Bad Seeds’ grassy gig hits all the right notes

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ sold-out show at the Alexandra Gardens on January 31 hit all the right notes, with the rock star and his band wowing the hometown crowd with a high-energy mix of old and new music.

The Alexandra Gardens are usually the scene of more sedate entertainment.

But the artist who once menaced audiences with nastiness is now 68, and the open-air venues of his current tour seem illustrative of where life and music have taken him.

Tree trunks were lit red, and the odd bat flapped overhead as the crowd awaited Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on Saturday night.

As it happened, when he appeared – sporting a suit and tie, patent leather loafers and slicked back hair – Cave apologised for the decision to hold the show outdoors.

But the light rain that had seen many people don disposable raincoats from the merch tent largely held off once the show started.

Opening with a trio of songs from the 2024 album Wild God, the band launched into a nearly three-hour show that didn’t disappoint its expectant audience.

Switching between eras and moods, the veteran musicians thrashed and quietened, surged, lifted and wailed.

Cave himself moved between the piano and a walkway at the front of the stage, which he strutted along, proselytising urgently with his vocals, at times reaching out to clasp outstretched hands, or actually launch himself into them.

Meanwhile a four-piece silver-robed Gospel-style group sang harmonies, increasing the impression of an evangelical event.

Words and phrases of lyrics flashed occasionally up on the screens by the stage while

Warren Ellis wielded his violin bow as if inspired from above – stray frayed strings floating in the light like the wispy strands of his hair.

Cave and Ellis seemed glad to be playing in Melbourne and communicated the sense they were back in their spiritual homeland, something the crowd clearly appreciated.

Back in the day Melbourne had been a hotbed of creative activity, Cave observed, name-checking former bandmates Roland S. Howard, who “pretty much changed the way people play guitar”, and Anita Lane “an unsung hero of that time”.

He noted wryly that many in the audience looked like they had been around at the time.

“Others not, and I’m pleased about that,” he said.

Whether mature or relatively young, the fans loved the old material.

Songs including Tupelo, Red Right Hand, Jubilee Street and Howard’s Shivers were among those that got the biggest reaction.

Quieter tracks Bright Horses and Joy, from 2019 album Ghosteen, hit the heartstrings with lyrics appealing for transcendence in the face of sorrow, and invoking Cave’s teenage son who died in 2015.

Wild God has been hailed by critics as an optimistic and uplifting album, and there was a sense in the show overall of Cave’s preoccupations tipping towards optimism.

For Birthday Party-era fans this may feel off-key, but the musician has shown himself to be nothing if not prone to transformation over his 40-year career.

Impassioned and energetic as he was on Saturday night, it was hard to credit Cave was close to 70 – something he himself acknowledged, confiding, “In my head I’m a 19-year-old”.

After an encore that lasted nearly half an hour, reaching out to the crowd, and working it, as he had all night, he appealed for them to sing along with the final song, Into My Arms.

Half encircled by skyscrapers reflecting the coloured lights of the city, and full of communal warmth, we did, held together not just in the showman’s arms but right in the palm of his hand.

There are still tickets available to Nick Cave’s final Melbourne show on Sunday, February 1.

The next event to be staged at The Alexandra Gardens is a free “classical in the park” concert on February 7.