Nick Cave at the Orpheum Theatre

Iconic Australian artist Nick Cave and the bassist from a little band from the U.K. as he said jokingly, Colin Greenwood of Radiohead played three sold out shows at the Orpheum in Downtown Los Angeles. The shows were just Cave on a grand piano and Greenwood on electric bass. Cave received Australia’s highest honor in 2017 which is Officer of the Order of Australia. From leading Post-Punk band the Birthday Party (1977-83) then forming the Bad Seeds in 1983 to being an author, releasing a solo album, and more, Cave has had quite a career and is once in a generation type of artist. Cave is also a pioneer of Goth-Rock. Cave and Greenwood performed for over two hours Saturday night (10/28). Being Halloween weekend there’s always a few shows to choose from in the L.A. area and this was definitely a show to be at. Cave shared stories behind the songs and thanked the audience between nearly every song and there was also some humor with the audience yelling out song requests and Cave saying he’ll take those in the encore and the banter back and forth.  

Cave performed a 24-song set of almost Bad Seeds songs opening with “Girl In Amber” as well as two songs he recorded with Warren Ellis, his solo song “Euthanasia” and the six song encore included covers of Griderman’s “Palaces of Montezuma” and The Boys Next Doors “Shiver.” The last three songs were “The Ship Song,” “Stranger Than Kindness,” and as it seemed like Cave was going to leave the stage he sat back down for “God is in the House.” Cave’s songs are quite dark and mysterious and each song tells a unique story as well as tragedy with the loss of two of his sons which he talked about during the show. 

Setlist 10/28 (Setlist.fm)