Nick still cuts!

First the sartorial assessment. Save for Leonard Cohen, no one in music looks as cool in a suit as Nick Cave. The effect was multiplied when he fronted Grinderman tonight as they looked like throwbacks from an ill-fated dalliance between Rasputin’s cousins and some dodgy Appalachians. The look was totally fitting as they tore into some of the most primordial, visceral rock that I’ve heard in years. Jim Sclavunos attacks his drum kit as if it had just killed his family and Martyn Casey’s basslines would register on the Richter scale. Meanwhile, Nick’s longtime collaborator Warren Ellis wrings swoops and screeches from his guitars that are matched only by the ferocity of his fuzz-violin! The total effect was dirtier than a weekend with Warnie. Against such a backdrop, Nick Cave couldn’t help but shine, and shine he did. Fans of the Grinderman album would have been in sonic heaven. ‘Get it On’, ‘Grinderman’, ‘Set Me Free’, ‘Honey Bee’ and more with not an ounce of ‘filler’ to be heard. By the time they reached the climax of the cat lover’s lament, there couldn’t have been much paint left on the walls of the Thebbie. You can take the boy out of The Birthday Party, but…………

And this was just the support band!

Forty minutes later out comes Nick Cave with his ‘new’ Bad Seeds, AKA Grinderman after a wardrobe visit and we are into another storming set of Cave classics mixed with newer songs that might or might not join the hallowed ranks of a ‘Red Right Hand’, a ‘Tupelo’ or a ‘Henry Lee’. Nick Cave is far more than just a walk on the dark side though. Few can temper full throttle ferocity with achingly delicate poignancy as well as Nick Cave and I bet I wasn’t the only old softie rubbing their eyes during ‘God is in the House’ or ‘Into my Arms’.

This was a consummate rock show from one of our national treasures. Nuff said.

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