Wild World - Nick Cave in concert

Solo performance, Mainz Zelt Festival, July, 11th 1999

 
Nick Cave solo? Surely, the latest album "Boatman's Call" indicated something like that, but what about his former songs which very often were based on the effect of being backed by either the Bad Seeds or The Birthday Party. Ferocious songs, choral-like arrangements, fed by the intricacy of a well-developed musical backing. So what to expect from songs without Blixa's guitar-shredding, without the solid drum and bass work supplied by Thomas Wydler and Martyn P. Casey? And what about Mick Harvey, long-time co-writer of Cave?

Well, the set was supposed to feature "special guests" – Warren Ellis, violinist on "Murder Ballads", the only one to be known to me, apart from that a drummer and bass-player. But would that suffice to make up for "The Bad Seeds" or "The Birthday Party" on more upfront tracks?

The show was set to begin at 20.30, I arrived at the venue in the early afternoon, intending to take a stroll in the park with my girlfriend. When we came past the tent that was to be the venue of Cave's performance, we heard Nick sound-checking inside. He played parts of "Wild World" (a Birthday Party song), "Right Now I'm A-Roaming" (an unknown song to me at that time) and "Straight To You". From outside, the piano sounded dull, undynamic, almost E-Piano-like, his voice barely made an attempt to make dynamic shifts of even match the key. Not quite a reason to look forward to seeing an exceptional performer delivering a brilliant rendition of his (brilliant) song-catalogue.

Anyway, the evening started out at 19.30 with a band called "Rosenfels", said to bring romantic ballads back to the common mind. Yet what they delivered, to me, was thin keyboard sound covering the voice of the singer, combined with foolish, child-like lyrics with silly moral overdose and full of romantic clichés. The singer resembled a parrot, sitting on his bar-stool, trying hard to emphasize the lyrics by physical excercise. No, I'm sorry, but by far one of the worst performances I've heard, simple, dull, unintelligent Kitsch. Maybe the dimensions seems larger in contrast to a performer like Cave, but they surely are no great band. More the teeny-like idea of what romanticism or gothic are made of. Stupid. But what to expect from Cave?

So, finally, the light dimmed, the congregation assembled, and Cave, in his usual humble gestures showed himself to the crowd. Quickly settling at his piano, he started to strike ferocious notes, and it quickly turned out to be "West Country Girl". The piano and/or soundmixing seemed to suffer from a lack of warmth and balance, it almost hurt in the ear, but something was clear: Nick wasn't out there to make captives.

During "West Country Girl" there were mixed feelings: sure, the dynamics lacking in the soundcheck were there, but the piano sound was rough, impure, edged, his voice trembling, crying, and, anyway, "WCG" has never been one of my favourite tracks. Was he to go on like that, in that sound, in that voice, with his latest songs only?

No, he definitely was not. "Henry Lee" followed, and when I head the first notes I couldn't imagine him making a worthy rendition of the song without P.J. Harvey. But he did. Better than anyone could do it without having a female voice as partner. He perfectly hit the notes, very well capable distinguishing male and female parts, with perfect pronounciation. I didn't miss P.J. one second, but just dived deep into the song. Brilliant. I've never heard Cave sing this good on his records by far.

"Henry Lee" was followed by "Sad Waters" and "Loom of the Land", both akin their predecessor. Both with a more warm and neutral balance of sound, may it have been to the heating up of both the tent and instruments or additional sound-mixing, anyway, the sound was quite good from then on, except for it kept sounding only from the right of the stage.

Then came both the most critical and most stunning part of the concert. Nick sang "The Mercy Seat" and "Do You Love Me (Part 2)" solo. These were songs that I never thought of to be capable of being sung solo, only with the tiny help of gentle drum, bass and violin (and I mean "gentle", the piano and singing did 99 percent of the performance!).

Yet it worked. More than that, I must confess I've never heard these songs so intensely. Surely, there were no distorted guitars, no effects, no harsh drum and bass, no backing vocals. But Nick did it with voice and piano alone. Though the rhythm was slow, both on "Mercy Seat" (which is uncommon) and "Do You..." (which is the song's diction), he developed a marvellous suspension by bending, crying, whispering the songs. I never thought he could make up for the "tour-de-force"-guitars on "Mercy Seat" or the gentle, but intricate backing vocals on "Do You...". He simply did – I don't know how, but his voice filled the room completely, reverberating just exactly to make up for the choir lost or the distortion missed. These two songs were the most intense musical performance I've enjoyed EVER. Second to none. No matter that he never reached that peak again during the rest of the concert, these two songs alone were very well worth auditioning, they were "to die for", or "ty cry for", as you like to put it.

Following was the intro to "John Finn's Wife", quickly evolving into "Papa won't leave you, Henry". As well a singular performance, slow, with an unusual singing on the refrain, Cave bended, stretched the lines beautifully, yet completely different from what you were to expect from the album track.

Following that was a song that he announced as "a new track". "Love letter" was a very simple – in both musical and lyrical light – song, which gained its beauty by its purity, its lack of Cave-common sarcasm, biblical references or intricate venues. This was a personal song, a very true, straight-forward one. But it was catching, the simple lines "Love letter, love letter, go get her, go get her" might have sounded silly out of someone's else's mouth, but Cave rendered them beautifully, the were romantic, melancholic, a jewel hopefully to be found on a new album.

Next, there were "Straight To You", with a lovely silly triangle played by Warren Ellis (he seemed to be a joker most of the concert, making ape-like movements, cowering behind the piano, suddenly raising, and smoking almost all the time). Plus "Stagger Lee", which Nick announced as a song about "a bad man, a really bad man, much much badder than me". I loved them both, "Straight To You" in the common arrangement, and "Stagger Lee" as a skeleton of song, carried only by Cave's voice and piano work.

Anyway, Nick seemed to be in a fooling mood. He stroke the first keynotes of "Weeping Song", and when the crowd applauded, he quickly changed the tune to "Ship Song", which was to be performed next. Nice, comfortable, heart-warming rendition, but nothing really stunning. Very well like the following "Into my arms". But what to expect from a solo performance of songs which were almost solo performances in the original?

Then Nick said "goodnight", and the crowd applauded and yelled for an encore. Surely, no artist goes off without an encore – and thus Nick came back. Striking hard notes akin the opening, he began playing the Birthday Party song "Wild World". The song was brilliantly carried by Nick's rough piano playing and Ellis' ferocious violin work. Has anyone of you ever thought of punk being played on piano and violin? No? You've missed this performance. There's no need of guitars, drums and bass anymore. The second climax of the concert, only slightly short of "Mercy Seat" and "Do You...".

Hence, it could only become less brilliant. "Right now I'm a-roaming" was a nice track, a child-like track, very simple, probably written for his son Luke (he introduced it as Luke's favourite). The track was backed by a Casio-keyboard drumming, when the song ended, Nick slowed the Casio-rhythm down, easily to be recognized as the percussion loop of "Brompton Oratory", into which he slipped. Next "Little Empty Boat", a song I didn't know before, and the second leaving the stage with the words "we're running out of songs".

Yet, he came back. Without many words and some people climbing the stage towers, he brought "People ain't no good" in quite a usual way to the crowd. Beautiful as ever, there are no pros or cons to add to the album version. Good rendition, not exceptional, but no note, no word worse. The ending was made up of "Loverman", a track never said to be played on piano, violin, drums and bass. Where were the guitars? No, not there, but, fuck it, anyhow they WERE there. All the dynamics, all the guitars, all the shouting, they were implicit in Cave's singing, in his piano work. A fine ending for his concert, though it could have been more glamerous. "We're running out of songs" isn't the line you're supposed to hear from an artist like Cave who has truckloads more of excellent song-writing in store (and is supposed to know his scores). Yes, I've missed a lot of songs. I would have died for "Your Funeral My Trial" (which he played in Frankfurt 1994, but would have made an excellent solo track), "The Weeping Song" (I guess he knows very well how to fool the audience...) or "So slowly goes the night". But, as ever, you can't have it all. I wanted it all, and I got almost all of it, plus the stunning, heart-breaking renditions of "Mercy Seat" and "Do You Love Me (Part II)". With the latter more than making up of for the lackings. Maybe the best concert I've ever been to.
 

Set list:

1. west country girl
2. henry lee
3. sad waters
4. loom of the land
5. the mercy seat
6. do you love me 2
7. papa won't leave you, henry
8. love letter
9. straight to you
10. stagger lee
11. the ship song
12. into my arms
 

1st encore
13. wild world
14. right now i'm a-roamin
15. bromton oratory
16. little empty boat

2nd encore
17. people ain't no good
18. loverman

© 1999 Roman Pelek