Show Review: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds ACL Taping (7/20)

004_NCBScKLRUbyScottNewton_DSC3984Austin City Limits tapings, which when it is the normal plan, are very awesome. You get to see an artist that typically plays giant festival sets in an intimate setting or perhaps a band that plays very few shows with the chance that you might catch a special collaboration. With the Nick Cave taping, the special guest was actually the crowd. You see, Nick insisted on the ACL production team to come to a Nick Cave show instead of Nick Cave performing an ACL set.

I will get into that and then drop some knowledge on what was witnessed last Sunday night after the break with a few images from Scott Newton.

We were a bit rushed getting into the show due to a waiter that didn’t quite understand the urgency. Good times.

We managed to land a couple comfortable seats around the already present rabid crowd up front. It then dawned on me the extent to which ACL had to compromise to get Nick to perform in front of the cameras. There were no cameras up front and the normal area reserved for production staff up front was gone; fans were up against the stage and the two peninsulas that Nick can use to further extend his presence into the crowd were still present in front of the two boom operated cameras at either corner of the stage. If this doesn’t convey Nick’s intent and absolute need to interact with the crowd, I am not sure what else could. This is the Anti-ACL taping.

So let’s start addressing the random thoughts I had while watching…

Nick is Mick Jagger without a filter and the universal sex appeal – His stage presence is that of a peacock on acid. He is ready to bang everything in attendance, you just have to be another peacock to dig it.

Twin Peaks City Limits – The wife mentioned this to me and it resonated. It was what an ACL taping would be with in the setting of that show’s universe. “Red Right Hand” might as well have been the theme song and intro. Pretty mysterious shit happening up there.

The Bad Seeds with Nick Cave – Damn, this band is about bad ass. It’s not like they don’t have the experience, right? Multi-instrumentalists abound and the ability to just plain nail the recorded materials tone but with the live music punch is second to none I have seen. The bell in the aforementioned “Red Right Hand”, the crescendos that frequent their songs just punch you in the face. In fact, many unaware attendees behind us left, fingers in ears. …or maybe they were offended.

Praise Something – Nick is the demented preacher of your dreams or nightmares. The seductive gestures of Steve Martin in that movie where he plays an Evangelical con-man, jumps and crashes, but then he gets all Iggy Pop and surrounds himself in the crowd selectively allowing contact as though touching him would heal what ails. Can you feel my heartbeat? Pretty sure a friend grabbed his balls. Hope it works out.

Come Closer, Closer Still… – I am fairly certain that at least three people got pregnant from the extreme eye-fucking. The cool part was that it was so selective, so targeted. You could see from the get-go that Nick had his targets, could see right through the crowd there for an experience and the crowd there for THE experience.

No cameras, please – The same friends up front that spent time at both shows could see that the cameras, despite the usual barriers up front being removed, still seemed to irk Nick a little. In retrospect, I can see it, but I imagine those that weren’t there both nights would ever perceive it. “Stagger Lee” will not make it to broadcast unless they play it back as an instrumental and never show his face due to broadcast rules. And it is a shame because it may have been the coolest fucking thing I have ever seen at an ACL taping, even with my extreme love of Radiohead.

Dear God – “Tupelo”, “Higgs Boson”, the carnie preacher thing…

All in all, one of the coolest things I have seen in a long while. Glad I got this “assignment” instead of listening to show-talkers at that Antlers show.

Pics by Scott Newton…

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