(no subject)
The Nick Cave show was amazing. Absolutely, bloody, fucking amazing. Maybe even the best and most memorable concert I've ever been to.
I found out only a couple of days ago that my buddy Gordon was going, so he and I met up there and had a great time standing together talking about Nick, Tori Amos, music in general, and literature. I also met toilet_trousers and utter_bastard and a couple of other people from one of the Nick Cave communities here on LJ, and we chatted about Nick (of course) and The Kids In The Hall and some other stuffs. :D We were all lined up for several hours outside the 9:30 Club until they let us in at around 7 pm. Gordon and I got to stand right in the very front row, in front of the railing; I chatted with several other people who were standing around me, and they were all very nice and good-humored and respectful. We shared opinions on the new album and we joked about Nick's 1970s porn 'stache, and it was just good times. When the warm-up band, the Bellmer Dolls, was playing, I could actually see Nick standing/sitting on a balcony above the stage! He just looked so hip and unaffected, as if to say, "I am a dark gothic god, looking over all you mortals." XD
When the Bad Seeds finally came out, Nick stood so close to me numerous times that I reached out and and touched his hands!!! He grasped my fingers during "The Weeping Song," "The Mercy Seat" (I think) and one other song, I can't remember. (I'm sure once I find the setlist, it'll jog my memory.) He would put one foot on the edge of the stage and and one foot on the railing right in front of me, and sing into the audience, getting right in our faces. I was literally close enough to him that I could have easily reached out and smacked his ass. But I didn't -- one, because I didn't want to startle him and cause him to nose-dive into the crowd; two, because I didn't want to be disrespectful; and three, because I didn't have the balls. XD He also sang right at me and smiled/winked at me a couple times...it was, suffice to say, brilliant.
Every song sounded great. Even the ones from his latest album that hadn't grabbed me before sound much, much better when played live, because he and the rest of the Bad Seeds have so much energy. (I think I'm a slightly bigger fan of Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! than I was before as a result.) I was just having such an amazing time the entire night; I was singing along, waving my hands and tapping my foot throughout almost every song. I'm surprised my voice isn't more hoarse from how much screaming I did. The band's frantic performance of "Stagger Lee" as the last song of the encore was one of the most fun and exhilarating concert experiences I've ever had.
And Nick is just such a fun character onstage -- he has this smart-ass, self-deprecating sense of humor, which I already knew about him anyway, but it's amplified when he's onstage. For instance, at one point some girls a couple rows behind me yelled at him, "Take off your clothes!" At first he just looked confused and said, "What?!", but when he finally heard what they were saying, he made a disgusted face and said something like, "No, trust me, you don't want me to do that. It ain't that great. There are things under here" -- he pointed to his clothes -- "that you just wouldn't believe." LOL. There were also a couple times when he changed the lyrics to his songs in an amusing way -- for instance during the band's performance of "Red Right Hand," he reached out and touched the camera of the girl standing next to me and sang, "You got a cheap shitty camera, he'll get you a better one" (instead of "you don't got no car, he'll get you one"). He and the other guys also shared some amusing onstage banter -- such as when they got confused over what song they were supposed to play next, and one of them (I think Mick Harvey) said "It's 'Midnight Man,'" and Nick was like, "What? I thought it was supposed to be 'The Mercy Seat.'" I was like, thanks guys, way to spoil the surprise! XD
I really didn't want the show to end, but it did -- and it felt way too soon. At least it ended on a good note with that kick-ass version of "Stagger Lee" as an encore, as well as "The Lyre of Orpheus," one of my favorite songs from their previous album. And here's the icing on the cake of this wonderful concert experience: after the show, Gordon and about thirty people and I waited outside the venue by the tour bus, and eventually Nick came out and he signed my ticket stub and I got a picture with him! Unfortunately by then he seemed really tired and a little grumpy, so I didn't get to actually share any words with him other than asking him for the autograph and the photo. I would have liked to tell him how much I love his music and how much I respect him as an artist -- but he was a good sport considering how many people were clambering around him.
He is also much shorter and skinnier than I thought. I knew he was rail-thin -- Gordon and I joked about how he should market the "Nick Cave Diet," consisting of only cigarettes and heroin. But for some reason I thought he would tower over everyone. He just has one of those commanding personalities that makes him seem tall, but once you see him up close he looks much smaller.
Here's my signed ticket stub and my picture with him. I didn't get any decent photographs of him performing, unfortunately...it's really hard to do so when he moves so fast!
This picture cracks me up because I look so amazingly happy and insane, and he looks sooo surly! But I don't mind because that's how he always looks -- he very, very rarely smiles for pictures. That's just his persona, and I think it's endearing. One fan even asked him to "make an angry face" when he was posing for his picture, and he just made pretty much the exact same face he'd been making already, only with his brows furrowed a bit more. XD Ohhh, Nick. I love you.
I took a couple videos that turned out pretty decently, but Photobucket doesn't seem to want to upload them right now, so I'll try to do that again tomorrow.
All in all, a fantastic night. I'm utterly exhausted but I have such a high right now. I just wish I could see him again when he plays at the same venue tomorrow night! Oh well, there's always the next tour -- which I will look forward to with bated breath.
I found out only a couple of days ago that my buddy Gordon was going, so he and I met up there and had a great time standing together talking about Nick, Tori Amos, music in general, and literature. I also met toilet_trousers and utter_bastard and a couple of other people from one of the Nick Cave communities here on LJ, and we chatted about Nick (of course) and The Kids In The Hall and some other stuffs. :D We were all lined up for several hours outside the 9:30 Club until they let us in at around 7 pm. Gordon and I got to stand right in the very front row, in front of the railing; I chatted with several other people who were standing around me, and they were all very nice and good-humored and respectful. We shared opinions on the new album and we joked about Nick's 1970s porn 'stache, and it was just good times. When the warm-up band, the Bellmer Dolls, was playing, I could actually see Nick standing/sitting on a balcony above the stage! He just looked so hip and unaffected, as if to say, "I am a dark gothic god, looking over all you mortals." XD
When the Bad Seeds finally came out, Nick stood so close to me numerous times that I reached out and and touched his hands!!! He grasped my fingers during "The Weeping Song," "The Mercy Seat" (I think) and one other song, I can't remember. (I'm sure once I find the setlist, it'll jog my memory.) He would put one foot on the edge of the stage and and one foot on the railing right in front of me, and sing into the audience, getting right in our faces. I was literally close enough to him that I could have easily reached out and smacked his ass. But I didn't -- one, because I didn't want to startle him and cause him to nose-dive into the crowd; two, because I didn't want to be disrespectful; and three, because I didn't have the balls. XD He also sang right at me and smiled/winked at me a couple times...it was, suffice to say, brilliant.
Every song sounded great. Even the ones from his latest album that hadn't grabbed me before sound much, much better when played live, because he and the rest of the Bad Seeds have so much energy. (I think I'm a slightly bigger fan of Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! than I was before as a result.) I was just having such an amazing time the entire night; I was singing along, waving my hands and tapping my foot throughout almost every song. I'm surprised my voice isn't more hoarse from how much screaming I did. The band's frantic performance of "Stagger Lee" as the last song of the encore was one of the most fun and exhilarating concert experiences I've ever had.
And Nick is just such a fun character onstage -- he has this smart-ass, self-deprecating sense of humor, which I already knew about him anyway, but it's amplified when he's onstage. For instance, at one point some girls a couple rows behind me yelled at him, "Take off your clothes!" At first he just looked confused and said, "What?!", but when he finally heard what they were saying, he made a disgusted face and said something like, "No, trust me, you don't want me to do that. It ain't that great. There are things under here" -- he pointed to his clothes -- "that you just wouldn't believe." LOL. There were also a couple times when he changed the lyrics to his songs in an amusing way -- for instance during the band's performance of "Red Right Hand," he reached out and touched the camera of the girl standing next to me and sang, "You got a cheap shitty camera, he'll get you a better one" (instead of "you don't got no car, he'll get you one"). He and the other guys also shared some amusing onstage banter -- such as when they got confused over what song they were supposed to play next, and one of them (I think Mick Harvey) said "It's 'Midnight Man,'" and Nick was like, "What? I thought it was supposed to be 'The Mercy Seat.'" I was like, thanks guys, way to spoil the surprise! XD
I really didn't want the show to end, but it did -- and it felt way too soon. At least it ended on a good note with that kick-ass version of "Stagger Lee" as an encore, as well as "The Lyre of Orpheus," one of my favorite songs from their previous album. And here's the icing on the cake of this wonderful concert experience: after the show, Gordon and about thirty people and I waited outside the venue by the tour bus, and eventually Nick came out and he signed my ticket stub and I got a picture with him! Unfortunately by then he seemed really tired and a little grumpy, so I didn't get to actually share any words with him other than asking him for the autograph and the photo. I would have liked to tell him how much I love his music and how much I respect him as an artist -- but he was a good sport considering how many people were clambering around him.
He is also much shorter and skinnier than I thought. I knew he was rail-thin -- Gordon and I joked about how he should market the "Nick Cave Diet," consisting of only cigarettes and heroin. But for some reason I thought he would tower over everyone. He just has one of those commanding personalities that makes him seem tall, but once you see him up close he looks much smaller.
Here's my signed ticket stub and my picture with him. I didn't get any decent photographs of him performing, unfortunately...it's really hard to do so when he moves so fast!
This picture cracks me up because I look so amazingly happy and insane, and he looks sooo surly! But I don't mind because that's how he always looks -- he very, very rarely smiles for pictures. That's just his persona, and I think it's endearing. One fan even asked him to "make an angry face" when he was posing for his picture, and he just made pretty much the exact same face he'd been making already, only with his brows furrowed a bit more. XD Ohhh, Nick. I love you.
I took a couple videos that turned out pretty decently, but Photobucket doesn't seem to want to upload them right now, so I'll try to do that again tomorrow.
All in all, a fantastic night. I'm utterly exhausted but I have such a high right now. I just wish I could see him again when he plays at the same venue tomorrow night! Oh well, there's always the next tour -- which I will look forward to with bated breath.