Kirstiecat | Blog

7/25/07
The Metro in Chicago

What an honor to be in the presence of genius! I’ve only ever seen Nick Cave once before when he played as Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds about five years ago at the Chicago Theater but this felt even better somehow. Chicago’s Cabaret Metro was lucky to receive Nick for a very select show on his small American tour. By the time he was finished playing, I’m positive everyone in the audience felt lucky Cave had chosen Chicago as one of the few U.S. cities to play.

Cave came to support his side project self titled release Grinderman available on Epitaph Records which is a bit unnerving at times with all of its raw power. Cave has always been a brilliant writer (read And the Ass Saw the Angel for further proof) but Grinderman brings his songs to a higher intensity. It’s been compared a bit to his work fronting his beloved The Birthday Party. There was relatively little room for quiet subtleties as in Bad Seeds songs such as “As I Sat Sadly By Her Side” last night. This was inspiration on a rampage. The best of these Grinderman songs I would liken more to the passion found in “Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry,” although with less complicated storylines.

Cave was in great form, especially with Warren Ellis backing him up on violin and as he switched between piano and guitar. The Renaissance man has done everything from being an essential part of Australian music (and music in general) to creating vital films like The Proposition and the bright light inside of him shown through from the moment he walked on stage, towering over the audience with his shadow cast upon the wall. Cave is the kind of person you can never forget and history won’t. His nearly two hour long set saw potential personified in the face and hands of such a man. Though I recommend picking up the God is the House live dvd, nothing can quite prepare you for the real thing.

Though Nick Cave played mainly Grinderman songs, he did come out for two separate encores to appease the sold out crowd, playing Bad Seeds songs. The crowd went madly wild when he began with “Red Right Hand” but my favorite of the encores was “The Weeping Song.”

View the complete photoset on flickr

Setlist:

Complete encore info. courtesy of my friend Robert

Encore 1
“Red Right Hand”
“The Weeping Song”
“Deanna”
“The Lyre of Orpheus”

Encore 2
“The Ship Song”
“Jack the Ripper”

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 1:14 pm and is filed under music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.