, July 8. The first ever non-animated black and white film shot in 3D, it deals with the intensity surrounding the creation of “The Skeleton Key” in the wake of Cave’s devastating personal loss. There will be a Q&A with Cave and director Andrew Dominik following the film. 

Tickets for both screenings are available here.

Photo by Annie Lesser