Seeing Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at the Aotearoa Festival of the Arts where they are an exclusive act at next year’s 40th anniversary event, would be quite a thing.
I know this because I have seen Cave on every New Zealand tour he has done since 1992. It’s always a great night out. That’s whether he’s in Leonard Cohen mode while solo at the piano, or in full, fevered, flight as the frontman of a band he founded in 1983, and whose live line-up now includes bassist Colin Greenwood, late of Radiohead.
Unlike many acts of Cave’s generation – he’s 67 – seeing Cave and co isn’t about revisiting past glories. There’s no rush to the bathrooms when something off the latest release is introduced. For long-time admirers, there are always songs from a new album – in this case last year’s Wild God, which is as good as anything he’s done this century.
Based on seeing him at the Auckland Town Hall (1992,1996, 2019), the Civic (2014), Auckland’s St James (the best of the bunch post the Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus double album in 2005), a few things about Cave shows have become apparent. Firstly, it’s always better to see Cave beneath a proscenium arch of a characterful theatre than under the lighting rig of an arena from a seat far, far away.
True, his 2017 Vector Arena show on the Skeleton Tree tour was a big emotional affair, given the albums that had preceded it – Push the Sky Away and Skeleton Tree, the latter finished in the wake of the 2015 death of Cave’s son Arthur. The sometimes-minimalist songs of that period got maximalist treatment on the big stage.
Given his long career from post-punk iconoclast in the Birthday Party to Cohen’s heir apparent, Cave is definitely a drawcard to the biennial national arts event. About 20 or so years ago, when the Sydney Dance Company brought Underland, a work based on Cave songs, it attracted a big crowd, many of whom – well, me – would require persuasion to attend a contemporary dance performance.
So his name and his very brand makes sense as a festival exclusive headliner. One that will have us out-of-towners considering seeing Cave playing on February 5 and 6 as a curtain raiser for the rest of the programme which begins … 20 days later. Yes, the festival proper begins on February 25 and runs until March 15.
In Australia, the Wild God tour is taking place mostly under the stars in venues such as The Domain in Sydney and Alexandra Gardens in Melbourne. Wellington has some nice parks and gardens. Some of us would risk landing in a howling northerly at Wellington Airport to see Cave singing Where the Wild Roses Grow at the Botanical Gardens or Into My Arms at the Basin Reserve. That would be festive.
But no, Cave and band are playing two nights at the TSB Arena, where they played in 2017. Without fear of contradiction, let’s say it again: TSB Arena is, sonically, the worst major concert venue in this country.
Last year, The National, a major American band with a similar dress sense to the Bad Seeds, played there as part of The Aotearoa Festival of the Arts as part of its opening weekend. The previous night they played at Spark Arena in Auckland.
Cave’s second Wellington show looks like it will be the final date in 18 months of touring for Wild God. Pity he isn’t playing further afield. Even when he toured here just the once with the Birthday Party, he made it to Christchurch and Palmerston North. Which, of course, may explain Cave’s tendency to spend as little time as he can in New Zealand ever since.
Tickets for the Wellington shows go on sale via nickcave.com on Friday August 29.
