Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds returned to Manchester with a bang on Tuesday night as they brought their Wild God tour to the AO Arena.
The rock musician, 67, looked like he was giving it his all as he took to the stage in his signature dapper suit to perform a mix of new and original material.
Returning to the stage, Nick’s latest album, which he began writing on New Year’s Day 2023, allowed the star to channel the pain he suffered after losing two of his children.
In 2015, Nick’s 15-year-old son Arthur died after taking LSD for the first time, before falling nearly 20 meters from a cliff near his home in Brighton, England.
Seven years later, in 2022, Nick’s son Jethro, 31, who suffered from schizophrenia and struggled with drug addiction, died in Melbourne two days after being released from prison.
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds hailed ‘nothing short of incredible’ after sensational show in Manchester as part of Wild God Tour
Returning to the stage, Nick’s latest album, which he began writing on New Year’s Day 2023, allowed the star to channel the pain he suffered after losing two of his children.
Putting emotion into their performance, critics deemed the band’s performance “nothing short of incredible”, and commented that “it’s hard not to be amazed by their performance.”
Manchester Evening News wrote: ‘By finding solace in his pain, he has become a high priest of redemption.
“Every time he approached the crowd, hundreds of hands reached back, both grasping, either for the sublime or for oblivion, the empty space between them.”
Meanwhile sound sphere written: ‘Now, if you’ve never seen Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, you have to: it’s not just a concert, it’s an experience.
“As an eccentric preacher in a suit, Cave has you in the palm of his hand and what he offers is nothing short of astonishing.”
Elsewhere The Yorkshire Times He described it as ‘“One of the most surprising and revealing concerts you could ever hope to see.”
They wrote: “I am fascinated by the hypnotic presence and realize that I am witnessing something special, that this is simply as good as live music.”
Fans have gone wild over Nick’s recent tour of Europe and the UK as they took to Instagram after he posted recent snaps from the shows.
In 2015, his 15-year-old son Arthur died after taking LSD for the first time and “freaking out” before falling 60ft off a cliff near his Brighton home (pictured Nick with his twin sons Arthur ( right) and Earl (left).
Another of the pop star’s sons, Jethro, died in Australia in May 2022, just days after being released from prison (Nick and Jethro pictured in 2017).
The rock musician, 67, looked like he was giving it his all as he took to the stage in his signature dapper suit to perform a mix of new and original material.
Reviews regarded the band’s performance as “nothing short of incredible” and commented that “it’s hard not to be blown away by their performance.”
Fans went wild for the star as they packed the AO Arena stage.
They wrote: ‘Wow. Manchester was a construction-shaking spectacle. Fantastic’; ‘Great show Nick!!’;
‘An incredibly moving and joyful concert in Leeds! We were all caught up in the ecstasy of his bright, dark gospel! Thank you, thank you Nick and the Seeds’;
‘Obscenely good. A complete treasure of a band.’; ‘It was really surprising’; ‘What an amazing, biblical sight’; ‘Exceptional night with Nick Cave and the bad seeds INCREDIBLE’.
At the time of the album’s release Wild God was praised by critics, who praised the “deeply human” record as a “gospel rock riot” and “a fierce celebration of love.”
The album’s lyrics offer an insight into the pain Nick has suffered from his losses, as he sings in Song Of The Lake: ‘Cause all the king’s horses and all the king’s men. We couldn’t get back together.
He also alludes to having been visited by the spirit of his late son, singing the song Joy: “A ghost in giant slippers, laughing, stars around his head… a boy on fire.”
Singing about the physical impacts of his beliefs, he added on the album’s title track: “Oh, Lord, well, if you feel lonely and sad; And if you just don’t know what to do; Lower your spirit.’
And: ‘We’ve all had too much sadness / Now is the time for joy.’
Nick also reflects on his pain in the song Long Dark Night, which begins with the words: “I was inside a dream for a long time, I couldn’t let go.”
Fans have gone wild over Nick’s recent tour of Europe and the UK as they took to Instagram after he posted recent snaps from the shows.
Elsewhere, The Yorkshire Times described it as “one of the most surprising and revealing concerts you could ever hope to see.”
Speaking about the record at an album playback in August, Nick said: “I hope the album has the effect on listeners that it has had on me.”
He added: “It’s a complicated record, but it’s also deeply and joyfully infectious.”
Speaking of the After hearing the record at an album playback at London’s King’s Hall in August, Nick said: “I hope the album has the effect on listeners that it has had on me.” It comes out of the speaker and I let myself go.
“It’s a complicated record, but it’s also deeply and joyfully infectious.”
The album, his first with The Bad Seeds since 2019, has also been critically praised with a number of positive reviews.
Writing a glowing five-star review, the guardian called the album a “masterpiece”, before adding: “Packed with remarkable songs, its mood of what we might call radical optimism is powerful and infectious.”
“You leave feeling better than before – an enhanced experience, in the best sense of the phrase.”
the independent said that “the album that will make you believe in the transformative power of love”, while Sunday weather described it as “a gospel rock riot, The Bad Seeds at their most strident in 20 years.”
NME awarded the album four stars and said: “With a lust for life, the once dark prince is letting in the light.”
Nick spoke about religion in reproduction and said: ‘My religious nature is not based on believing or not really believing.
‘There’s something I get from this that affects me in a way I don’t get anywhere else. It’s a place where I can carry certain feelings that I can’t carry anywhere else.
‘I don’t like self-help groups. Whether I believe or not is secondary.’
Nick previously spoke about the album in an interview with The Sunday Times, telling the publication that the prospect of an afterlife was at the forefront of his mind while writing the record, especially in the wake of his son’s death.
‘I’m not really sure what will happen after you die, but I was worried about how Arthur’s spirit would feel if he saw the misery his mother and father were going through… due to his passing. Yesterday was the anniversary of his death…
‘And one thing we can tell you now is that everything is fine. I say this with caution. There is no closure. Things are not back to the way they were before Arthur or Jethro died. However, we are happy.”
The Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds star, known for hits including Into My Arms and One More Time With Feeling, moved to Los Angeles shortly after Arthur died with his wife Susie and Arthur’s twin Earl, because they were ” too excited” to live. right down the street where it happened.
The tragedy was widely reported and Nick previously said it forced him to cry publicly.
Nick alludes to being visited by the spirit of his late son on the album, singing in the song Joy: “A ghost with giant slippers, laughing, stars around his head… a boy on fire.”
Speaking on his blog The Red Hand Files, where Nick answers questions from fans, in June he responded to a woman whose daughter was murdered.
He wrote: “A father should never have to bury his son, it makes no sense, it is outside the natural order of things.”
‘Yet here we are, you and I, living within these awful voids left by those we have lost.
‘I love his honesty in laying bare the biblical-sized fury we sometimes feel toward a world that has the audacity to keep turning, regardless of our suffering.
‘How dare the world be so beautiful,’ we thought. These are the divergent feelings of grief.’