NICK CAVE & WARREN ELLIS // THE PLAYHOUSE, EDINBURGH
Legends Nick Cave and Warren Ellis had a thirsty Edinburgh crowd in the palm of the hands tonight with a fantastical performance of their recent material.
★★★★★ (5/5)
NICK CAVE & WARREN ELLIS PERFORMING AT EDINBURGH’S PLAYHOUSE - 20.09.2021
PICTURE BY: | CALUM BUCHAN
“Enigmatic poet” “golden punk troubadour” “unique musical chameleon” “hell-bound hell raiser” “wild and beautiful song writer supreme”. After 48 years of critical acclaim can anything else new be said about the legendary Nick Cave? (how about brooding broodster ?????) This humble dyslexic amateur music writer (journalist … editor plz confirm???) will certainly try (how many times can I use the word brooding??? (I wonder if anyone has ever used that word when describing anything ?????)) and surely fail. However, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis certainly did not fail (nice, that’s a good segue) to entertain and move this theatre crowd, dropping songs from the lockdown record Carnage in which Cave was at his both brooding and beautiful best sometimes with the same chorus (no more jokes (are they jokes ???… ) begin live review now).
Warren Ellis enters the theatre along with the 3 backing singers and a multi-instrumentalist and Nick Cave follows to a rapturous response. The show kicks off immediately with 3 songs from the most recent Bad Seeds album Ghosteen; Spinning Song, Night Raid and Bright Horses. A spectral and ethereal album consisting of ambient whirls of synth while Nick Cave broods and trembles over the topics of death and existentialism. Live, Warren Ellis’s angelic backing vocals combine with the backing singers to evaluate these songs to newfound depths. Nick Cave alternates between prowling the stage with his mic in hand and flourishes from the piano. The show continues in this style as songs from Carnage are introduced to the set. White Elephant is a powerful jolt to the system showcase the range that they pose.
Waiting For You and I Need You is an emotive double act showing case Nick Cave newfound sometime tendency to write more direct lyrics a treatise on faith and grief the songs are as deviating as they are beautiful. Nick Cave’s deep howl of a voice is replaced with a vulnerable tremble throughout. It’s almost shocking to think of this defiant punk preacher as vulnerable and human but even without the context of what he has been through it showcases extreme emotional depth. Trex’s Cosmic Dancer is given a stately piano based make over and before the deliciously evil Hand of God reminds one of the angry and furious post punk Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds made their name with. As synths squeeze and wheeze all around Nick Cave alternates between screaming and whispering the title and the backing singers amass around him and do the same it makes for a thrilling spectacle.
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis then return to more sombre music with Ghosteen highlights the brooding (one more time!) Galleon Ship and Leviathan before the main set finishes with Balcony Man with it final repeated devoted chorus of “this morning is amazing and so are you” it is a beautiful sentiment and showcases the awesome power of Nick Caves writing whether he is using direct heartfelt emotion or intense religious imagery. With the crowd baying for more brood (your nearly done reading, might as well finish), they of course come back and carry on playing; increasing the intensity with 10 minute long Hollywood with its lunging tempo shifts and touching religious parable and then the serene misty eyed Albuquerque (with the chorus changed to include a mention off Edinburgh which the crowd duly eat up) they are both highlights of the evening, before closing with Bad Seeds classics Henry Lee and Into My Arms in a second encore and finally finishing with the haunting Ghosteen Speaks. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis had a thirsty crowd in the palm of the hands tonight with an assured and brilliant performance of their recent material.