Wrote this two days after the event, first impressions after the gig that apart from the truly incredible end to the gig I was 50/50 about how good or not it was. I now believe that view then was clouded by what an awful venue the Bournemouth BIC is. True it has a very wide stage but otherwise not much to write home about including a bad echo, especially for percussion that came back off the hard rear wall.
It was also clouded by the fact that Cave favoured the other side of the stage from where we were standing on the barrier down at the front. I put this down to that he held the mike in his right hand and therefore gave less problems with a trailing cable when he was over that side of the stage, but more about that later.
So
Got into the venue that was heaving and made our way down to the front, stage right, with other half able to lean against the barrier but with a stage light obscurring the view of the band's set up. But there in front of us were the unmistakable steps of a walkway that run across the whole front of the barrier, 750mm in width. I said NC would be using that walkway and did he! Only problem was that he favoured the other end. But venture up to our end he did occasionally.
A subdued start running through the bleak landscape that is Skeleton Tree. I dont think I clapped any of the first three numbers.
Then came Higg's Boson Blues and things were beginning to get more animated with NC patrolling the forward walkway leaning into the audience with only there support. His heart went Boom Boom quite a few times. This was followed by From Her to Eternity (which I don't like) and Tupelo by which time the mood had changed, anger? perceived violence? I don't know but with the roar of the Bad Seeds backing him up to a degree rarely seen or heard, yes the mood had changed.
But it was put onto temporary hold, Ship Song followed by Into My Arms quietened the atmosphere but was this NC just catching breath? Two more numbers from Skeleton Tree.......
And then there was Red Right Hand.
I was lucky to pull out my GoPro for this number and did my best until security saw me videoing the song and asked me to stop. I did not but moved the GoPro to the side of my face which half obscured the second half of the number, fortunately the audio was not affected and it captures well Cave's slight change to the words of the last verse which in essence calls Trump the devil, brilliant.
Link to that video, it is a big file btw.
Here are the words to the last verse and worth watching the video with the words in front of you as it reinforces just about everything.
You will see him in your nightmares,
you will meet him in your dreams'
You will see him on the tv'
he'll even thank you for your tweets.
See him in your head, on the TV screen,
Hey buddy, I'm warning you to turn it off.
He's a ghost, he's a god, he's a man, he's a guru
We're one microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan,
Designed and directed by his red right hand
Such a great song, and now everytime I see Trump and everytime he joins his thumb and first finger forming the O shape, I will see it as the red right hand and the devil incarnate.
The audience took off!
Mercy Street followed but the rendition of Distant Sky with, I take it with the Danish soprano Else Torp singing, but recorded, on the big screen behind the band. This was something else, the sheer sadness of losing his son whilst recording the album coming all out in front of us. The set ended with Skeleton Tree and the huge demand for an encore.
The encore started quietly enough after a huge singalong by the audience for his 60th birthday two days erlier with Weeping Song, Cave conducting the audience in the rhythmically clapping that lies behind the song. Song over NC walked up to our end.
But then, a guy close to us sort of complained about his preference for the other end of the walkway. NC invited him up for a hug, the guy sort of struggled to get onto the walkway and spent something like thirty seconds adjusting his clothes that he had wrapped around his waist whilst still on his knees. All to close to NC groin and all to close to the lyrics of the song to follow. He gives the guy a big hug.
But then NC announces that although security would not advise it, but he had no objections to others coming up onto stage. And then mayhem as I would say close to a hundred invading the stage by going over the barriers. We were right by the easiest place to get over and it was a like being at a football match. With everybody up on stage he launched into...
Stagger Lee
Can there be a more violent or offensive song than Stagger Lee? Possibly but I doubt it. It was delivered with a certain relish. The stage was jumping, Cave was jumping into the main body of the audience, everybody was jumping!
2 vids from others of the scene...Stagger Lee YouTube 1 Stagger Lee YouTube2
Then peace.
NC asked the stage audience to sit down, they duly obliged, and into Push The Sky Away. And that was that. Everybody behaved well which is a surprise considering.
So what can I say on reflection?
I have never seen any performer so fully engaged with their audience, never seen or heard a performer lay bare his obvious grief of a year previous. Are there any current lyric polymaths of Cave's standing, I hardly doubt it?
Awesome just does not get close to describing what I just witnessed.
Postscript regarding amended lyrics to Red Right Hand.
Bournmouth: "he'll even thank you for your tweets".
Manchester: "angry little tweets".
Nottingham: “here comes the devil with an iphone in his motherfucking hand!”
Set List
Anthrocene
Jesus Alone
Magneto
Higgs Boson Blues
From Her to Eternity
Tupelo
Jubilee Street
The Ship Song
Into My Arms
Girl in Amber
I Need You
Red Right Hand
Mercy Seat
Distant Sky
Skeleton Tree
Encore:
The Weeping Song
Stagger Lee
Push the Sky Away
No comments:
Post a Comment