Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Live In Toronto (23/03/13)
“Great to see you guys but I’ve got to run.”
“Us too, we’re off to see Nick Cave at Massy Hall.”
“Awesome, I just met the children’s choir that is singing with him. Have a good one.”
It was about fifteen minutes after the doors had opened for Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds and my friend Evan and I had just ran into my best friend Gavin while hurrying to the venue. In a quick hello, Gavin had completely thrown off our expectations of the show.
Nick Cave was using a children’s choir?
I have been wanting to see the Bad Seeds ever since I had caught a glimpse of their show during some festival played on Much Music in the early to mid 90’s. Watching what seemed to be a lounge act from Hell perform in suits in the middle of the day at a completely frantic pace just grabbed me.
Over a decade later, I was blown away.
Evan and I managed to make it to our seats just in time to catch the last two songs of Sharon Van Etten’s opening set. Sharon has a miraculous voice and despite only hearing the two songs, I went down to buy her latest album (I haven’t quite finished it but I am rather impressed with what I have heard, very tight folkish song writing but with a very modern feel to it. But to the person who thought it was a great idea to put the the merch table area right beside the washrooms… you deserve a punch in the face, it was just utterly rammed with people).
After a brief set up, The Bad Seeds took the stage along with a string quintet and children’s choir from Rose Avenue Public School. Grade level? 5 and 6.
Given the nature of their latest album, Push Away The Sky and the fact that a string quintet and children who were no older than 12, I figured that this would be a rather somber show and to be fair, that’s how it started when the band opened with We No Who U R.
And then after a few calmer number, Cave and company proceeded to melt our faces off. I could not believe how much energy the entire band was putting into the show. Frontman Cave was in incredibly fine form, crossing the stage and owning everyone in Massy Hall.
In terms of a setlist, while there was a a strong focus on new material, there was also a solid mix of Bad Seeds classics like Red Right Hand, The Weeping Song and Stagger Lee and closing the show with Tupelo. The right mix of blasting energy and cool down material for the entire show, it was also cool to see that some of Cave’s punk rock ethics are still firmly in place as he invited a security guard to head to the fully stocked bar in the backstage area and invited the crowd to move down front of the stage.
I’ve been to a lot of concerts and right now, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds falls squarely in my top 5.
Oh and those kids? They did a great job but I had more fun watch this one kid on the end. You got the feeling the other kids kind of got into the show but this one kid in particular just seemed to grab on to the show.
If he didn’t want to be a rock star before, he does now.
