God Is Kicking Ass
I imagine Norman The Conqueror was more patient than yours truly, well he did have all the time in the world to shoot King Harold's eye out and import his own brand of Entente Cordiale. As for me, Hastings is 35 miles further than Brighton then I expected and with the Nick Cave gig being the biggest thing to happen there since Hawkwind late sixties there ain't a lot of parking. Where you do find it underground you're warned that the car park closes at 23.00 hrs - I had no idea the our Norman was a Puritan too.
Hastings Pier may seem a strange place to hold a gig of this importance and quite honestly it is..except Cave who has a home in Brighton may have wanted to add a date to the tour and found himself with nowhere close to home to set up. Can I make a suggestion, there's a school half a mile up the road and the hall is identical in shape size and scale, more parking too and next time, I'll be able to walk. I think Hastings proves his disciples follow him anywhere.
Unfortunately I don't work for the NME and since I'm not Alexis Petrudis of The Guardian, despite a plea for a setlist on nickcaveandthebadseeds.com newsgroup bulletin board, I'm none the wiser as to the sequence. I would rather enjoy the gig than play the Generation Game. But safe to say, Abbatoir Blues is just out and for the pre-first-encore-main-gig we were presented with virtually every track from this great and diverse double set collection.
Cave occupies a currently unassailable place in the literati rock hierachy. Lyrics tinged with everything from life, love, death, God, politics, then switch from the cynical to the sanguine, the defeated to the defiant, dealing in war, beauty, children, romance, rejection, Pethedine, poetry, God, Auden, Johnny Cash, cold potatoes, too-much-money, not enough money and writer’s block. I don't know anyone who comes close for observational diversity, well apart from myself.... Cave's crooning style is also rare with only really Leonard Cohen to compare (although some of Cave's songs are reminiscent of Tom Waits too). Younger than these comparables and despite the nicotine, Cave still has plenty of tune remaining in his voice and resorts rarely to the spoken lyric. The Bad Seeds complimented by four gospel singers sure as hell kick out some volume with Cave rocking and kicking out bang on cue, mid track, chord change or drum break, whenever he has the opportunity to animate his six foot something frame. Requesting a cigarette to smoke between tracks and with the pale look he sure as hell presents a nocturnal mid-western film preacher appearance - The trademark big dark coat and jet black hair being his protection in daylight. The tailored black suit and open necked white shirt his persona on stage.
The eleven performers on stage produce a none more awesome and adreneline rush than during Supernaturally, the only time I've heard eleven people clap simultaneously as part of the backing with Cave yelling "Hey Ho" " Hey Ho" kicking out in time to the Flamenco inspired guitar backing. But with every Cave lyric the words capture the imagination as much as the sound of The Bad Seeds. This song in it's own right confirms Caves pre-eminence. It also finishes in a moment. Big Bang..all over. Cue roar of appoval from the hardcore Cave / Bad Seeds fans who make up this very mixed audience.
Kick ass followed by mellow tracks such as Bringing Out The Dead, similar to a Cohen track with backing singers et al, but superb backing music from the band producing yet another track of huge and listenable magnitude. The addition of backing singers has clicked the overall Cave brand up a notch or two - now close to cooking on Gas Mark 5.
Nature Boy and Breathless move Cave closer to his female audience - All I can say is that his poetic licence must have given him awesome pulling power as a single guy..an olympic gold Cupid's archer, think of anything to make the girls melt and loved-up and he's included it in these two..I imagine this kind of talent drew just the one word description from his would-be male contemporaries..'Bastard!'
Of course, polished performer, writer and musician that he is, he's also at home at the piano. Huge approval from everyone as the first few unaccompanied bars of the beautiful God Is In The House rang out. Here Cave's ability to fuse his deep religious conviction with astute and observational lyrics again put him in a league on his own. For me this track ranks as one of the best lyrics ever written and right now, with the recently re-elected incumbant in The White House the lyric lends a highly perceptive spin on the move to the Christain Fundamentalist Right across the pond. Unique, moment here is the whispered lyrics over piano. Sublime.
If any one track could inspire anyone to take up music and set the bar with hugely intelligent and insightful lyrics Easy Money is it. Come close to this and you're close to audio alchemy. The English language and music are rarely combined to paint pictures such as this, the chorus with violin fusion draw you into the song until you become entwined. The juxtaposition of rich and poor are rarely described so well. Here's a compliment to his talent, Elvis's 'In The Ghetto' has a similar effect from an albeit different sound, the Phil Collin's hit 'Another Day In Paradise' a similiar sentiment.
I've come to the conclusion that there are many people who now up to their forties to late fifties have just never stopped gigging. Some have also never stopped taking drugs, and if this gig showed anything it was the effect of all manner of pharmaceutical intake has on the human body. Cave sure looks good considering his own (alleged) drug taking past, but some of those around me tonight have faired not so well..I only mention the chemical effect since Fable Of The Brown Ape includes some of the most LSD style (I won't say inspired lyrics) since I Am The Walrus..Farmers, Cows and Serpents quite a menagerie in that particular prose
More kick ass with Let The Bells Ring, Get Ready For Love, with religiously coded lyrics and There She Goes My Beautiful World, before the band retire. The lights stay off hinting they'll be back at least once..and they encore twice over with NCATBS standards such as The Ship Song and Red Right Hand. Awesome stuff and nearly two hours on set, we've been treated to an immaculate performance by one of rock's genuine originals and in many ways best kept secrets..the like of whom there are very few indeed.
Lyrics to God Is In The House
We`ve laid the cables and the wires
We`ve split the wood and stoked
the fires
We`ve lit our town so there is no
Place for crime to hide
Our little church is painted white
And in the safety of the night
We all go quiet as a mouse
For the word is out
God is in the house
God is in the house
God is in the house
No cause for worry now
God is in the house
Moral sneaks in the White House
Computer geeks in the school house
Drug freaks in the crack house
We don`t have that stuff here
We have a tiny little Force
But we need them of course
For the kittens in the trees
And at night we are on our knees
As quiet as a mouse
For God is in the house
God is in the house
God is in the house
And no one`s left in doubt
God is in the house
Homos roaming the streets in packs
Queer bashers with tyre-jacks
Lesbian counter-attacks
That stuff is for the big cities
Our town is very pretty
We have a pretty little square
We have a woman for a mayor
Our policy is firm but fair
Now that God is in the house
God is in the house
God is in the house
Any day now He`ll come out
God is in the house
Well-meaning little therapists
Goose-stepping twelve-stepping Tetotalitarianists
The tipsy, the reeling and the drop down pissed
We got no time for that stuff here
Zero crime and no fear
We`ve bred all our kittens white
So you can see them in the night
And at night we`re on our knees
As quiet as a mouse
Since the word got out
From the North down to the South
For no-one`s left in doubt
There`s no fear about
If we all hold hands and very quietly shout
Hallelujah
God is in the house
God is in the house
Oh I wish He would come out
God is in the house
or as quoted earlier..'The White House'
