Nick Cave, 2014. Photo by Burak Cingi/Redferns via Getty Images
“You can ask me anything ... there will be no moderator. This will be between you and me. Let’s see what happens.”
These are the only clues Nick Cave offers as to how this night may unfold. The room is charged with curious energy as the audience waits to see what it is that the master of all that’s dark and brooding wants to talk about.
The house lights come down and, with nothing but a semicircle of candlelight framing the stage, Nick Cave’s iconic, warm and booming voice surrounds us. He recites The Bad Seed’s, “One More Time With Feeling – Steve McQueen” in its entirety, as the audience sits in complete darkness, silence and awe.
I’m instantly reminded of Bill Hicks’ Revelations tour – we’re about to go on a philosophical rollercoaster ride, and I can’t wait.
The lights come up, and there he is. Nick Cave, sitting at the piano with his slicked-back hair and impeccably tailored suit. As he launches straight into a song and I realise something curious - he’s reading sheet music. This isn’t rehearsed, prepared or contrived. This is the Nick Cave you might find in his loungeroom, singing like no one's watching.
The vulnerability is tantalising.
When the song ends, mic in hand, he paces the stage, telling us that we are here for an “experiment in connection”, to have a conversation about anything we want. He asks that no one films the show on their iPhones so that everyone can speak freely without fear of it showing up online the next day.
As the iPhone screens power down, the realisation sets in – he wants to get real, he wants to go there and he wants to talk just to us.
Out of respect for Nick’s request, I won’t go into details of the questions, that was a private conversation. But I will tell you this, he shied away from nothing, gave equal thought and consideration to every answer, explored the hard-hitting, deeply philosophical, existential, brain-picking questions with disarming honesty, joked comfortably with the drunk guy who just wanted to tell him how damn awesome he is and genuinely brought the room together with his candid transparency.
Songs played on the night included classic favourites such as, "Into My Arms", "Stranger Than Kindness" and "The Weeping Song", but due to the requests, every night set will be completely different. You just have to be there!
Nick Cave is like the David Attenborough of human emotion. He’s lost himself in the depths of all the tragedy, beauty, pain and elation life has to offer, come out the other side and turned it into poetry that shows us all that life is just a ride.
To Nick Cave – It wasn’t an experiment in connection, it was a lesson. Thank you.
Do yourself a favour, study the poetry of a prophet lurking in our I Like: Nick Cave playlist.
