Nick Cave in concert in Mantua, the review
For some years now Nick Cave has embarked on a sort of “Never Ending Tour”. In Full Band version with the Bad Seeds, in duo with orchestra together with the trusted Warren Ellis or in a solo version, the Australian singer -songwriter brought around the world without pauses the thousand facets of his production. And finally this show, piano and voice also arrives in Italy, accompanied only by Colin Greenwood, a new entry into the Bad Seeds instead of Martin Casey. The Italian tour begins just tonight in the splendid setting of Piazza Sordello in Mantua, inside the Mantua Summer Festival, to continue in the historic Piazza Napoleone di Lucca, at the Amphitheater of the Scavi di Pompeii and ending in Rome at the Auditorium Parco della Musica.
In dark dress
It passed from a few minutes to 21.00 and with the usual elegant dark dress Nick Cave presents on stage, warmly greets the audience, sits on the piano and opens the evening with a whispered version of “Girl in Amber”. “Performing Songs from his extensive catalog” is the subtitle that accompanies this tour (who confesses, will be a “Working Holiday”) and is the same Australian singer -songwriter who explains very well what will be proposed to the Italian public: a journey from the beginning to the latest record labors, but in an intimate dimension, starting from the chosen locations, bringing the songs to their essence, are distorted by the creative process of a band. The concert starts again with the hypnotic “Higgs Boson Blues” (“I warn you, it is the longest song of the evening, I’m giving you an excuse to go first”) and “Jesus of the Moon”, extracted from the controversial “Dig, Lazarus, Dig !!!”.
Empty stage
The stage is empty: there are only one piano, the bass amplifier of Colin Greenwood, of the black scenes and a few lights, fixed and not very intense, who barely illuminate the musicians. There is no room for other distractions: the show of the show are only the songs and Nick Cave introduces them as if they were his children, briefly telling the genesis, sometimes with irony, other times with seriousness, a bit like when he answers the fans’ questions through the Red Right Hand Files newsletter. Before “Galleon Ship” he explains how in all the songs there is the discreet presence of his wife Surzie, in the audience together with his son Earl, even if he never sat with the intention of writing a song and dedicating her to her, but in some way it is always present (in this case the inspiration was born from a morning and was observing it while sleeping). The real novelty for those who follow Nick Cave is the great harmony with Colin Greenwood, who does not just accompany the bass: you can breathe an artistic affinity, as if their relationship has been hard for many years.
Intimacy
The evening continues between very intimate moments (implicitly, with “I Need You”, “Waiting for You” and later with a poignant “Skeleton Tree” refers to the tragedy of the death of his son Arthur and that dark period of his life), other fun. Like when for “Balcony Man” in full Nick Cave style, a couple of spectators targeted, the only ones who overlook a balcony, asking them “to make a mess every time he will pronounce” Balcony Man “. Before the closure of the main set with “Push the Sky Away” there is also room for Leonard Cohen’s “Avalanche” cover, present on the debut album with the Bad Seeds and who was almost an epiphany in his life, when he still listened to him for the first time in Wangoratta, Australia, a small country city in which he had moved with his family. For bis he asks the security to allow the public to abandon the audience chairs and get closer to the barriers. “Watching Alice” (a gift for first date fans) “Love Letter”, the cover of “Cosmic Dancer” of Marc Bolan’s T-Rex (“one of the most beautiful texts ever written” and during which Colin Greenwood performs in an at all trivial at all) anticipate the closure with the great classic “Into My Arms”, the sole song that dissolves the audience with an almost religious silence with which He witnessed the whole evening.
Setlist:
Girl in Amber
Higgs Boson Blues
Jesus of the Moon
Oh Children
Galleon Ship
I need you
Waiting for You
Joy
Pope, Won’t Leave You, Henry
Balcony Man
The Mercy Seat
The Ship Song
Avalanche (cover of Leonard Cohen)
The Weeping Song
Skeleton Tree
Jubilee Street
Push the sky away
Encore:
Watching Alice
Love letter
Cosmic Dancer (T-Rex cover)
Into My Arms
